Reflections on young people’s involvement in the CELEBRATE Project

Co-produced by Niyah Campbell (Senior Public and Patient Involvement Lead. School of Psychology, University of Birmingham) with Daniel, Lewis and Noa (CELEBRATE Youth Expert Working Group Members).

CELEBRATE was a UKRI-funded project that aimed to develop understandings of barriers and facilitators to young people’s participation in biological mental health research. Central to the teams’ approach was a commitment to meaningfully involving young people throughout. To achieve this, the CELEBRATE Youth Expert Working Group (YEWG) was formed - a group of adolescents with an active interest in mental health research from Birmingham, Bradford and London.

In a previous contribution to this blog series, Jenifer Mohammadi wrote about the importance of evaluating the process of PPI. Here we aim to share some of our reflections on key moments, benefits derived and suggestions for future involvement practices.

Critical allyship (All authors)

“I feel like the engagement of young people helps with expanding the views of the study, being able to see through different eyes to see a viewpoint from younger generations.” Lewis

An example of this was an early meeting where the YEWG were asked to provide thoughts on a proposed list of social media influencers that were being considered for collaboration. Whilst YEWG agreed that those listed were theoretically aligned with the team’s youth engagement aims, the influencers weren’t people that they nor their peers interacted with! To support, the YEWG signposted towards several influencers that were popular with young people - many of whom were completely alien to the adult-aged research team!

Personal growth and development (All authors)

“The CELEBRATE project was something that I never really understood could have such a big impact on me for my adult life. At first, I saw it as a badge of some kind, something I could say I’d done. But the CELEBRATE project is so much more than that”. Noa

As well as serving as an opportunity to shape the design and delivery of research, CELEBRATE facilitated personal development and social connection for YEWG members. In Daniel’s case, he will always remember that he put forward the idea of using a mix of colours in the CELEBRATE logo (originally uniformly purple and white) to highlight the project’s focus on addressing challenges surrounding lack of diversity amongst participants in biological mental health research. For Noa, contributing to live dissemination activities at Kings College London campus and the London Science Gallery were unforgettable experiences.

What supported meaningful involvement (Niyah)

As a Public Involvement Lead, I’ve personally never been much of a fan of the term “empowering young people” as this phrasing suggests that young people lack power. Instead, I prefer to say, “creating platforms upon which young people can exercise their power” – this phrasing more appropriately situates the deficit at the feet of frequently ill-equipped systems and inaccessible spaces rather than young people.

Through regular whole team meetings and smaller group meetings, CELEBRATE team members continually considered how to involve YEWG members in a manner that best met their needs. As YEWG members were all school-aged, meetings took place on weekday evenings. Conscious of how mentally draining the school day can be, wherever possible we incorporated interactive elements into meetings such as ice breaker questions, quizzes, interactive whiteboards and games.   

A Suggestion for Future Practice (All authors)

“I think something that could have gone better is checking up individually on members of the YEWG, to make sure they were all understanding. I understand that time may be limited for the team, but some people may be too embarrassed to ask in front of an, albeit small, group of people who all know, thinking they may sound silly or oblivious.” Noa

While group discussions were perceived to have worked well, on reflection we recognised that working in a group can present barriers to participation for some. Building in occasional one-to-one check-ins can provide space for quieter voices, reinforce understanding, and signal care beyond contribution.

Why Youth Involvement Matters (All authors)

“Before CELEBRATE, I’d never been part of a research process, so seeing each step gave me real insight and boosted my confidence in sharing ideas… This project showed me that including young people makes research richer, relevant, and truly reflective of our experiences.” Daniel

Our experiences of the CELEBRATE project have led us to one conclusion: involving young people in research has mutual benefits for the research process and young people themselves. Working alongside the YEWG supported the CELEBRATE research team to make better-informed decisions whilst simultaneously positioning young people to take on roles, tasks and responsibilities that supported personal development whilst simultaneously contributing to a valuable cause.

If you want to know more about this project you can watch a presentation delivered by Noa (YEWG member) and Niyah (PPI Lead) - here.