Youth Power Fund Reflections

With support from Blagrave Trust, the Youth Power Fund was established to fund new thinking and innovation that embeds sustainable youth leadership and shifts the balance of power in favour of young people who live in youth supported housing. We funded six proposals for youth-led approaches that planned to challenge existing power structures, create long-term, sustainable, systemic change, and act as a catalyst for young people to lead in the local community and beyond.

Now at the end of the three years of funding, the Foyers have reflected on their learning and what advice they would give to others. Read on for 5 tips to advance your work on youth power and leadership!  

1. Having the right team 

Setting up and maintaining a youth leadership project needs a team onboard who are passionate about its aims.

When Foyers had frequent changes in their staff team’s makeup this often caused mission drift, however it did offer opportunities too. For some, when key staff left this created space for young people to step into the vacuum, taking on lead roles and responsibilities. Some projects firmed up their teams by using part of their funding for dedicated staffing costs or creating paid roles for their young leaders. 

Having the right team also involved getting buy-in from all levels of the organisation, including senior leaders and board of trustees. Having this wider group excited about your goals, with a better understanding of project aims ensured greater consistency and continuity, with everyone pulling in the same direction. 

2. Being Flexible: really listening to young people’s enthusiasm, with space to adapt to following them 

The importance of flex has been key for all projects, including adapting plans and trying new things to accommodate young people’s changing interests. This means truly, actively listening to young people and understanding their needs, following their enthusiasm. The Foyer’s felt that creating a tailored plan specific for their residents and context, not only helped make it inclusive and relevant, but also encouraged young people’s engagement. 

‘Some residents have shown great skill in organisation whereas others have been fiery with passion and ambition.’

3. Money matters 

Involve young people in aspects of decision making including budgets and money.

‘The more involved the Young People are in what they do and how the money is spent the more they enjoy it.  They are full of so many ideas and such enthusiasm it gets everyone excited and keeps the momentum going.’ 

Paying young people (in money, vouchers or experiences) for their work, meant that they felt recognised for their expertise which in turn increased their engagement and confidence. It is important to think through how young people are going to be reimbursed, being transparent about the process, with some projects creating a youth-led payment procedure to work from. 

4. Importance of training and guidance, especially at the start of the project 

These were new projects and initiatives for most Foyers, requiring development of skills and confidence in new areas. Having training and guidance, particularly at the beginning (though ongoing too), around key leadership skills such as project planning helped ensure success. 

‘Every resident needed different support in making their dreams for the project a reality. Do not expect residents to be able to run this project unaided from the get-go as leadership is a skill that needs to be taught and refined. Focus and spend the time on training residents in what it means to run a project and let that knowledge trickle down to new members. Knowledge and experience needs to be shared as well as power. ‘

5. Fluctuating engagement can be tough 

The ‘churn’ of participants has been an ongoing challenge, with projects adopting an open door policy for new members to keep forward momentum. Time was needed for continuous engagement of new young people and reestablishing of the group. Some projects included an ‘induction’ to the project which supported relationship building amongst the group, as well as knowledge and skill development for individuals. 

Young people’s engagement fluctuated not only throughout the year (higher in the summer) but also across their time at the Foyer. There is often a window when young people feel settled enough at the Foyer to want to become active community members, but this quickly changes when their focus is on move-on and bidding for accommodation. Continuity was maintained by some projects by allowing young people to continue to be involved after moving on, with some projects creating alumni groups or youth power fund volunteering opportunities. 

Well done to all the young people and staff at the six Youth Power Fund projects!