POWAR participation group

POWAR is a participation group for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. POWAR stands for: Participate, Opportunity, Win, Achieve and Respect

It is run by Barnardo’s Participation Service for Lancashire County Council.

We influence decision making and make a difference to young people’s lives.

We hold regular meetings which are informal and fun. These meetings are open to young people from secondary school age up to 25.

We also meet regularly with primary aged children, usually during the school holidays.

We meet at venues across Lancashire and every month at County Hall in Preston.

What we do:

• People visit us to ask what we think about various issues and topics
• Carry out surveys and questionnaires for organisations
• Interview new staff and have our say on who works with children at Barnardo’s and in social care teams at Lancashire County Council

Here is a description of our regular monthly meetings.

Media group

We help to:

• write the newsletters for POWAR
• update internet pages and the Facebook page
• create and review our workshops, training and interview questions

Young Inspectors

Young inspectors visit different services for children and young people to inspect them and then come up with ways that they can improve. At our meetings we:

• find out about future inspections
• write up reports
• suggest improvements for services that have been inspected

POWAR combined

Visitors from different services and organisations often join us to speak to us and ask for our views about different topics. We also do consultations or questionnaires for Lancashire County Council, Barnardo’s or other organisations. 

More information

If you would like more information or would like to come along please contact Barnardo’s on 01772 629 470 and ask to speak to a member of the Participation Team.

See the newsletter on the Barnardo's website for meeting dates or visit the Include Me 2 Facebook page.