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How do you decide the succes of each project?

- "When we’ve given out the money, we’ve always asked for feedback, whether that’s photographic evidence or video evidence or, say a letter or a phone call or even going down to see it."

- "Well, a written evaluation of the project after the project has been completed."

- "Hopefully we’re trying to get a contract drawn up - this is what I’d like to do - get a contract drawn up and we’ll actually go in, ask them to send us evidence.  Is this project working?  Pictures maybe or just come and tell us what it was."

- "We’ve asked for them to send us photographs and letters and sort of, visual evidence of what they’ve done."

- "We have to have reports on the development and how it’s going."

How long will you be on the panel for?

- "It runs for two years.  You can stay as long as you want and you can drop out any time you want."

- "Until we want to stay."

- "I think it’s a two year term of office.  I don’t know if I’ll be young enough to go for it again."

- "It depends, I don’t know.  Some members of the panel will be leaving, but other members will be doing some peer training to invite other young people onto the panel."

- "I don’t know.  Hopefully, these years that I have been elected onto, and hopefully the next two years."

- "I’m not too sure how long, but hopefully as long as I can.  And I hopefully want to go on to further things as well. I’d like to get involved in all that as well."

How have you benefited from being involved?

- "I’ve made new friends."

- "You get to make loads of new friends and team building and learn to work with new people and it’s given us, kind of, lots of new skills that we didn’t have before."

- "It gave me a confidence boost.  Because I know that I am making a difference and I am helping people."

- "It’s mainly about team building skills and compromising and basically, adult kind of things.  Having to work your way into situations, not putting your foot down.  You’ve got to be able to compromise within the team."

- "I’ve more of a view of what’s going on everywhere and it just gives me like a wider opinion."

- "Just learning more about myself and more group work.  Also, I’ve learned that I can actually get things done for people in the areas around me."

- "I was never really used to compromising.  I was always used to getting my own way and since then, I’ve got slightly better."

- "On a personal level, I’ve learnt how to work within a team; how to be a bit more democratic."

- "You’re not just a child, but you are important, sort of thing.  You know, your voices should be - yeah. I think it sort of gives you more independence to make your own decisions about what you think should be done, rather than people just making it for you all the time."

- "I met new people and just learned how to do it and learned the other side of it, so, yeah."

- "I think it helps me to become more part of the community really.  That’s how I feel."

- "I think it’s made me a bit more mature."

- "I hope it looks really good for my communication skills and I hope it looks really good for my CV as well."

- "I just feel good to know that I’ve done something for my area."

Would you recommend joing up to a friend and why?

- "Yeah.  It’s a very good thing.  I think it’s going to benefit a lot of people."

- "It’s a good chance for people to develop more skills, like they can improve their confidence and get better in their communications skills."

- "I would because you basically get a certificate for it and you learn to experience, experiencing the world of work."

- "It’s a good opportunity to like let young people’s voices be heard."

- "Yeah.  I’d recommend this to anybody that’s actually interested in helping people in their area.  It’s just a great opportunity for everybody."

- "When I first come to this school I didn’t really have a lot of confidence.  But when I started coming here then my confidence just went up. When you come here there’s all different people you have more different races and different backgrounds."

- "Because I said, ‘I’m doing this’, I’ve met a load of new people."

- "Yeah, because it’s - it’s brilliant, actually.  I like coming here cause it’s different from what I used to do.  Like go out with my mates and everything, but this, you meet new people and just tell them about their life."

Do you think the government go it right this time?

- "I definitely think it’s a good start from the government, to actually give young people some money to decide on what they want to spend it on."

- "It’s like giving us a voice to say what we think should be done rather than just what the government decides for us."

- "It’s sort of like giving us responsibility as well, which I think that we should get, not sort of just be pushed aside and decisions made for us."

- "Yeah.  Definitely giving people a chance to get money for their group, what they need it for to do activities what they wouldn’t normally have money to do."

- "It is really a good idea that hopefully in future, it will gain. If you want to ask every teenager from round here, they want more facilities for youth around some villages. For example in one village, they haven’t got any youth centres and you can see teenagers after school on Friday night - they just hanging about down their village and around the shopping centre."

- "We are being heard and if we didn’t stand up and say something, perhaps nothing would be done, so it’s good that they are listening."

- "I think it is, because it gives a lot of people from disadvantaged areas the opportunity to actually work on things that they want to do."

- "Yeah I think it’s an excellent thing, letting children have a say in where money goes towards because a lot of the time, it’s just daft things that adults want."

- "It’s a great opportunity because if the government’s interested in kids, hopefully the older generation will be as well, so I think it’s a great opportunity and I’m really glad that I’m here."