Improving Youth Engagement in Your Organisation How to turn Youth Engagement into opportunities for young people…

Who we are…

Since our inception in 2010, we have worked across the UK with a number of housing providers including Magenta Living, Rooftop, New Charter and Circle Housing. To date we have worked with over 200 young people and benefitted hundreds more through services and campaigns we have helped shape and improve.

What we do…

We work in four main areas of Youth Engagement: Research and insight Campaign production & delivery Our ‘Creative Experience’ Sustainable social enterprise

Why we are here…

We work with social sector organisations to improve youth engagement, and benefit young people at every stage We have previously worked with TPAS and Tenant Central around scrutiny We want to help you improve Youth Engagement throughout your organisation and within your community

Youth Engagement for Housing Providers & Tenant Associations

What do organisations want from Youth Engagement? Good attendance to events Improved relationship with young people Improved perception of the organisation from young people Feedback and involvement with scrutiny

The Real Situation… We know that youth engagement is hard It’s a long process to build the relationship with the young people It needs you to invest both time and money Always think about “What’s in it for them?”

Where to start? Run a project with young people that is going to benefit other young people in your community: Film – showing the relationship between young people and the housing association, how it can help them Event- run an exciting and engaging event Create a social enterprise

Involve Young People

The Young People We work with young people from your area All of them get a great chance to work on a live project and see their input realised It gives young people something to talk about at interviews or in personal statements We’ve worked with young people from all walks of life who have all been given the same responsibilities and support

Who are the Young People? Children of your tenants Local youth groups and sports clubs Local schools and colleges Your children and grand children

Why don’t young people stay engaged? Young people are the hardest demographic to engage Content is often dry and unattractive The benefits of being involved aren’t always clear Events are often a ‘one off’, not stimulating, or not fun Young people value their free time as much as we do money. It’s their main currency… reward them.

What’s in it for them? By involving young people in your Youth Engagement strategy you will provide young people with: Stimulating entertainment Vocational experience CV enhancing skills Personal skills and confidence A chance to show what they can do A job or a career

The Main Barrier to Engagement… FUNDING Ways to access more funding: Other budgets in your organisation Use the process of scrutiny Write a youth engagement organisation into a bid for external funding

External Funding Options…

How scrutiny can help… 1 - Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your current youth offer 2 - Use the scrutiny to take the findings to the Board 3- Develop a youth offer that is scrutinised from the start by the young people it is going to help 4 - Create an engaging and sustainable youth offer

How to get to a Youth Scrutiny board… Run a project for young people using young people to scope and deliver it Stay engaged with these young people through a youth offer Use these people to review the youth offer, amongst other things… Be sure to scrutinise something they are interested in. Disguise scrutiny as something else. Otherwise a Youth Board will become a “Youth Bored”

Our Challenge to You… Every housing provider and tenant association in this room to scrutinise their current Youth Engagement in the next 12 months…

Always Remember… What’s in it for them?

Thank you… This presentation was brought to you by Fourteen19 ® in partnership with Tenant Central For more information on how Fourteen19 ® can help improve Youth Engagement throughout your community, please speak to us today, or visit