Overview and Rationale

 

This conference aims to bring together practitioners, organisations, academics, donors and policy makers to engage in discussions that will shape research and  practice that aims to inform social policy engagement to addresses poverty and social justice for marginalised children and young people locally, nationally and globally.

It is organised as a collaborative interdisciplinary project between multiple institutes across the University of Manchester’s School of Environment, Education and Development, and partner organisations within civil society: Retrak, Safe Child Africa, Article 26.

 

We want to provide a space for cross-sectoral conversations across a broad spectrum of stakeholders to explore intersectionalities and develop networks for collaborative research and information sharing.

 

Conference Outline 

This conference takes the form of a three-day event.  A number of key questions or issues will be broached during the conference, such as:  

• How do we meet the criteria of evidence-based policy, and should we? How can we use impact as evidence?

• Can we agree on a common understanding of impact? And how can impact be measured at the practitioner, organisational, and local and national policy levels?

• What are the economic affects, at local, national and global levels if marginalised children and youth are included and empowered in society? Do the contributions made by such children in the long term outweigh the short term costs of inclusion and how much is saved?

• How can we effectively connect issues of child poverty, at the practitioner level,  to development? What small scale incremental changes can we implement at the organisational practice level from which we can build lasting social change?

• How can we network for advocacy and collaboration on joint campaigns for change – for example the provision of ring fenced funding from major donors to further work that will influence working policy.

• How can we continue the momentum of, but at the same time critique, a rights-based approach to change?

• How can we organise information gathered at the practitioner level to influence social change and policy at local and national level and vice versa?

•  How can we work together to effect lasting policy and change that leads to real impact for marginalised children and youth?

 

 

Audience

 

Following the success of the UoM Symposium of the Street in June 2014, which brought together organisations and academics to discuss issues pertaining to street-connectedness, undocumented migrants and children with disabilities, the “Youth | Participation | Impact” conference  aims to enable the participation of stakeholders from a greater cross-section of children’s organisations and related sectors, includingchildren and youth:

who are street-connected or homeless;

are affected by war;

are living in difficult urban situations;

have disabilities;

struggle with substance addiction;

are living in alternative care situations;

are refugees,

asylum seekers or internally displaced;

experience accusations of being involved in witchcraft;

are classified as orphans and vulnerable children;

are working children and youth;

are at risk of being child brides or living in areas that practice FGM;

are young offenders