In the past couple of months, I have had the growing feeling that after several years of struggle, Public Achievement's work is becoming increasingly recognised as relevant, important and innovative.  If you've received our latest eZine then you will know that we have a series of new projects, new funders and have several new members of our staff team.

At a time of wholesale panic in the voluntary sector, and just about everywhere else in the face of economic meltdown around the world and huge structural changes at home, I am getting a perverse sense of satisfaction from knowing that just about every other organisation is going through the kind of survival struggles we have been engaged in for years now!  More than this though, something else appears to be happening - the issues we've been banging on about for years, seem to be surfacing for others on a number of fronts.

One example is that we've been talking about the 'bogus' nature of much that masquerades as 'youth participation'.  Since the setting up of the first Executive, there has been a culture I refer to as the 'anesthetic of consultation' - where every government body and Quango has been seeking to get the views of 'citizens' on every sliver of policy.  One of the boxes on the tick-list is young people - so organisations contact groups like PA - and we try to get young people to feed-back on the policies.  That is pretty much where it stops - no feedback for the young people - whether or not their ideas have been taken on board.  Sometimes their might be a photocall with a Minister - but then again, no serious engagement with the young people about the issues they raised.

This seems to have shifted recently.  Firstly we did a bit of work for the Policing Board - making a short film about young people's experiences of policing and human rights.  We presented it at a meeting of the Policing Board's Human Rights and Community Engagement Committees on 10 June - and they really engaged with the material and with Bronagh from WIMPS who had been actively involved in the film and was part of our presentation team.  They want to engage with us, and with other organisations working on young people and policing - and my impression is that they are very serious about this.

We've had a range of conversations with other public bodies, government departments and other agencies about the same kinds of issues, and their appears to be a growing realisation that participation means more than setting up a committee for young people, or consulting with young people about narrow adult driven agendas.  There have also been some impressive moves at the Assembly, where it now seems highly likely a youth structure (probably called the 'Youth Assembly') will be set up within months.  There does appear to be a commitment to going beyond the existing models around the UK and Ireland to develop something that reflects the needs and political realities facing young people in Northern Ireland, and that genuinely seeks to engage wide groups of young people in the full raft of issues the Assembly has responsibility for.  With a bit of work it might even be possible to get the Assembly to vote in favour of reducing the voting age to 16 (though I suspect only Westminster has the power to put the necessary legislation in place).

In his fascinating report 'Remixing Citizenship', Professor Stephen Coleman asserted that the problem our society faces is not that young people have disengaged from politics, but rather that politics has disengaged from young people.  The recent series of expenses scandals and the public reaction to them seem to reinforce the idea that politics may well have disengaged from an even larger section of our society.  I see this more as an opportunity for the reinvention of politics than any great crisis for democracy itself.

WIMPS - social networking technology and politics

With the WIMPS (Where Is My Public Servant?) project, we have noted significant awareness of the site amongst politicians and their staff - particularly at Assembly level and beyond.  In one week a few months back, we were approached by an MLA, Executive Minister and a Member of the European Parliament (these are three different people in case you are wondering!) about when we were going to interview them!  This is a refreshing change from the days when it was a real challenge to get interviews with politicians.  If you follow the site (and you should!) you will have noticed that the young people in the 'WIMPS Crew' are becoming more and more accomplished in the conducting of their interviews - which they also research and have started to edit.

Another change we noticed just after the Obama victory was that local politicians, almost en masse, seemed to set up their own Facebook pages.  Not all of them make much use of them or seem to get what the tool is about - but some are very adept at using new technologies.  I was able to contact then Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson through Facebook to set up a meeting about help we needed with a project - I got a response within minutes and a meeting within a week - impressive stuff!  WIMPS is a great tool in this regard - it pushes all the adults (myself included!) who might normally get into the middle of an interaction between politicians and young citizens out of the way, and allows for direct and honest engagement.  I believe this process is very healthy both for young people and for the politicians.  I am conscious that this kind of interaction happens in very few places in the world, and that we have opportunities now that we need to 'normalise' as habits for the future.

Violence - it hasn't gone away you know!

Public Achievement remains focused on the ways in which violence continues to limit the outcomes and opportunities for young people from tougher social realities.  Young people who are frightened to leave their communities because they live on an 'interface', or who are frightened within their communities because of a culture of paramilitarism and violent criminality are less likely to feel able to leave those areas to seek education, training or employment.  Most depressing of all, many forms of violence are 'normalised' in young people's lives - and they are sometimes things they take for granted should not be accepted.  We are also increasingly aware of the pernicious influence of so-called 'dissident republican' groups - who appear to be preying on the most vulnerable young people in disadvantaged areas.  Most of those arrested for activities relating to these groups have been teenagers - who have no living memory of the former political conflict.  During our ongoing work on young people and policing, we have also become aware that there are many 'gatekeepers' still operating within communities, who want to stop or stifle all constructive discussion on this important issue.  Even though the experiences of policing amongst the young people we have interviewed were overwhelmingly negative - all but a very small number were keen on the idea of engaging further on the issue - including directly with the police and policing structures.  It appears many adults still have to bite the bullet (sorry appalling pun!) on this issue, and to put their own biographical hang-ups behind them so we can all move forward.  Don't get me wrong - I am not suggesting that policing here is perfect - far from it - but we now have unparalleled opportunities to shape policing and to hold it accountable - and there is a need to stop winging and clinging to prejudice.

Please comment, engage, criticise - this site is a space for open and honest dialogue, in the spirit of building democratic communities together!