CASE STUDY: Run Your Region – Recruitment of the first Young Combined Authority
The challenge
The West Midlands Combined Authority commissioned Young Giant to recruit, retain and support a diverse Young Combined Authority (YCA). We were tasked with recruiting a board of change-makers to advise and challenge the WMCA on its priorities, policies and decision-making. The YCA is a governance opportunity and development programme for those who want their opinions heard and are passionate about making changes for young people in the West Midlands.
One of the biggest challenges was ensuring that the board was representative of the population of each of the constituent members of the WMCA – Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall. As a Birmingham based youth engagement agency we have a wide network of young people we regularly work with in the city and a lot of experience of successfully recruiting young people in Birmingham but less so in the wider West Midlands region. With specific targets for each area set by the WMCA we had to develop a recruitment strategy tailored to the whole of the West Midlands.
