Starting a youth council at your club probably sounds like a very daunting challenge. You might be thinking ‘where do I start?’ or ‘youth councils are very formal – that doesn’t suit my club’.  I’m here to reassure you that everybody feels like that at the start but taking those first steps is easier than you think.

My name is Jordan Liburd. I am the research and insight lead at The FA National Youth Council (FANYC) and the football development officer at Horsforth St. Margaret’s FC (HSMFC) – the largest grassroots football club in the country.  I am here to talk about our journey of starting a club youth council; what they can look like; our motivations to ensure young people are represented; and some of the challenges we have faced so far.

First, let’s think about what a club youth council is.  The ultimate purpose of having a youth council is to ensure inclusive representation in decision-making.  So, an easy way to start is to simply go out and talk to young people at your club. Gather their opinions on things they like and dislike.  Have young people got any ideas of things that they would like to see?  One example that may work well for a smaller club would be letting young people directly influence their kit design – this is not something that would work for my club as we are focused on enhancing our brand identity which involves having all of our teams playing in the same kit, but it may be something that works at your club.

Every club is different, as it should be.  Your club should reflect the community you serve, and every community is different.  Once established, your club youth council may become more formalised with roles such as chairperson, social media and marketing teams, and innovation teams, for example.  Established youth councils may have consistent and regular meetings which are minuted and feedback directly to the club committee/board.  That is a great place to aim to get to, however, starting small is much more achievable and helps to build strong foundations to grow.

So, what did the planning process look like at my club?  I first presented the idea of forming a youth council at one of our committee meetings just over one year ago.  This idea was greeted with excitement and happiness.  After getting the go-ahead, I reached out to my colleagues on The FANYC for support on where to get started.  I quickly discovered that developing the right support network within the club was key.  Youth-adult partnerships are vital to the success of generating meaningful opportunities for young people.  They have been the cornerstone for the success of The FANYC throughout its 11-year history.  My job was to reach out to my community to find the right people to support me in developing this opportunity.  One piece of advice I was given was that both adults and young people need to be ‘developmentally ready’ to succeed on this journey.  In essence, any adults involved should be open-minded, and empathetic and should live the values of your club.

To find the most appropriate people, I posted the following advert on our club's social media platforms:

This advert produced a superb response – I received half a dozen emails within a few hours. At this point, the selection process began, and it was like I became a recruiter hiring for a job.  After I found suitable people we sat down and discussed why our club was interested in having a youth council, the benefits it would provide young people, and some of the opportunities that we could realistically grow.

We were making progress, and it was then time to introduce the most important element of a youth council: young people.We are quite fortunate at HSMFC in that we have a great pool of young leaders who are already active at our club.  Our first approach was made to these young people to talk to them about our club and what they would like to see.

As a committee, we are very aware that our social media is an area of weakness, and this was also identified by the young people.  We are now working with them to improve our social media output and deliver content they would like to see and engage with. At HSMFC, we are also very keen to have our youth council involved in organising events and other fundraising activities in the future.

The benefit to our club in engaging with young people has been that we have had increased engagement by making our decision-making more inclusive.  There have been huge benefits to our youth committee too – having increased their confidence and skills, such as planning and organisation.

 Whilst we are still in the early stages of this exciting venture, at HSMFC, we cannot wait to see where it grows and we are here to support it as much as possible.

Hopefully, in reading our story you will have recognised that a club youth council doesn’t have to be formal, or something big to set up.  Taking small steps to engage with young people and ensure that their voices are heard and valued is the key to success.

 My challenge for you is to think about what tasks or small steps can you take at your club to improve your engagement with young people.  Comment your ideas below…