Putting Youth Voices at the Heart of BrainWaves: Announcing the Launch of our new YPAG

At BrainWaves, one of our aims is to improve adolescent mental health and wellbeing through schools by bridging the gap between high-level research and the daily realities of the classroom.

To truly achieve our goal of informing, engaging, and empowering the next generation, we believe that young people must be more than just the subjects of research; their voices must help shape and inform it.

We have already seen first-hand the power of youth voice through our previous YPAG of students aged 16+, whose insights had a huge impact on the design of our project and study. Their contributions helped shape not only what we explored but how we approached it, ensuring our work remained relevant, meaningful, and grounded in real experiences.

Building on this success, we are now thrilled to announce the launch of our new Young Persons Advisory Group (YPAG) for younger students, ensuring that youth voices remain a priority and stay at the very heart of everything we do.

Why Youth Voice Matters

The new YPAG is a group of students aged 11-14 from diverse backgrounds across the UK who meet to share ideas, give feedback, and help guide our journey.

By joining the YPAG, students have a real impact on the future of mental health in education. They help shape the wellbeing topics we focus on, the language we use in our national surveys and lessons, and even how we communicate with young people across the country.

Naomi French works with schools and colleges across the country via our Research Partner network. With a background in teaching, she has seen first hand the impact including youth voice can have on processes traditionally designed for, rather than with them. She says, “The BrainWaves YPAG provides an empowering, tangible way for young people to help shape the focus of research that is designed with them in mind. Not only will this make what we are doing more impactful, but it will allow them to make their voices heard where it matters, directly in the heart of our research.

Get Involved

If you would like your school to get involved in future opportunities, please contact our team at support@brainwaveshub.org