This week sees the publication of a research report I produced for the Listening Fund, exploring how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted on the ‘listening’ work of 11 youth organisations from the fund in England and Scotland. The report’s title, Strength in Solidarity, tries to characterise how organisations used listening practices to respond to the crisis. Feeling solidarity is, after all, a natural response to a crisis – a quality very evident in the rise of mutual aid groups and the diverse voices connected with Black Lives Matter.  The research for the Listening Fund focused on the experiences of practitioners and young people to identify six main findings to learn from:

1)  The ability to listen to young people improved how organisations responded to the crisis

     Drawing on intelligence and involvement from young people strengthened the likelihood that organisations could respond to the right things and communicate decisions clearly. There was also a positive impact on young people: feeling listened to increased personal wellbeing and generated greater levels of trust, both key for organisational impact. 

2)   Organisations reacted quickly to the crisis by listening to young people first

Frequency of contact was increased, and services adapted, based on understanding the personal needs and preferences of young people for social connection, communication, and support. While a crisis might suggest that taking immediate decisions should be the priority, organisations demonstrated how ‘listening first’ was a more important step to accelerate an effective response. 

3)     Organisations were able to sustain and grow their listening practices during the crisis

Most organisations felt that prior involvement in the Listening Fund had equipped them to deal with the pandemic by becoming more mindful of listening.  A ‘listening mindfulness’ equated to three things: growing listening practices through an organisation’s person-centred ethos and culture; the development of processes to codify and respond to what is heard; and, where possible, enabling young people to have more direct power to lead activity areas. Investing in the capacity of staff also helped organisations adjust to demands from changing support environments and increased service personalisation.

4) Effective listening activity promoted increased solidarity with young people 

What the crisis did most of all was put pressure on practitioners to respond to young people’s individual preferences for communication and support. The research concludes that the principle of ‘solidarity’ offers a powerful way to describe the increased relational approaches used by organisations to connect with young people.  To learn from this, the report introduces a ‘solidarity health check’ for organisations and funders to reflect on ten listening areas where solidarity with young people proved most likely to be nurtured.

5) Young people were interested and able to influence their services and other stakeholders during the crisis, but were not always fully aware of this impact 

70% of young people felt they had been able to influence their service, reflecting that organisations made decisions rooted in the listening practices used to understand young people’s personal needs. While young people valued knowing that their organisation was seeking to influence others, they were frequently not fully aware of those activities or their impact.  This is an area where stronger feedback loops (and more #PowerOfYouth) would improve young people’s engagement in influencing. 

6) Funders and decision makers can actively support the listening work of organisations to respond to a crisis

The research suggests that funders should review how far their own communications, assessment processes and funding programmes encourage listening practices. In the context of a crisis, listening work appears to benefit from flexible approaches to grant making and monitoring that can match increased needs for personalisation and service adaptions. Funders prepared to invest in the core ethos and culture of organisations are most likely to help listening practices flourish.  

Beyond these findings, what also struck me in the research was how ‘solidarity’ offers a brilliant way to promote an asset-based ‘Advantaged Thinking’ approach to a wider audience. Referring to solidarity bypasses the need for labels such as ‘asset’, ‘strength-based’ or ‘person-centred’ that often limit people’s understanding when we try to communicate the virtues of this type of work. In a more immediate way, showing solidarity expresses the humanity of seeing people in terms of strengths rather than problems; of working with people, not doing to them; of involving people in shaping their own solutions; of investing in people’s capacity to thrive, not just survive; and of taking action with and for people to bring about positive change. The features of solidarity remind me of all the human qualities that make a service great for those who use it.

Finally, it is important to be mindful of the message from young people in the full Strength in Solidarity report, that ‘listening is the bare minimum’. What matters most is what we choose to hear and do in response. The report’s forty recommendations identify how and where we can all take concrete steps to support stronger listening practices. Hopefully, these recommendations, drawn from the voices of practitioners and young people, will provide positive impetus to future actions. 

You can read the full Strength in Solidarity report HERE 

For a conversation about making listening practices or asset-based approaches work for you, get in touch at hello@inspirechilli.com.