Youth Voice Matters is conference with a difference. The annual conference is designed and delivered by and for disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs, with a focus on developing participation skills and recognising the impact children and young people can have when engaging in strategic participation.
Each year, the FLARE group decide the theme of the conference, and this year they chose Celebrating Joy - thinking about the important role of joy in children and young people's lives and the ways that community, connection and communication can all contribute to this.
Two FLARE members, Louise and Rowan, have written about what this theme means to them and why they are excited for this to be the focus of this years' conference.
Rowan's reflections on Celebrating Joy
Disability is often uncertain. Health, both mental and physical, can fluctuate. Symptoms come and go. I have often found myself holding joy tentatively, unsure in how long it will last. But there is a great deal of it in my life and in the world around me.
Sometimes it arises from disability. I find joy in the stickers on my wheelchair, in my special interests, in connecting with people who understand, and celebrating days with lower symptoms when my body does not feel quite so heavy. Sometimes it is from elsewhere. In nature, in art, in my friends and family.
Wherever it is, it is worth highlighting. Narratives surrounding disability are so often focused on struggle and hurt, failing to see the capacity for joy within our lives. Taking time to celebrate joy not only allows it to grow but also lets us come back stronger the next time things get tough.
Louise's reflections on Celebrating Joy
As a neurodivergent person, a big part of understanding myself is recognising the joy that comes with it. For a long time, growing up, I only saw disability through the lens of something tragic and sad. That was the way it was represented in the media and the way it was often discussed around me. For me, a part of taking back my experience of disability has been recognising that it can be seen through a lens of joy rather than through sadness.
There is so much joy in being neurodivergent. For example, in the way I experience the sensory world to such intensity, in my interests, in connecting with other people who understand and who feel like home, and in understanding parts of myself that I had spent years believing were inherently wrong. Recognising that joy has become an important part of accepting and celebrating who I am.
As a young person who is involved in strategic participation work to create systemic change, I have started to see joy as intertwined with the work that we do. Joy and care cannot be separated from changemaking. It is what sustains work that can come with challenges. I am so incredibly excited that celebrating joy is the theme of Youth Voice Matters 2027. It gives us the opportunity to celebrate the joy that young people bring, the creativity and connection we share and the sense of belonging that comes from being part of a community.