Celebrating young peoples involvement and engagement with research

Judi Kidger (one of the SPHR Public Mental Health programme leads) and Oli Jones (a McPin Foundation peer researcher within the Public Mental Health programme) organised a virtual event for all the young people’s groups and individuals who have taken part in public involvement and engagement activities within SPHR research over the last five years. In total, nine young people representing five different groups from across England attended, along with five adults who support their involvement activities.

We had an enjoyable and informative time, first of all getting to know each other, and then celebrating all the different ways that those who attended have supported public health research and practice. The amazing variety of activities that attendees have been involved in, within SPHR and elsewhere, is summarised in the image below:

We were lucky to have two graphic facilitators from Inclusive Solutions attend the second half of the event. They invited the young people to think about what they had enjoyed and not enjoyed in their involvement work, and what their ideal involvement opportunities in the future would look like. This discussion is captured in the graphic at the top of this article. Hopefully these ideas will be helpful for all researchers considering public involvement with young people in the future.

Huge thanks to the young people and adult supporters who attended, for taking part in the session so whole-heartedly, and for what they have contributed to public health research.