Newham Council is partnering with the Recorder to celebrate the Year of the Young Person, celebrating the achievements of young people and highlighting services and support groups aimed at them.

Young people have celebrated national Youth Work Week with Newham Council’s youth empowerment service and local youth organisations.

An annual celebration of youth work, youth workers and young people, this year’s theme was champions of youth work.

The council’s Forest Gate Youth Zone invited young people to take part in a conversation about their experiences of youth work, with their stories illustrating the wide-ranging impact of youth work on their lives.

One young person described youth workers as “positive and consistent adults who are there to support us through what we’re going through”.

Another said they are “like older family members”, adding: “They’re very honest and open and help teach us valuable life lessons."

George Bossman-Okai, a youth worker at the Forest Gate Youth Zone and champion of “young people's endless potential”, said that “each young person is unique”.

He said: “Young people bring their own life experience, needs and expectations and their belief that anything is possible, where their creativity is explored and encouraged.

"There are no limits to what can be achieved. Each young person is on their own individual journey.

"I work with young people because l love it and want to make a difference."

Stacey Cordery, director at Bonny Downs Community Association and Louise Vera, director at The Renewal Programme, oversee Empower Youth Newham.

The programme, which launched in March, offers young people safe spaces to have fun, make friends and learn new skills.

As part of the scheme, more than 45 young people were recruited and trained to become young youth work leaders.

To mark Youth Work Week, they celebrated three youth workers and the young people who have helped to make the programme a success.

Stacey said: “It’s been incredible to see how receptive young people have been to the programme. It’s a real testament to the youth workers' hard work, as well as to the young people who’ve helped shape the programme.”