As we end adolescent health week we are delighted to share a blog from one of our Young Ambassadors reflecting on our recent away day – it’s really important that we involve young people in all aspects of our work and our AYPH Youth Advisory Panel is an important part of our governance structure.
I’m Thara, a Young Ambassador, on the AYPH Youth Advisory Panel (YAP). I am 17 and live in Cardiff.
On 23rd September, I attended our away day and Annual General Meeting (AGM) and here is a little bit on what I took away from the experience.
My time at the AGM was extremely informative and insightful. It was lovely to meet other members of AYPH including trustees and young trainers, and this was key to bettering my understanding of the different roles in AYPH and how we as Young Ambassadors fit into all of this.
From this meeting, I took away that much of the focus of AYPH is keeping an open mind to consistently improve the lives of young people and looking at a ‘PESTLE analysis’ was extremely useful to display external factors that influence young people’s health and the charity.
After discussing strengths, weaknesses and opportunities within AYPH and within the YAP, it was deduced that our small size can act as both a positive and a drawback. With a small number of young people involved in the YAP , some discussions and connectivity between meetings may be difficult at times. The strengths include the opportunities Young Ambassadors are provided with and the fact that our discussions in the YAP play a direct role in AYPH’s aims and research.
Finally, this experience gave me the opportunity to improve on a personal level but also to eventually maybe become a Young Trainer in the future. There was some discussion of increased Young Ambassador involvement in trustee meetings and vice versa which would be important to improve relations within the charity to contribute to the charity’s streamlined aims.
Author: Thara, Young Ambassador
October 2024