Shine Week and OPEN Weekend 2009

The National Youth Week consortium was commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to support Shine Week 2009 and the OPEN Weekend campaign as part of the development towards our delivery of a ‘youth week’ celebration in 2010.

Shine is a national celebration of young people which took place from 6 to 10 July 2009 through a combination of local and national events and supporting media coverage to create a real buzz about the talent in all young people.

Everyone has a spark, something to offer – every child and young person matters. As a society we should broaden how we look for potential in young people and make sure we give every young person the chance to Shine!

The Success of Shine

Shine 09 presented a great opportunity for schools, youth services, voluntary and community organisations to reach out to the public to celebrate young people and all they contribute to our society. This year a total of 4404 schools took part, with 4887 teachers involved in activities. This exceeds figures for last year of 2268 schools and 2363 teachers respectively. A total of 782 organiations this year got involved - more than doubling those involved last year at just 371. These comprised mostly voluntary and community organisations plus some private companies that supported the competitions.

Planning for 2010 - Giving feedback

The focus next year is to create an even more inclusive celebration of young people by further raising awareness across all these sectors and more important the public and the media to continue the fight to dispel negative perceptions of young people.

This year competitions, and events like the House of Lords debate which involved 200 young people - 20 from NCVYS's national youth forum, ENVOY attracted public and media attention, with national news channels such as BBC news 24 promoting the event. The consortium involved in delivering Shine this year, is now planning for 2010. Do you have any ideas about what we could do to create an even bigger buzz then? If so please contact Faiza Chaudary on T: 020 7278 1041.

Young people’s debate at the House of Lords

ENVOY members plus other young people from around the country took part in a unique debate in the House of Lords on Friday 10 July 2009. Linda and Sabian from ENVOY opened and closed the final debate around education.

To find out more about the debate:

>> House of Lords debate video coverage

>> Photos on Flickr

>> Sabian's blog on the debate

Lording It documentary

The Community Channel documentary 'Lording It' follows the journey of ENVOY member Linda, Theo and Abbey as they take their concerns about modern day living to a youth-led debate at the House of Lords.

The full 'Lording It' documentary can be viewed by Community Channel.