A letter from Team Young People

We are writing to you from ‘Team Young People’, a group of young individuals supported through the work of InspireChilli. A number of us in the Team have turned or are turning 26, inspiring us to question what it means to suddenly find yourself ‘counted out’ of the normal age range for being valued as a young person. We would like to draw your attention to the experiences of those aged out of youth opportunities, and ask for your time to consider whether this could be changed in the future.

We recognise that reaching 26 brings a different stage of being – an evolution in how we think and experience ourselves physically and emotionally as individuals.  But the change has far more significance externally in terms of what being 26+ means you are supposed to have done and what you can’t do anymore, than how you actually feel as a person and what you would still like to do with your life.  This seems particularly true for how funders and youth charities appear to view those aged over 25.

We think that, post 25, you should feel able to put off some of the greater responsibilities of adulthood until you have found yourself. It is certainly true that, aged over 25, something shifts that means you are no longer just a young person; but neither are you a fully formed independent adult.  There still seems a need for opportunities to fit this ‘in between’ stage of emerging adulthood to help people complete a healthy transition.  Instead of being able to find and create these opportunities, our experience is that young adults end up excluded from the things they recognise as increasingly useful. 

What this means is that, as you approach 25 and beyond, you feel an enhanced pressure to ‘get your life together’.  This leads to a sense of anxiety and failure that you have somehow messed up by 26 if you haven’t nailed a series of almost impossible expectations. It’s an unfair cut off age because young people might miss some of their growing up time looking after others and dealing with disadvantages rather than having the luxury to embrace wider opportunities. True in our case. Then, when you reach the point you can do things, you find out that any years you have lost are not accounted for – you are all judged to have aged out of youth at the same fixed point, regardless of what stage you have reached in your life course.  Even worse, the markers being used to judge that ageing point at 26 no longer even reflect the experiences of those in transition to adulthood – for whom the traditional markers of having a home, having a job and secure income, are all more uncertain.  Never more so than now. 

According to current data from the national office of statistics, the transition to employment occurs at a later age than ever before, with only 50% of young people starting a full time work experience by the age of 19.  Young people are also living with their parents longer, with 10% more 26 year olds in 2017 than in 1997. Only by the age of 30 do the figures between 1997 and 2017 level out, suggesting that the transition beyond the family home takes 5 years longer than before. It is not until 34 that 50% of young adults are able to own their own home. Instead, the majority of 25-34 year olds rent, 20% more than in 1998.

Nearly half of young people want to be able to support themselves financially by the time they reach the age of 23, with two fifths hoping to be earning up to £30,000 a year by the time they're 25. But, according to an article by Sophie Christie in the Telegraph (March 5, 2015)  ‘with rising house prices, high university fees and falling savings rates, "Generation Y" is finding this goal out of their reach’. Similarly, Kate Hughes reports in the Independent (Oct 8, 2018) that ‘half of 25- to 34-year-olds simply aren’t financially robust’ while a third are also reported to not feel emotionally resilient enough to cope.  We share these views.

Why then, we ask, would any funder or youth organisation draw the line at 25? We wonder if you, our reader, are aware of how this limitation impacts on those over that age, who feel a failure not to have achieved the goals we might experience through the impacts your particular opportunities and funded programmes promote?  The life of being a young adult has changed.  Your funding and investment parameters have not ‘grown up’ to keep in sync with us.  At 26, you might need opportunities to complete your transition into a thriving adulthood; you might still be overcoming gaps left from previous experiences of disadvantage; but, according to most funders and youth charities, you simply no longer count. The door is closed on you.

We’d like to hold you accountable for why your programmes for young people choose to exclude those over 25. Not by criticising what you do fund and provide, but by inviting you to reflect on the logic of that age definition, its appropriateness to the experiences of young adults today (even more so post covid-19), and its negative impact on the levels of anxiety and exclusion increasingly experienced by our generation. 

We’d also like to share with you how crazy it is for us to even be worried about being too old when we’re all still under 30!  However, that is the logical conclusion of putting age-based restrictions onto programmes. Looking in from outside, we are influenced to see ourselves as too old – and feel we have failed because we still have things we want to achieve. Even at 26 we have potential ahead of us, don’t you agree?  We are still ‘opportunity youth’ evolving into adult identities, seeking to take control of our lives and do meaningful things with and for others.

