The Commission’s Call for Reflections was designed to offer children and young people the chance to contribute directly to the Archbishops’ Commission on Families and Households and to express their views about the support families and households need to flourish.
In our Call for Evidence in 2021, many adults and organisations provided their thoughts and suggested examples of good practice. We followed up on these through round tables, webinars and visits. The Commission wanted to hear from as many children and young people as possible through focus groups and the Call for Reflections.
The Call for Reflections contained a number of resources for use with children and young people of different ages through schools, church groups and other youth groups (these can be reviewed below). The responses we received enabled us to see whether children and young people shared the same views as those expressed by adults and, importantly, to learn what matters to them. Commission Members joined in some of the activities with children and young people in their local areas to listen and learn.
In the first of our briefing papers, we hear from the voices of young people who have experienced the family justice system.
In April 2023, the voices of young representatives of the Family Youth Justice Board were heard during the launch of the Commission’s Report. The second briefing paper is the presentation they used.
At the launch, we heard from a range of young people. Their voices can be heard on our YouTube channel: Andrew from the Family Youth Justice Board (16:52); Olivia from the Family Youth Justice Board (33:55); Adeshewa Adejumo reading her work “Who I Am” (37:33); Bakirathe Thirukmaran reading her work on Cultural Conflict (48:34). Towards the end, Chris Wills ask a group of young people to reflect back on what they have heard during the launch (55:00 – 1:00:44).