Meet the Assessors
Youth Mark Assessors are 15-19 year old volunteers who dedicate their time and enthusiasm to assessing services for young people and making a difference to their local community.
Age: 17
Which borough do you live in? Haringey
What are you up to at the moment? Studying
Which organisation did you assess? First Rung
What did you enjoy the most about the assessment?
Chance to meet and interact with students and staff at First Rung with varying personalities and views, which ultimately made the assessment a fun experience for me.
What did you learn from taking part in Youth Mark?
A wide range of excellent skills that I'll be able to use further in life e.g. problem solving, communication, public speaking and most of all skills in working as a team.
Why do you think young people are qualified to assess organisations?
Since those organisations deliver services to young people, then the best people to judge their performance and give objective feedback would be the young people themselves.
How do you think an organisation can benefit from a Youth Mark assessment?
By acquiring impartial reviews from their service users, organisations can be able to work on points assessed as weak to create an optimal service and, consequently, a more popular and profitable organisation.
What do you think are some of the most important things organisations can do when working with young people?
- Actively engage the young people to participate in a number of issues concerning the organisation.
- Treat young people as valued members of the organisation by occasionally asking for their opinions and also taking their comments or grievances into consideration.
- Acknowledging the young people's hard work and achievements in a variety of ways.
Age : 17
Which borough do you live in? Enfield
What are you up to at the moment? Studying BTEC Nat diploma in Health & Social Care
What did you enjoy the most about the assessment?
Interviewing young people and seeing what they had to say about the organisation.
What did you learn from taking part in Youth Mark?
I learnt that it is important to let everyone have a say in their organisation, especially in a youth club where young people feel comfortable.
Why do you think young people are qualified to assess organisations?
I think young people are qualified to access because they would have more of an understanding of what the young people are talking about and what they really mean.
How do you think an organisation can benefit from a Youth Mark assessment?
I think an organisation can benefit from an assessment as it is there to help them see what they need to improve on and get everyone's voices heard and their points across, this would help an organisation to run more smoothly.
What do you think are some of the most important things organisations can do when working with young people?
Make sure that everyone is treated fairly and praise the young people when they do something good.
Age: 17
Which borough do you live in? Haringey
What are you up to at the moment? Studying for my A-Levels at St. Michaels.
Which organisation did you assess? Wood Green Library
What did you enjoy the most about the assessment?
Working as a team for a purpose. I enjoyed speaking to management about their views of the organisations and hearing young people's views about what they would like to change.
What did you learn from taking part in Youth Mark?
I learnt a number of skills such as interview and presentation skills. I also improved my confidence a great deal.
How do you think young people are qualified to assess organisations?
I think that young people have valuable opinions which are often not listened to in the way that they should be, with Youth Mark the young people's opinions are what counts.
What do you think an organisation can benefit from a Youth Mark assessment?
As we are assessing organisations which work with young people. The one thing that's most important is if they believe that they are getting everything they need out of it, therefore, they are the best people to consult.
What do you think are some of the most important things organisations can do when working with young people?
I think working with young people can be beneficial to their organisation as they can improve it with the young people for the young people.
Age: 17
Which borough do you live in? Barnet
What are you up to at the moment? Studying Economics, Politics and Psychology at Woodhouse College.
What did you enjoy the most about the assessment?
Being able to find ways to help the organisation overcome certain barriers they may face in providing a quality service for young people and being able to interview members of staff who had more authority than ourselves.
What did you learn from taking part in Youth Mark?
I learnt that listening is very important and not just voicing our own opinions. I also found out what Youth Mark is itself and this helped me to promote it as a result.
Why do you think young people are qualified to assess organisations?
Young people should be qualified to assess organisations used by other young people, as we know first hand what we'd like to see and what we want to use. We think like the people that use the actual service, so we know what benefits and drawbacks a decision might have.
How do you think an organisation can benefit from a Youth Mark assessment?
They can seek to improve some of their services that they may not have thought needed attention, such as disability facilities or appraisals, which helps build confidence in young people.
What do you think are some of the most important things organisations can do when working with young people?
Organisations need to be able to communicate well with young people in order to try to cater to their needs and try to make the young people feel welcome and part of a community so they want to come back to use that service. Treating the young people as adults and giving them a sense of somewhere they belong is also important as they feel a part of that organisation.
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