In each city location a Youth Action Partnership (YAP) was set up at the start of the research project. The YAPs consisted of groups of young people who worked collaboratively and co-productively with project members. The YAP members and their work formed the longitudinal, co-productive/ youth-owned part of the project. During YAP meetings with researcher’s young people contributed to project decisions, informed the research design and approach, and assisted with data analysis as well as taking part in some dissemination activities locally and nationally. They also took part in creative, skills-based activities, worked collaboratively and internationally with young people in other YAPs in other project locations and connected with local decision-makers, other researchers, and other young people.
In most locations YAP members met every month for about 2 years, sometimes these meetings were held online and sometimes in person. During each meeting YAP’s and researchers worked collaboratively on the research project, and also took part in other capacity building and socially engaged activities. The YAP meetings were co-facilitated by researchers and young people. YAPs participated in research skills training and reflected on their experiences of working on the project and on their experiences and thoughts about climate change and climate education more broadly. As well as keeping in regular contact with other YAP members and project researchers through an online communication platform, YAPs also formed part of a wider European network and additional online group that offered them the chance to meet and interact with other YAP members in the other research locations. This allowed some comparisons, reflections and understandings about the parallel research process and formed part of the communication and reporting processes of the research project. A more detailed look at the YAP programme and our commitment to co-production is available here.