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In May 2008 the Institute for Citizenship – together with the BBC, City of London Corporation, Greater London Authority (GLA), Parliament’s Education Service, BT, Steljes and the Evening Standard – launched the Young Citizens' Action Agenda project for young people aged 14-19 that aimed to:

  • Give students briefings on 21st century social, economic and political challenges
  • Promote skills to enable young people to have a voice in tackling problems
  • Promote participation and active citizenship
  • Help society to see young people in a more positive light.

About the Young Citizens’ Action Project
  • The Institute for Citizenship launched the project with the Young Citizens' Action Event for 1,400 young people aged 14 – 19 at Central Hall, Westminster Thursday 10th July 2008. In the evening a special Schools edition of Question Time was broadcast to over 2.6 million people on BBC ONE.
  • The Institute for Citizenship project is supported by BBC, GLA, City of London Corporation, Evening Standard, Parliament’s Education Service and others
  • At the Young Citizens' Action Event in July 2008,  which had a focus on deliberative democracy, students received briefings on economics, politics and citizenship
  • Speakers included:  Huw Edwards, David Dimbleby, Andy Marr, Mark Easton; Mark Thompson; Nik Wood; Sir Mike Rake, Ed Miliband MP and Iain Duncan Smith MP (see programme)
  • The audience of 1,400 were mostly from London but also from across the UK and were broadly representative
  • Students attending had hand held voting units to register votes on economic, political and citizenship questions
  • Students attending the event were also asked to complete a Young Citizens’ Say research questionnaire workbook.


About the Young Citizens’ Action Agendas

  • Over 1,100 young people completed Young Citizens' Say Survey
  • Over 400 students said they wanted to take part in the London and UK Young Citizens’ Panels
  • Panel Members were then selected randomly
  • Since July, two Young Citizens’ Panels have been working on Action Agendas for the Prime Minister and Mayor of London
  • As well as outlining change that they would like to see, the key focus of each Agenda is an exploration of what young people can do to help
  • The Action Agendas are being presented separately:  the UK Panel’s Agenda for the PM was delivered to Downing street on 17th December 2008
  • The London Panel’s Agenda will be delivered to the Mayor of London in February 2009.


Project Timeline

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Young Citizens' Action Agenda Documents

All resources are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. To download a free Adobe Acrobat Reader please visit: www.adobe.com.

For further information:

Contact:                      Jon Fitzmaurice, Projects and Research Manager
                                    Institute for Citizenship, 60 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4N 4TW

Email:                           jon@citizen.org.uk

Phone:                         020 7844 5444

Website:                      www.citizen.org.uk/youngcitizens/youngcitizens.html