The role of communities in engaging school-age young people

As young people move into a school environment, the influence of the community becomes more important. Relationships with peers within the community affect young people’s interests, their activities and their aspirations. It is a time when positive community influence can be of particular significance - and negative influence can be highly damaging.

Encouraging young people into leadership

One particular way in which the community can support and engage young people is by giving them opportunities to take leadership roles. The responsibility of a leadership role can have a dramatic impact on reducing disaffection and disengagement, as well as contributing to an improvement in academic achievement and helping to prepare young people for adulthood.

We are extending opportunities for young people to engage with civic society and decision makers through the Young Advisors initiative. This enables young people to be trained to help public bodies engage meaningfully with young people. In return, they have the opportunity to influence local services. Initial evidence suggests that the programme is raising the aspirations of the young people involved.

Nine young people have been recruited from the Young Advisors initiative to advise the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Members of the panel meet regularly with the Secretary of State to help shape the design and implementation of national policies.

We have also set out our commitment to create a new National Body for Youth Leadership (NBYL).⁴ In the coming weeks, we will announce a consortium of the leading youth organisations who will deliver the NBYL. Its role will be to increase the number and quality of leadership opportunities for those aged 13-19 and to develop their capacity to lead, encouraging them on the path to success. It will have a clear focus on young people who face the greatest risk of negative outcomes.

Preventing youth crime

As well as helping create new opportunities for young people, there needs to be a clear articulation of expectations and boundaries and the consequences of overstepping them. We have a ‘triple track’ approach, which combines better and earlier prevention, non-negotiable support for those who most need it and increased enforcement. It reflects our recognition of the importance of prevention and a determination to address the root causes of crime by spotting problems early and intervening in a targeted way.⁵

In a small minority of areas, serious youth crime, and gang-related crime in particular, impacts significantly on individuals’ opportunities. Gang-related violence can have a devastating impact on victims’ families, friends and communities. It can restrict the aspirations of young people and, by limiting their ability to move safely between areas, can impact on their access to services.

To counter such outcomes, we are developing new approaches to these localised problems. The Tackling Gangs Action Programme, which ran from September 2007 to March 2008, provided £1.5 million to the four cities most affected by gang violence - Birmingham, Liverpool, London and Manchester. During that period, there was a 51% reduction in firearms- related injuries across the four cities.⁶ A similar initiative, the Tackling Knives Action Programme, has been introduced to address teenage knife crime in the 10 areas most affected by it.

Case study: Increasing young people’s aspirations

"Young people need a sense of belonging," says youth worker Denise Medica. But without a positive community around them, that sense of belonging is often found through peer groups, which can be a negative influence.

Living Space, the community centre where Denise works, aims to provide an alternative. Jointly funded by Lambeth and Southwark councils, Living Space offers young people a range of services, support and opportunities to help them deal with everyday challenges.

Some of this is practical, ranging from providing cooked meals - alongside seminars on healthy eating - to helping prepare for interviews. Other elements are academic: "We run homework clubs and subject-specific tutoring," Denise explains, while acknowledging that for many young people at the centre, simply having access to the space to study and resources such as computers is crucial.

Above all, though, the centre provides one-to-one support in a trusted environment. "If you are wondering why the young people don’t try and succeed at school and look for a rosy future, it’s because they often can’t see past tomorrow,” Denise says. “We listen to the young people, give them guidance, support, and somebody to talk to."

It is this support that really helps the young people that attend the centre. Not only does it enable them to deal with everyday problems, but it also helps to restore their confidence and raise their aspirations - as 16-year-old Jessica Mutshipayi can testify. Now studying media and video production at college, Jessica recognises that Denise and the Living Space centre helped her to get her GCSEs. "The private tutoring and homework club that the centre offered were really helpful," she says. "I wouldn’t have gone to college otherwise."

Increasing young people’s aspirations by creating Inspiring Communities

Young people’s aspirations - the goals they set for the future, their inspiration and their motivation to work towards these goals - have a significant influence both on their educational attainment and their broader life chances. 11-14 is a particularly important age, when young people begin to form more concrete aspirations and become increasingly influenced by their peers.⁷

In some deprived communities, stable populations and close-knit social networks combine with a sense of isolation from broader social connections and economic opportunities. This can limit young people’s horizons and aspirations for the future. We are therefore announcing a new approach to raising aspirations targeted at these neighbourhoods: Inspiring Communities.

Initially based in 15 areas, it will invite neighbourhoods to design and deliver a package of interventions for young people, their families and communities that meets the particular needs of the area. The approach will be backed by a core offer worth more than £10 million from central government, which will include funding for young social entrepreneurs and for intergenerational volunteering; a local innovation fund; tools to develop a community pledge on youth achievement; and twinning opportunities between diverse communities. Local agencies and organisations will be able to use their budgets flexibly to meet local requirements.

The aim is to create Inspiring Communities - places where schools, businesses, local agencies, parents and the wider community all believe that their young people can succeed, and where they can work together to help them achieve their aspirations. Each community will undertake a rigorous participatory process for designing interventions. New initiatives will build on and connect with existing offers from schools, health services, the third sector, regeneration and other agencies - such as the Extra Mile project in schools or role model and mentoring initiatives.

We will support the programme by creating a national network of Inspiring Communities and enabling the sharing of ideas and evidence of what works.

Notes

DCSF, Aiming High for Young People: a Ten Year Strategy for Positive Activities, 2007
Home Office, Youth Crime Action Plan, 2008
Dawson, Monitoring data from the Tackling Gangs Action Programme, 2008
Cabinet Office/DCLG/DCSF, Aspiration and attainment amongst young people in deprived communities, 2008

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