August 12th is International Youth Day. Begun in 1991 by the World Youth Forum of the United Nations, it’s a day for celebrating the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society.
To celebrate Youth Day we’re sharing the story of Meddwl Ymlaen (Mind Our Future) a project that shows the impact that young people can have when given a chance to have a voice, and steer the things that impact them.
What is Meddwl Ymlaen?
Meddwl Ymlaen (Mind Our Future) takes mental health services for young people and actually involves young people in their design. At the heart of this movement is the YLAB (Young Leaders Advisory Board).
Led by The Venture whose ethos is rooted in play, fun, and freedom of expression. The project emerged in 2022 when 14 organisations came together with support from Wrexham University to secure National Lottery Community Fund support. Crucially, young people were involved at the very start of the funding application, so the project was shaped with them from the beginning.
At the centre of the project’s ethos was using Transactional Analysis to create communication that is genuinely equal, neither authoritarian nor unstructured, and invests heavily in skilled youth work and inclusive practice. Starting from young people’s ideas rather than the project’s strategic goals, and supported by a flexible funder in the NLCF, the team looks for reasons why things can work rather than reasons why they can’t.
What did they do?
Instead of traditional tokenistic consultation, Meddwl Ymlaen places young people directly in the driving seat of every strategic and operational decision.
At the core of the project is the Young Leaders Advisory Board (YLAB). Evolving from the initial youth group that helped draft the original funding bid, the YLAB acts as an equal stakeholder alongside the project management team.
This approach meant equal decision-making for the young people is at its core: YLAB members hold joint sign-off power on key project decisions and sit on interview panels for new staff recruitment. It also centres on Youth-Led Initiatives: The board conceptualised and executed WellFest, an annual youth wellbeing festival aligned with the 5 Ways to Wellbeing. It also has a voluntary commitment at its heart with members consciously choosing a volunteer structure driven by passion and shared purpose rather than financial incentives.
This inclusive and voluntary-led structure was really important to shift away from traditional parent-to-child power dynamics. Guided by Transactional Analysis principles, communication combines structured adult-to-adult dialogue with playful, accessible child-to-child interaction.
After early attempts at hybrid and online meetings proved distant, the team pivoted to face-to-face sessions embedded with music, food, and inclusive activities. This environment ensures full accessibility for neurodivergent members, non-verbal participants, and young people with physical disabilities. Supported by flexible NLCF funding, the guiding ethos remains simple: look for reasons why an idea can work, rather than why it cannot.
Meddwl Ymlaen demonstrates that genuine co-production requires a structural transfer of power. By investing in skilled youth work, removing barriers to participation, and trusting young people as decision-makers, the project provides a blueprint for sustainable, youth-led mental health advocacy.
Lasting impact
The project has delivered transformative outcomes for its participants, fostering confidence, emotional maturity, and a strong sense of community. Whether this is in areas of personal growth with participants who initially faced severe social anxiety, isolation, or school exclusion have progressed to public speaking at major conferences and performing spoken word poetry.There has also been an impact through employment with the project creating formal pathways into employment, including hiring a 19-year-old YLAB member into a full-time role on the core team.
From the initial project, participants have been able to take part in national advocacy and with this The YLAB is now beginning to look beyond its own community, engaging with policy makers at a national Wales level on issues like vaping, energy drinks, and drug use. Young people are moving from participants in just one project to wider scale advocates, and the project’s ambition is to amplify their voices through storytelling and case studies, building the profile and evidence for longer-term influence.
The project was designed with real power for young people at its heart. This looked like skilled youth work, flexible funding, and a commitment to starting from where young people are rather than where the project needs them to be have created the conditions for genuine co-production and remarkable individual growth. But it also meant the creation of an inspiration – and a model – for future projects like it.
Find out more at their website or read the full case study here.
Meddwl Ymlaen is a great example of youth involvement, but also youth-driven work for real change. Do you know any projects that have made real change for young people? What about them made an impact? We’d love to hear your stories too.