Over the past year, the Halton Moor Community Ambassadors (HMCA) have been working closely with Child Friendly Leeds, play wish lead, Jenny Rutherford, and Clarion Housing to make positive change within their community.
The HMCA attended the Child Friendly Leeds Youth Voice Takeover in January 2024, where they meet various decision makers wanting to help young people’s voices be heard. The group spoke about how their local park isn’t an inviting place, and how young people in Halton Moor, don’t have a safe area to play. Jenny Rutherford pledged to help the group make a positive change.
Jenny met with Clarion Housing to voice the young people’s concerns and sparked a partnership between the group. Clarion provided the young people with the opportunity to carry out a local consultation, with young people in Halton Moor, finding out what would improve their local park and how this would benefit their community.
During January 2025, the group carried out a consultation with young people in Halton Moor, where the top 4 improvements were raised:
- Benches
- Working lights on the park
- Shelters
- Basketball nets
This was then sent over in a report to Clarion Housing, who worked very quickly to show their commitment to young people’s voices, by fixing the lights and installing new basketball nets on the park. They are continuing to work with the group to make at least 1 more improvement to the park.
This project has generated a meaningful partnership with Clarion Housing and the HMCA, where Clarion have shown how important young voices are to their work, and improving the areas in which they operate!