Happy New Year!

We don’t need to tell you how tough 2020 has been. A fresh new year has never looked so good! Though the challenges of COVID aren’t yet over and there are great unknowns ahead, we want to celebrate all the fantastic things we have to look forward to in 2021.

We also want to lay down a challenge to everyone – ourselves included – to get creative about how we ensure the post-pandemic future is built for, with and by young people with experience of homelessness.

2021 sees the beginning of our new strategy, the Home for Advantaged Thinking. This demonstrates our vision of what the future could look like with a positive belief in young people at its heart. It creates space for young people to innovate, collaborate and take meaningful action, and a collaborative place for organisations who believe in young people and are passionate about turning the tide of disadvantage. 2021 is also the 10 year anniversary of Advantaged Thinking – some of you will fondly remember Colin in his orange ‘Don’t Diss’ T-shirt back in 2011!

Members of our network have already made a commitment to challenging the status quo, developing an innovative youth offer and making the most of our Advantaged Thinking community of practice and resources. The four key pillars of our strategy, outlined below, show how we’ll work together to go even further in 2021-24.

1. Quality

We believe in an Advantaged Thinking approach to working with young people, but there’s currently no clear criteria for what effective asset-based working looks like outside of the Foyer network. We want to grow our quality assured Foyer network and develop an accreditation process for other youth services who have an Advantaged Thinking focus – growing a movement of like minded services.

2. Youth Leadership

We want to raise the bar for youth leadership and activism in the youth supported housing sector. We’ve already put some of these plans into action with our group of Advantaged Thinking Influencers – a collective of up to 20 young people passionate about social change. Applications are open and we’ll start our leadership training in January.

3. Community

We want to deepen and grow our national community of practice, including peer learning and support, inspiration and innovation, to grow resilience and sustainability within services. Last month, we kicked off our new Foyer Comrades network to introduce one-to-one peer learning, and we’re beginning work on a new Advantaged Thinking curriculum and trainer’s guide. We are also integrating and learning from a wider community of thinkers and doers.

4. Influence

We want young people with experience of disadvantage to be meaningfully involved in policy decisions and shaping the services that interact with. We want to correct the imbalance of influence and put more power into young people’s hands. Our Pass It On community forms the beginnings of a youth-led space where young people can share their views and experiences.

Here’s to a bright 2021!