Tuesday 12th August 2014 marks International Youth Day. This is an annual day created to recognise the vital contributions that young people make in our global society, and of raising awareness of issues affecting young people, one of them being the need for health promotion in the workplace.

When speaking about effective youth participation, I have always stood by my belief that active citizenship leads to greater political engagement. By this, I mean to say that if young people are given positive, meaningful activities to do and places to go when they are young, then they will take more interest in their communities as they grow older. This process of meaningful engagement and active citizenship then in turn develops into a sense of shared community ownership, empowering local communities to work together, taking responsibility for their own assets and resources. However, the retention of this level of young peoples' engagement relies on the support and indefatigable enthusiasm provided by countless volunteers throughout the UK.

One prime example of this is the Boys' Brigade. Founded in 1883, the Boys' Brigade has been actively shaping the life's of young people for over 130 years. As an international network of 500,000 young people who commit their own free time towards enhancing the well-being of their peers, and helping other young people develop into active, informed and engaged citizens, the Boys' Brigade plays a unique role in the make-up of services for young people.

On Tuesday 5th July, I spent the day with the Boys' Brigade and Girls' Association in Birmingham. This year, they are celebrating 125 years of active youth investment in the Birmingham and West Midlands area. Having been led by Roger Green as Chief Executive Officer since 1995, they have developed their own recycling plant with three charity shops as a sustainable generator of income as a means of funding youth work, with young people leading the way forward on each project. This is an excellent example of meaningful youth empowerment.

In the Wyre Forest, the Boys' Brigade is as active as ever, with numbers growing each session. They are currently planning for the reciprocal visit of a group of young people from a German youth organisation similar to the Boys' Brigade. They developed a working partnership with this group in October 2013, when a group of young men who were completing their Queens' Badge went on an exchange residential to Husum, Kidderminsters' twin town. I am pleased to have been one of those young men.

In 2012, the Boys' Brigade started working in partnership with The 'Step Up to Serve' Campaign with the vision of growing the numbers of young people involved in social action. This is a strategic, long-term, cross-sector transformation which aims to “unlock the potential of youth social action across the business, education and voluntary sectors of the UK.” Having set up successful, working partnerships with NCS, the Scouts, the Guides, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, vinspired, UK Youth Ambitio, GwirVol, Volunteer Now, the Boys' Brigade, and the Girls' Brigade, this project is truly transformative, and its positive impact is already taking place.