Youth Participation and Sexual Health - learning from Brook

On 19 February 2008, The Ministry of Youth Development hosted a seminar on "The health and wellbeing of young people: challenging orthodoxies and setting new directions" by Simon Blake, Chief Executive of Brook.

In this seminar Simon Blake:

  • provided an overview of the United Kingdom policy context for work with youth, and a summary of the evidence base for this approach
  • explained what Brook does and their approach to working with young people and the components of our model which determine success
  • provided background information and practical examples of how young people are involved in our work and the impact of this work
  • identified some of the challenges in raising aspirations and promoting health and wellbeing.
Simon Blake is Chief Executive of Brook, the leading sexual health charity for young people under 25 in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1964 Brook provides clinical services, education and outreach as well as counselling to over 1500 young people every day of the year in our services across the country. We use this grass roots work to inform our policy, campaigning and lobbying activity.

Simon combines experience in public service delivery, project management and youth participation with third sector leadership and experience as a policy maker and lobbyist. He has written on all aspects of emotional and social development particularly sex and relationships education. Simon’s publications include Promoting emotional and social development: a practical guide for schools; Sex, alcohol and other drugs: exploring the links; Faith, Values and Sex and Relationships Education and Assessment, Evaluation and Sex and Relationships Education.

Simon is a member of the UK Government’s Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group, the Sexual Health and HIV Independent Advisory Group, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, Personal, Social and Health Education Effective Review Group, the National Health Service Consumer Users Forum and Compact Voice, the board which promotes positive relations between Government and the Voluntary Sector.

Background information about Brook can be found at www.brook.org.uk or www.brookcentres.blogspot.com


More Information


For more information on this seminar, email us at mydinfo@myd.govt.nz


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