ABSTRACT
Crowley and Skeels direct their focus towards the increasingly pertinent issue of assessing the ‘impact’ of participation. Over and over again, it has been my experience that for adults, young people’s participation is about shaping the services, policies and institutions that adults have provided in the first place. We value the insights that young people bring. At Forty Second Street, the young people’s mental health project in Manchester where I have been in various roles, including Chair, on the Board of Trustees for nearly 20 years, we have continually struggled with our understanding of young people’s involvement and participation in the life of the organisation, and it is on this experience, as well as on my wider knowledge of youth and community work, that this commentary draws.
