Invest in youth

Earlier this year (2023), we were successful in our bid to Preston Council’s delivery partner, SELNET, who won the UK shared prosperity fund (UKSPF) contract to deliver Invest in Youth. Specifically designed to support young people in Preston aged between 14 and 24 years, the invest in youth project engaged with eligible residents who are furthest from the labour market, helping them overcome their personal barriers to economic activity.

The aim of the invest in youth fund is to deliver intensive key worker support to young people to help them build the basic, and interpersonal skills they need, supporting them to take their next steps in to work or education with confidence.

At Wot Wud U Do, we sucessfully delivered the first round of funding and secured further funding to continue the delivery of this programme. So far, we have worked with *12 young people from a local high school, all of whom were identified as being at risk of leaving the school without the neccessary next steps in place.

An action plan and life cycle were created with each participant to help identify areas that each participant wanted to work on, setting personal targets and agreeing on the commitment needed.

We followed the social and emotional learning framework and worked with each individual to improve their motivation, confidence, communication, and determination, preparing each participant to present ‘who they are’ to the rest of the group. One pupil who was reluctant to start the program grew into it, stating, ‘the part of the program I enjoyed most was the presentations to the group and meeting other pupils I would not normally associate with or speak to.’

Continuing with the group work, we split individuals up and put them into groups to create their own project that aligned with their interests and career paths. We focused not only on how a project might help them, but could they design something that also helped others?

Group projects

The pupils proposed a wide range of ideas, some revolving around learning about business through buying, recycling, and selling old laptops, mobile phones, and other electronic devices. Identifying and handing out these devices to those in need, getting businesses to sponsor the devices so their peers could use them for free. Another project simply revolved around hosting weekly activities within the school, firstly because they wanted to meet like-minded individuals, and secondly to charge people who attended to learn from the person running the activities, for example, how to play a sport, a game, or painting and decorating. These activities focused on the individuals’ strengths and areas of interest.

In addition to the group projects and the development of interpersonal skills, the program included building individuals’ basic skills in maths and English, supporting college applications, creating CVs, cover letters, and uploading them to job search websites with the appropriate email notifications set up to alert the young people of future employment opportunities. We also encouraged and promoted the value of volunteering and taking part in local community projects to continue to build their skills, some of whom joined local sports projects and are now regular attendees.

To conclude

Out of the 12 particpants we have worked with so far:

• 12 improved their basic skills in Maths and English,
• 12 reported an increase in their employability skills,
• 7 will continue to engage in job searching activties,
• 7 have exited into college, and
• 2 have exited into employment.

Feecdback from the particpants:

• ‘I have more confidence in making decisions and I know if I put my mind to it, I can do it.’
• ‘It has helped me grow in the confidence and helped me understand that I have resilience.’
• ‘I feel more sociable and I have started speaking to people I don’t know.’
• ‘I am more optimistic about my future.’
• ‘Made me think more about my future, without the programme, I wouldn’t have had an interview to get into college and would have missed out.’

We would like to thank Preston City Council, SELNET and Fulwood Academy for whom without them, this project would not have happened. If you would like more details of our work, how we approach working with young people or have an idea for a future project, please get in touch with Dave@wwudes.co.uk

*We are halfway through the second cohort whose results have been included in this report, with a futher 4 pupils being engaged in October.