Activating Sheffield Culture for Children and Young People 2025 (past)

Left to right - Sam Holland (Migration Matters), Lord Mayor Safiya Saeed, Grace Walker (Freelance Creative), Roger Bateman (Creative Industries Institute, Sheffield Hallam) and Dom Hislop (Slambarz).

2025 was an exciting and hopeful year for culture in the city, with the creation of the Sheffield Culture Strategy. Arts and culture for children and young people is one of the key outcomes of the plan, and so in March we took advantage of this moment to invite the sector to come together for focussed discussion and planning. We left feeling energised about working together to turn the strategy into action!

Different stakeholders from across the city - young people, educators, community leaders, strategic decision makers, creative practitioners and health professionals - joined us for presentations, performances, panel discussions and lunch.

Building on one of the key takeaways from the event - that we need to hear directly and systematically from children and young people about what they want, and listen to what they tell us - we have continued to work on plans and fundraising for a new project focussing on youth voice in arts and culture. Our aim is to support young people to become peer facilitators and researchers to harness the voices of other young residents - sign up to our newsletter and follow us on socials for updates on this exciting venture.