One meaningful thing we would like to do is share 4 future options for you to consider:

1. Could you recognise that the age of 26-30 is a more accurate phase for ‘emerging adulthood’ than 21-25, given the statistical evidence on changes in behaviours, beliefs and access to resources, and thus consider supporting specific opportunities for this age range in your future portfolio for investment?

2. Could you consider changing the use of strict age boundaries for programmes and at the very least allow up to 30 years of age as a cut-off point to allow the possibility to include people who might merit funding over 25? 

3. Could you offer a special ‘pass’ for those over 25 who still have relevant opportunity needs due to lived experiences that may have prevented their access to these opportunities at a younger age?

4. Could you just avoid age specific markers altogether, and instead make funding and programme opportunities more theme or life-stage specific, able to consider personal needs outside of limited fixed ages? This would be our most preferred option.

We would love to hear back from you and invite you to share your views on:

i)                    Why you currently restrict funding and opportunities at 25 in your definition of young adulthood

ii)                  Whether any of our options might be practical for you to implement

iii)                If you would be up for working with us to find ways to count more young people in rather than counting all young people out after 25  

We appreciate that we have limited power to change how the youth sector works, but we offer our thoughts and passion in the hope we can inspire you to take action with us on this cause.

With greatest respect and thanks for all that you do to benefit young people -

Team Young People

Team@inspirechilli.com

Judging the 2020 #R4YP Inspiration Awards

InspireChilli's talented Team Young People will be returning to judge the 2020 Room for Young People Inspiration Awards, with winners announced at an online event on November 3rd.

The awards showcase the strengths of young people, staff and services in the youth housing sector, with a particular focus in 2020 on inspiring stories and experiences from the Covid-19 pandemic period.  A celebration event to recognise the achievements of shortlisted nominations and announce final winners will be held online at 4.30-6.30pm on November 3^rd.  

The awards form part of the annual Room for Young People conference organised together with our partners Clarion Futures, Foyer Federation, the Housing Association Youth Network, and LiveWest. Since the main conference has been postponed until 2021, the online awards will feature as the main flagship event for this year – even more reason to make a nomination and attend the final show. Check out the details below on what to do.

There are 5 themed categories for nominations, with an additional open ‘wild card’ category for any nominations that do not fit into one of these.  The categories all focus on activities and experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic period.

1. Community Action award – for young people positively impacting on a community

Judges are looking for individuals who went above and beyond to support a local community, help keep others safe in their service, or take action on an issue such as Black Lives Matter; or helped their peers by offering support, advice or motivation.

2. Staying Healthy and Creative award – for young people or projects making positive use of any arts or health related activities

Judges are looking for individuals or projects using the arts to entertain, engage and connect people, or to stay active; or examples of people or projects boosting health and wellbeing through any food-based or physical activity.

3. Using Strengths and Talents award – for young people who have demonstrated a strength-based or ‘Advantaged Thinking’ approach

Judges are looking for individuals who kept their focus on strengths and noticed the positives during the pandemic; or where they have challenged themselves to develop new skills/achieve goals.

4. Service stars – for staff or volunteers who have inspired others

Judges are looking for individuals who achieved significant improvements in the lives of young people through campaigning, boosting participation or other activities; or who have shown leadership skills to help sustain services and keep people safe during the pandemic.

5. Outstanding practice award – for services leading the way through their approach

     Judges are looking for services who involved young people’s voices and ideas to shape their operational response over the pandemic; or services who made adaptions through the use of digital technology to sustain and deliver support during lockdown.

6. Wild Card – any other example of inspiration suggested by an organisation      

• Judges are looking for examples that demonstrate positive action by a young person, staff member, volunteer, or project, that do not fit in the first 5 categories and introduce a different theme to showcase an inspirational response to the pandemic.

The deadline for nominations is Friday 28^th August.  Nominations only require a 300 word entry and are easy to make. Visit the main awards page for full details – https://www.livewest.co.uk/room-for-young-people-conference

Top tips from InspireChilli’s judges: be clear on what the individual or service being nominated has actually done that fits the category of the award, try to detail the impact this has achieved, and explain why you think what/who you are nominating is inspirational. If you decide to handwrite your nomination then please make sure it is actually legible. Also, do nominate against a named award category. Don’t think your nomination fits anything in particular? Submit it against the Wildcard category.  If your nomination is not made against a specific category it is likely to be dismissed. It is possible to nominate the same person or project against more than one category, but it will help to submit a separate form for each category you are nominating against to ensure you can make your nomination really fit the category. 

