August Reading List

The latest Search Institute report offers a rich exploration of common features of high quality youth provision that will support young people’s development. These features – such as enabling young people to pursue a common goal that fosters positive peer-to-peer connections and relationship-building skills – align closely with other quality frameworks, such as the Programme Quality Assessment (David P. Weikart Center for Youth Programme Quality) and the National Occupational Standards for Youth Work, as well as the Search Institute’s own Developmental Relationships Framework. With a view to specific staff and volunteer practices, the report provides a deeper exploration of the potential equity effect of increasing access to high-quality youth provision (and why increasing access to provision alone is not enough to level the playing field). It also explores the unique roles that arts, sports, and conservation activities can play in supporting young people's development. For example, nature conservation requires a group of young people working together towards a goal, and can also influence young people’s sense of purpose, prosocial orientation, and being part of something bigger than themselves – particularly relevant to work on youth social action provision in the UK through the #iwill Fund. In addition, the report reflects on how staff need to not only support young people’s development through practices such as fostering youth voice, choice and autonomy, but also 'how to adjust their ways of relating to youth that is based in and communicates understanding of and respect for the young person’s cultural realities and individual identities.’ To support with this, there are helpful and practical resources embedded throughout the report, including a quick five minute ‘Relationship Check’ tool for self-reflection and conversation, designed to assess where relationships with young people are strong and where they can grow. – Catherine, Organisational Learning Lead 

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This case study collection from Advance HE discusses the value of enterprise and entrepreneurship education in higher education. It might seem like an odd addition to our reading list, but the growth in our work researching and supporting social enterprise development in the youth sector makes it a surprisingly relevant read. Our own research in social enterprise highlights its role in the development of social and emotional learning skills for young people. Specifically, Enterprise Development Programme grantees have pointed to the role of enterprise as a vehicle for providing natural progression routes for young people through supporting them to pursue their interests in a productive way. Similarly, the case studies presented by Advance HE point to the value of developing enterprise skills to enable personal growth and successful transitions. They also point to the environments that can support this, including young people being involved in practical activities and a reflective process by which young people can ‘map their own learning’. Whilst we’ve seen youth organisations developing enterprise activity that does not involve young people and is solely focused on income generation for reinvestment, it’s really exciting to read evidence elsewhere of the value of supporting young people to develop their entrepreneurial skills too. We’ll be watching the work of Advance HE closely to see what else we can learn!  - Jo, Project Manager 

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In her latest blog, Claire Reindorp, CEO of The Young Women’s Trust, discusses why young women are amongst the hardest hit by the rising cost of living and shares findings from their recent report, Just Getting By Young Women’s Trust Annual Survey 2022'. Young women are the particularly struggling because they were closer to the ‘financial edge’ to begin with, given the existing income gap between young men and women; on average young women take home approximately a fifth (22%) less. As a result, young women possess limited resources to endure the current financial crisis, which has left many struggling with their finances. 52% of young women reported that they are ‘filled with dread’ when they think about their finances, with over a third of young women having taken on new or additional debt in the last year, compared to a quarter of young men. Worryingly, the survey also finds that almost a quarter of young women have been unable to afford food or essential supplies in the last 12 months. Claire highlights that these findings are not about personal budgeting decisions but the structural barriers trapping young women in inadequate pay. – Zunaira, Research and Projects Assistant 

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An ambassador to The Girls’ Network has written an insightful blogpost on the impact of ethnicity on help-seeking for mental health. While conducting her studies in psychology, Fatima – the author of the blogpost – became increasingly aware of the stigma surrounding mental health and questioned the reasons why, as a South Asian woman, she had not previously sought help herself. Her dissertation therefore focussed on the differences in help-seeking behaviour between people from Black and minoritised community backgrounds and White individuals for anxiety, uncovering some stark findings. Research found that a lack of help-seeking behaviour among Black students and those from minoritised communities may be due to the norms and values they grew up with, but also a multitude of challenges to navigate such as feeling misunderstood or undervalued by professionals when discussing mental health issues. Furthermore, there is clear inequality in the psychological professions; Asian and Minority Ethnic Groups make up only 9.6% of qualified psychologists in England and Wales, despite accounting for 13% of the population, as reported by the Health & Social Care Information Centre in 2013. With a growing rise in mental ill-health among young people (and young women especially), it is vital that practical and wellbeing support provided by youth organisations is equitable and inclusive, both in its delivery of support and the make-up of those who deliver said support. – Hannah, Research and Methods Lead 

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Are you a data leader, evaluation lead, or impact manager? This article on leading without authority may be for you. Leads often have to drive initiatives with limited resources and authority and - as Ferrazzi states - you may also be doing this against a context of ‘scepticism, siloed organisations and time-worn routines’. Whilst leaders may want to spend their time with their heads in the data, Ferrazzi points out that they equally need to invest time in relationships, as it is only through effective relationships that change can be achieved, especially when data is so ‘radically interdependent’ on other people’s business areas. Data, evaluation and impact efforts are usually most sustainable when there is ‘buy in’ at the top level. To support this, Ferrazzi discusses the need to ‘manage up’, communicating with your CEO or senior team on a regular basis to align your strategy with their overall strategic drivers, and frame how your initiative will help drive organisational transformation and provide long-term value. Ferrazzi’s final advice is to abandon tropes such as ‘the data speaks for itself’ and work with your data to develop a meaningful, insightful, or celebratory story to keep colleagues and audiences engaged. – Kaz, Director of Strategy and Learning 

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I’ve been reflecting on this section of the White Supremacy Culture website, a set of regularly updated racial equity principles, developed by the Dismantling Racism Works collaborative. These principles stem from the experience and feedback of community-based leaders and organisations who have done or are doing work around racial justice. The assumptions surrounding this work are stated clearly and with transparency in mind, and each principle (such as ‘honour and build power on the margins’ and ‘take risks and learn from mistakes’) are explained and supported by the work of different leaders, bringing together a unique amalgam of lived experience, decades of learning, and embodied wisdom. -Soizic, Enterprise Development Manager 

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This briefing by HeadStart, a collaboration between the Child Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC) and the Evidence Based Practice Unit (EBPU) at UCL, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, reviews models of participation to understand young people’s participation in school and community programmes, and help decision-makers advance leadership opportunities within activities for young people. The briefing examines different models of participation that currently exist within systems of care and support, their strengths and drawbacks, and offers valuable insight into the roles, power dynamics, and motives for stakeholder involvement that should be explored when developing and maintaining authentic youth participation. A good read for anyone looking to review or strengthen their youth programme design. – Hannah, Communications Manager 

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This article from Youth & Policy, by Sandra Vacciana, provides a rich and fascinating insight into the process of peer research as part of a project exploring “what else should we be doing to address the social conditions which undermine the life chances of young people with minoritised and racialised identities, triggering their need for sustained resilience?”.  Vacciana shares detailed and evocative descriptions of how peer researchers and staff embarked on a shared inquiry, as both ‘researchers’ and ‘the researched’. The research methods focused on reflective practice, and iterative training and co-design. The research both confirmed some well-known themes (like the importance of networks and connection in young people’s lives) and surfaced some things that were previously ‘unseen’ or ‘unspoken’ (like the assets and processes that help young people from racialised communities develop inner strength). Vacciana ends with a call to action to subvert research orthodoxies and gather stories rather than collect data, alongside training participants to become co-producers and thus fully recognising them as ‘holders of knowledge’. - Bethia, CEO