Innovative youngsters make their mark

FOR David Ross, the key to environmental innovation is simple – enlist the help of young people.

"If you attempted to do the kind of work we do with adults, you would fail," says Mr Ross, the chief executive of Bradford-based Partners in Innovation.

"Young people have no baggage. They pick up stuff in a different way, and they have so much passion. They come up with solutions and ideas we would never think of."

Partners in Innovation is a not-for-profit limited company, set up to boost skills, education and innovation in Yorkshire, by leading multi-agency projects, and building links between schools, business and other key organisations.

A crucial aspect of its work is the Solutions for the Planet scheme, supporting groups of young people aged between 11 and 15 from across the region, to develop real-world projects and campaigns aimed at improving their communities and the wider world.

The subject of each project is left to each group of young people to decide. Perhaps inevitably, nearly half focus on environmental issues.

Recent successful schemes include a campaign to boost struggling bee populations, a scheme to help people to grow their own food, and a plan to encourage schools to get involved in tree-planting campaigns.

"The idea is that young people, supported by business, education, the Government and all the other people we work with, will come up with big ideas," Mr Ross said.

"These embryonic ideas are then developed over the course of the year. We give them training, we give them support, we give them access to experts and the materials they need."

Each March, a day-long conference is held for hundreds of young people, when the groups of schoolchildren work with experts from business and other skills advisers to develop their schemes.

The projects are then whittled down by a selection panel, with a final shortlist of 50 asked to make Dragons' Den-style presentations to a team of judges. The winning entries are expected to have a workable business plan as well as delivering major benefits to the community.

The 10 winners are invited to a reception at the Palace of Westminster in the summer.

One of last year's winning entries, a scheme to encourage healthy walking, received sponsorship from the Co-op and is now being trialled in one part of Yorkshire. If it proves successful, it will be rolled out across the entire country.

"We say to these young people that they are the future," Mr Ross said. "Nothing could be more important than supporting the creativity and the passions of our young people."