To complete your nomination, you can either fill out the online form and export this from the website as a pdf file to send, or fill out a word doc following the same areas outlined in the online form.  You are also invited to send a couple of relevant photos that can be used at the awards ceremony if shortlisted and/or a short video should you have one.

Nominations should be emailed to roomforyoungpeople@livewest.co.uk. If you are sending large files due to photos and/or a video, you are recommended to rely on a file transfer programme such as wetransfer.com which is free and easy to use.  

InspireChilli’s team of judges will produce a shortlist of top nominees to be shared over the week of 5^th October, before the final winners are announced at the live online event on November 3^rd. 

Who are the judges? Team Young People include a former #R4YP award winner and 3 winners of the Bootstrap Charity Enterprise Bootcamp.  They have experience of working with InspireChilli on the development of innovative youth programmes such as the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Blagrave Trust’s Opportunity Fund and have various interests in mental and physical wellbeing, the creative arts, positive asset-based approaches, youth enterprise, international development programmes and social justice issues in the fight against disadvantage.  After judging the 2019 awards, they are looking forward to being inspired by this year’s entries.

Alongside the excitement of the awards, a special online webinar series is also due to be announced featuring young people exploring themes of significance to them.  Watch out for further details and follow #R4YP on social media. 

Please get involved so we can celebrate the inspiration of the youth housing sector together.  Don’t miss the final deadline of 28^th August to make your nomination count!

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.

A normal worth making happen

‘We don’t want to go back to normal!’ 

That was the headline message I took away from my zoom meet up this week with Inspirechilli’s Team Young People in London.

The results of what young people described to me as a ‘forced mass retreat’ have brought some unexpected positives amid the suffering and hardships of Covid-19. Young people might be at the brunt of vulnerabilities facing those self-employed in generation rent, but they have also been quick to spot the silver linings. 

After all, as they simply put it, ‘What else could have made the aeroplanes stop?’ 

The impact on the environment, examples of community togetherness and mutual aid, the necessary focus on more sustainable lifestyles, the embrace of digital opportunities, parents spending more time to be with their children, and greater interest in some of the blackspots of our social system such as the mis-workings of universal credit and appreciation for the NHS, are all wins for young people worth keeping. 

Not that the group of individuals I was talking to felt they could possibly speak for a more collective notion of young people’s voice. They are all too aware of the need to understand young people’s different circumstances on an individual basis, avoiding the mistakes of policy and decision makers shaping crude support models that do not reach or include everyone.  It is telling how, even among a small group of young people, experiences of the pandemic’s impact vary greatly depending on family, housing and employment circumstances. Not everyone feels the Government’s arms around them. 

What does seem more common, though not spoken about enough, is the reality that some young people are already used to being thrifty and resilient in the face of challenges, are able to adapt, be empathetic to others in need, and eager to think ahead about the bigger picture beyond the moment.  I felt lucky to be in their company.

Had this been a meeting of the all powerful, I would have left feeling optimistic for the future. Put more bluntly, the sooner we make sharing power with young people common place, the better for all of us. That's the real normal worth making happen next.

Keep on Advantaged Thinking

1)    Talk about People

·      Keep affirming positives. 

·      Avoid a language of crisis and doubt.

2)    Understand people 

·      Keep on listening to people’s stories. 

·      Recognise the strengths we all bring.

3)    Work with people

·      Keep on collaborating with the talents around you.

·      Guide others to make the most of themselves.

4)    Invest in people

·      Keep on investing in what people need to thrive into tomorrow.

·      Look beyond just surviving through today. 

5)    Believe in people

·      Keep on trusting in the good people can do.

·      Amplify potential to everyone.

6)    Involve people

·      Keep on sharing power and opportunity.

·      Include the experiences of those you seek to help.

7)    Challenge ourselves and others

·      Keep on being focussed and active. 

-   Push against everything that gets in the way of people.

See Foyer Federation to find out more about Advantaged Thinking