The future is looking bright for the 45,000 young people in Cornwall who will not only see their services transformed over the next few years but will also play a major role in deciding the places they want to go and the things they want to do.

IN-TOUCH For Young People in Cornwall, a new programme run by the Cornwall Children and Young Peoples Partnership, involves public and voluntary agencies working together to provide new services for children between the ages of 10 and 19 in the county.

Set up under the Governments Youth Matters agenda to give young people more choice and influence over the services they receive, the aim of the IN TOUCH programme is to work with young people and their families in Cornwall to identify the services they really want and then encourage agencies to work together to provide them.

A new Action Team involving young people between 12 years and 19 years is being set up to enable young people to work alongside the Children and Young Peoples Partnership and the IN Touch programme in designing new services in Cornwall.

The new team will be launched at a special Bovered? event at the Sands Resort Hotel in Newquay on Wednesday, February 21.

Members of the Action Team will play a vital role in putting forward the views and opinions of young people in Cornwall explained Sandy Meloy, Engagement Co-ordinator for the Children and Young Peoples Partnership Support Team. They will act as an advisory group to the Partnership and In Touch programme and will be involved in consulting with young people to ensure everyone has their say .

The name and slogan V IN TOUCH For Young People in Cornwall - was the brainchild of 17 year old Adam Cohen, from Portreath, a student at Truro College, and Bridget Olds, a Senior Support Worker at the Scallywags Project. The design of the logo was then chosen by consultation with over 100 young people from around Cornwall.

The IN TOUCH programme contains a number of different projects which will be delivered through four main areas : h Information, Advice and Guidance h Targeted Support (for those with individual needs) h Universal Services (providing safe and enjoyable places for socialising, recreational, cultural and sporting experiences and opportunities for volunteering ) h Engagement of Young People (to make sure young people are involved in the project and help develop services) We need to ensure that the services we provide are the ones young people really want and so it is vital that they are closely involved with designing and influencing these services from the very beginning said David Pond, Head of Youth Development and responsible for radically restructuring youth support provision.

We have two Youth Apprentices who have been employed to work with the team on the project and all the agencies involved are developing ways to engage with the young people they work with .

Our aim is to ensure that Cornwall delivers innovative, high quality, responsive and easily accessible services which are young people centric and provide value for money. They must also meet the needs of all young people and their families and, where possible, be delivered through local area teams .

The new programme also has the full support of Terry Lello County Councils Lead Member for Children, Young Work is already underway on a number of projects, including the development of One Stop Shops to improve the provision of community based information, advice and guidance. There is also much going on in local areas to look at ways of improving the availability of things to do and places to go for all young people.