Across the funding sector, youth voice is widely valued — but too often it remains consultative rather than transformative. At a time when many young people are navigating significant pressures, divisive narratives and a sense of disengagement from the systems that are supposed to serve them, the question of whether funders are genuinely ready to share power with young people has never been more urgent.
Drawing on the Mayor's Fund for London's experience supporting over 62,000 young people across the capital in 2025, this session moves beyond participation to ask what it actually takes for young people to shape funding decisions, communities and city systems. It will explore three areas of practice: how young people can influence programme design and funding priorities without it tipping into tokenism; what youth-led action in communities looks like when it is properly resourced and what it can achieve; as well as lessons from engaging young people across London to understand how resilience is experienced, where trust breaks down, and how systems can respond differently.
Contributors will be honest about the tensions, risks and real costs involved, and will invite other funders and organisations working with young people to share their own experiences as part of the conversation.
This session will be particularly relevant if you are thinking about how to move beyond consultation toward sharing power with young people, and what investing in authentic youth engagement requires in practice.