Herts YPAG

Who are we?

We’re a group of children and young people aged 10-18(ish) who live in Hertfordshire.
We learn about research and work with researchers to help them plan and do research about children and young people’s health, care, family lives and the communities we live in.
We meet about every 6-8 weeks in the evenings after school/college (online) or on Saturdays at the University of Hertfordshire.
We also have fun and eat pizza🍕 (when we meet in person!)

Watch the film we made to learn more about the group 📽

⭐Interested in joining Herts YPAG? We’re currently looking for new members: https://generationr.org.uk/joinhertsypag/

You can contact us at: ypag@herts.ac.uk. We’re also on Twitter/X and Instagram @HertsYPAG

The team

Louca-Mai Brady (group facilitator)

Sonya Prime

What we do

In our meetings researchers from the university and other organizations come to work with the group, where we do things like:

Comment on research ideas and their relevance to children and young people’s experiences and lives
Review project documents and advise on how to make them young people-friendly
Test out research methods
Feed back on emerging findings/initial analysis
Help develop research summaries and other reporting and dissemination
Test websites and apps
Help plan how best to involve children and young people in research projects

We have worked with lots of different researchers including projects on mental health, food and drink, the ways your environment and where you live can shape who you are, dealing with loss and bereavement, and work with the NIHR Bioresource and Genomics England.

As well as giving researchers advice on how to make their research children and young people-friendly, in our meetings we also:

Learn about how research is done and different research topics
Share ideas about what we think should be researched
Get involved in doing research
Write blog posts and publications and present at conferences
Have fun!

Researchers - get in touch!

‘I found it really helpful to speak with the YPAG right at the start of developing a research proposal. They handled a sensitive subject very well, and provided some useful insights into how young people seek support, which I will build into my work.’

If you’re a researcher interested in working with the group:

Contact us to discuss your project and how the group could be involved at ypag@herts.ac.uk or by filling in this web form.
We will then send you more information and work with you to plan and deliver your session(s)
After the meeting you will be asked to give feedback on how working with the YPAG has informed your research. This is really important as it demonstrates the impact of young people’s role in the design and delivery of research.

Latest from Hertfordshire YPAG

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A new year for Herts YPAG! – Blogpost by Eleanor

We started our online meeting with introductions. We had two visitors to this meeting from the Adolescent Health Study, Kat and Laura, as well as familiar faces Claire and Jess from the SALIENT team. This was the first YPAG meeting of the new year, so it was great to catch up and discuss what we were […]

‘Making Connections’ – Herts YPAG on tour! Post by Cherish, Matthew, Keira, Lucy & Aedan

On Saturday 1st February five of us went to Birmingham for the day with Louca-Mai and Helen. We were invited to an event called ‘Children and Young People’s Involvement in Health and Social Care Research: Making Connections’, which brought together over 80 young people (and the adults who work with them) from GenerationR young people’s […]

The Herts YPAG Christmas Party 2024 – post by Liv

We started our in-person meeting with lunch – lots of pizza, garlic bread and salad! – along with some introductions. Some group members hadn’t met Lauren, the new YPAG helper yet, and we also met Helen, a researcher from the University of Cambridge. We then talked about some exciting plans that are coming up for […]