Respect? campaign
The Respect? campaign is led by eight 16 to 24-year-olds who together form the Respect Young Peoples Advisory Group (RYPAG), supported by YouthNet and the British Youth Council (BYC). Its aim is to improve the representation of young people in the media, government and UK society as a whole, by encouraging young people to speak up, and society to listen.
The campaign was created in 2005 in response to research, commissioned by YouthNet and BYC, which showed that young people were increasingly concerned about their negative portrayal in both the media and politics. A summary of the resulting report 'Respect? The voice behind the hood' is available as a pdf.
The key aims of the Respect? Campaign are to:
The key aims of the Respect? Campaign are to:
- Ensure that young people's views are at the heart of political debate
- Challenge the use of labels (stereotypes) in media coverage and government polemic
- Encourage decision-makers to directly involve people when drawing up policy and make informed judgement on youth issues.
What's next for the Respect? Campaign
- Top secret! The next phase of the campaign is to be launched later in the summer. For the latest information watch this space, or if you're 16 to 24 and want to support the campaign, join the Respect? Facebook group.
- Best practice guide for elected representatives. A guide for elected representatives (e.g. MPs, MEPs, MSPs, Cllr, AMs) on best practice for working with young people will be available in the autumn of 2008.
- Media balance. An initiative to raise awareness of the need for balance when reporting stories about young people, both by:
- Balanced reporting: encouraging accuracy when reporting the actions of a minority of young people (for example when reporting crime or anti social behaviour) and that views and comments of young people are included in this media coverage
- Positive stories: ensuring that, where possible and appropriate, stories of young people's positive actions and achievements are given media exposure.
Be part of the campaign
- Speak up for young people and join the campaign. If you're aged between 16 and 24 and want the latest news on the Respect campaign, join over 300 others on the Facebook group or email media@youthnet.org to find out how you can get involved.
- Ask your MP to sign the Early Day Motion supporting the call to end the negative representation of young people.
Achievements so far
In the past three years the group has achieved a number of steps to help reach its goal. These include:
- The government's new youth strategy: Aiming high for young people: A 10 year strategy for positive activities acknowledged the Respect? research on page 4
- Early Day Motion (EDM) 1885 was tabled by the New Chair of the Labour party and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Youth Affairs (Dawn Butler MP) on July 11th 2007. It calls for an end to negative representation, is still open and (to date) has secured 115 signatories.
- The EDM communications plan was implemented to galvanise young people to lobby MPs to support the motion, and as a result stories appeared in local and regional, local and online media including Community Newswire, politics.co.uk, the BYC Bullet, Young People Now, BBC Online (Shropshire), Derry Journal, Smooth FM and the NCVYS Strategic Information Bulletin
- New content was developed for YouthNet.org, TheSite.org and byc.org.uk to update supporters on campaign progress and enable young people to email their MP
- Press releases included New Vice-Chair of the Labour Party joins young people's fight to end negative representation (11/07) and MPs join young people's fight to end negative representation (11/07)
- Blogging included YouthNet's participation in The Media Standards Trust debate on the media portrayal on youth crime.
Further information
- Read the full report:
- For more information on the campaign, or to request an interview with a member of the group, please contact Sarah Wilson, Media and PR Manager for YouthNet on 0207 250 5716 or email media@YouthNet.org