“As members, we were trusted to shape priorities, influence the charity's direction, and contribute at every level - from strategy discussions to trustee meetings.”

After an impactful term as Chair of Access Sport's National Youth Board, Shane reflects on a journey of championing youth voice, driving strategic change and creating more opportunities for young people to shape the future of sport.

From leading youth-led projects and influencing strategy to strengthening representation across the charity, Shane shares the lessons, achievements and impact of meaningful youth leadership.

Article by Shane McCullough.

Across the charity and sport-for-development sector, terms like ‘co-creation’ and ‘co-design’ are common. While often well-intentioned, meaningful youth engagement can sometimes become secondary to delivery pressures and funding requirements. That's what drew me to Access Sport's National Youth Board in 2024.

Initially, I was sceptical. Could a national charity genuinely prioritise youth voice while working at such a large scale? Those doubts quickly disappeared. As members, we were trusted to shape priorities, influence the charity's direction, and contribute at every level - from strategy discussions to trustee meetings.

For me, there were some key things I wanted to achieve during my term:

• Further embed Youth Voice into the charity
• Get the most out of the group - motivate and connect the group better in who we are and what we do collectively
• Shift from delivery to strategic advocacy - develop initiatives and projects that could influence the charity’s work and be purely Youth Voice led
• Push towards being representative of the charity's audiences - to truly advocate for the Young People the charity is looking to impact.

Now stepping away, I'm proud of what we achieved together. Highlights have included delivering the youth-led Active Changemakers Project, launching the National Youth Board communications plan and Access Sport's TikTok presence, introducing a clearer board structure, chairing a Youth Voice panel at the Include Summit in 2024 and leading two rounds of recruitment for new National and Regional Youth Voice members.

The realities were that this wasn’t easy. Young people have energy and enthusiasm, but across busy lives, and many competing demands, voluntary roles sometimes take a back seat. My job, alongside the charity, was to find the ways of working that were right and flexible for the group, while not swaying too far away from the charity's vision and mission.

I'm incredibly proud of what we achieved as a team. Thank you to my fellow Board members, trustees, staff, and especially Vice Chair Katherine, for helping drive this work forward.

Find out more about the Youth Board >