Mosaic’s newly-formed Youth Panel held its inaugural meeting at international law firm Hogan Lovell’s offices in London recently.

The group, which consists of young people who have recently participated or currently participate in one of Mosaic’s secondary school mentoring programmes, is encouraged to provide feedback on Mosaic’s programmes and activities. The contributions are then noted and used to shape and enhance the mentoring schedule and operations moving forward.

Consisting of Zumra Khan from London, Mani Chandrasehar from the West Midlands, Fatima Mahmood from Yorkshire, Ali Osman from Yorkshire and Ruqia Bi from the West Midlands, the Youth Panel discussed priorities for the year ahead and agreed that the promotion of several key messages should be encouraged. These included growing the awareness of Mosaic as a service provider to young people of all backgrounds and as a credible partner from within the charitable sector.

The Panel also met with the Mosaic Advisory Board to consider their key points and to reflect on the best methods of implementing them.

Jonathan Freeman, Managing Director of Mosaic, commented; “The Youth Panel has been established to provide vital feedback on our programmes from the very people that experience it. It’s critical that we absorb their invaluable insights and learn from them, this will help to make our programmes even more progressive and life changing for our young people.”

The launch of the Mosaic Youth Panel has been perfectly timed to also be one of Mosaic’s pledges for the national Step up to Serve Initiative. Also founded by HRH The Prince of Wales, the scheme aims to make social action part of life for as many 10 to 20 year-olds as possible by the year 2020. Through collaboration and partnership it is spreading the word about the benefits of youth social action, working to embed it in the journey of young people and creating fresh opportunities for the participation.