Centre for Youth Impact, London Youth and Partnership for Young London are working with key funders and commissioners in London to provide youth organisations with an opportunity to contribute to a shared picture of the existing and emerging needs for young people across London. We all agree that young people have been particularly badly hit by the impact of the COVID pandemic. Social and physical activities have been curtailed. Young people’s education has been disrupted. Their future employment prospects look bleak. As a result, unsurprisingly and depressingly, we are seeing record levels of poorer mental and physical well-being, with surveys showing that there is a feeling of increased helplessness among young people about their future.
In order to shape our collective responses, we are looking at how we can all move forward and support young people. We have two aspects to this work, one survey focused on the youth sector and infrastructure and one on local authorities. This will be further supported by a youth led research piece with young Londoners. We would encourage you to complete the relevant survey and also share this across your networks. (more details below)
Youth Sector Data Hub for London Survey - (for the youth sector and infrastructure groups) The Centre for Youth Impact, London Youth and Partnership for Young London are working with key funders and commissioners in London to provide youth organisations with an opportunity to contribute to a shared picture of the existing and emerging needs for young people across London. The Youth Sector Data Hub for London Survey is a collaborative effort to collect important data from youth sector organisations across the region so that together we build a greater understanding of what is needed on the frontline.
Please complete this survey by Monday 7 December 2020 at 9am, the chance to input is time-limited and requires as many youth organisations as possible to submit responses. An anonymised, summary analysis of the responses will be published in January 2021 and will be available for the sector to draw on. The institutions supporting this work will be able to use the analysis to shape their understanding and their plans to support young people over the coming months.
2. Local Authorities Survey – A similar survey being facilitated by London Councils and the GLA will be run in parallel and it will be targeting key contacts within councils. Please complete this survey by the 2nd December and contact Samira.Islam@londoncouncils.gov.uk if you need any further details.
The two surveys will form a rich view of the challenges and opportunities emerging for our sector. The youth sector has consistently suffered from not having enough data to powerfully and consistently communicate the value of its work and help funders and commissioners make informed decisions as to how to support the youth sector in London.
This collective initiative has the broader support of the London Recovery Group, and the recovery missions which has included London Councils, London Funders, the GLA and many other stakeholders. In particular, the London Recovery Group’s mission for young people, post COVID. This will focus on access to quality youth activities across London and a personalised mentor. Creating a narrative of what is required to support young people across London will be important as influential sector institutions make places to support quality youth work.
We are very conscious that we are writing to you now to ask for more information when there are still huge and immediate challenges to deal with to ensure we even reach recovery. However, Londoners are rightly ambitious to see a more equitable and sustainable London post COVID and we are keen to act with urgency. Young people have been particularly hit hard by the pandemic. By providing us with your input today, we can work with important organisations and institutions to ensure what you share is considered in plans going forward.