Youth Panel
Our Legacy Youth Panel is made up of 25 young people, between the ages of 13 and 21, from the five Olympic host boroughs, who have been given the unique opportunity to help shape the future of the Olympic Park.
Our Youth Panel was established in 2008 to offer a selection of young people from the host boroughs the opportunity to work alongside the team delivering the Olympic Park legacy. The Panel is run by Fundamental Architectural Inclusion, an architecture centre based in Stratford, on behalf of the London Legacy Development Corporation. Read on for more information and to hear about an fantastic upcoming event they have planned, not to be missed.
The Panel was formed to harness the growing interest and enthusiasm of young people about the regeneration of east London. It also offers practical experience and skills development in areas such as group and team work, communication, event planning and, specifically, urban design and planning.
They have, over the course of a year, been actively involved in:
- Visits to sites of architectural value across London
- Reviewing design plans and strategy
- Submitting a formal response to the planning documents
- Created a sounds cape to accompany the flythrough of the proposed developments
- Wrote a manifesto to share their vision for the development of communities and the built environment following the London 2012 Games. This was shared with MP Tessa Jowell (Minister for the Olympics at the time) and Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, Andrew Altman
Each year 25 young people are selected from a competitive pool of candidates, ranging in ages from 13-21 year old.
The young people volunteer one Saturday a month, in which they attend workshops, events and meetings to build their understanding of regeneration and better enable them to offer a critical assessment of the plans for the future of the Park.
Members of the Panel have developed into high profile public advocates for the legacy and regularly appear in local papers, conduct radio interviews, attend and present at conferences.
The programme has helped the young people develop core communication skills (such as for presentations, debating and negotiating), as well as sound knowledge of urban design and planning. They have developed strong CVs, gained work experience and, in five cases, found part-time work as a result of the programme.
Feedback from teachers and lectures has also confirmed that their attainment in school and college has improved dramatically as a result of the Youth Panel. They also develop large-scale event management skills when the first group of Panel members held a youth event for over 250 people at the Hackney Ocean in July 2009.
