A youth involvement and engagement lab project with Fola Afolabi, lab director, and Kritika Samsi, KCL
This midday talk will take place online, please join our mailing list for the link. This will be sent out the week before and again on the day of the talk.
In this talk, we will present a 6-month project that focused on developing, recruiting, and training Youth Brain Health Champions from amongst school children in south London.
The Youth Involvement & Engagement Lab (YI&EL), Lewisham Young Mayor and Young Advisors Team, with funding from Alzheimer’s Research UK and support from the SPIN-Dementia Network+, co-produced this six-month pilot to train and support seven young people from Lewisham to become Youth Brain Health Champions. The young people who led the project were from diverse and underserved communities, such as being carers or having family member(s) living with dementia. They produced four radio programmes at Radio Lewisham, coordinated outreach activities to engage young people, and promoted dialogue on brain health and dementia prevention. The project emphasized inclusivity and embedded a youth-led and place-based approach towards dementia prevention. In this talk, we will discuss ways we engaged and involved these groups, the enthusiasm and passion they brough, and seek advice on opportunities for future work.