1. Grappling with the theoretical foundations of youth social action
Vidal Kumar
July 2016

2. What I’ll Cover What is youth social action?
Initial reflections on working in the field
Locating the concept in theory
Where next for the study of youth social action?

3. Thousands of people are involved in the rich diversity of youth social action

4. What is youth social action?
Practical activity in the service of others in order to create positive social change that is of benefit to the young person and their community – double benefit

5. Double Benefit Outcomes
Employability skills
Resilience/coping
Processes for delivering projects well and recording outputs
Citizenship
Self regulation
Social and emotional skills
Social agency
Social trust
Self belief/ attitude
Personal agency
Guidance for choosing appropriate evaluation for more focused interventions
Benefits to the individual
Social agency
Benefits to the community

6. Initial Reflections Youth social action vs. volunteering
YSA as policy idea
Where’s the theory?

7. Theoretical Building Blocks
What should we study in youth social action?
Why should we study it?
Theory as multidimensional

8. The Theory Gap in Youth Social Action
Individual achievements or behaviours
Benefits to society or positive change in communities
Character
Inter-personal relationships

9. What are we doing at v-Inspired?
New Theory of Change – with a (comprehensive) literature review
Generation Change and Dartington Social Research Unit - Quality Mark Pilot
Sharing and supporting research and theory – Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtues

10. Where next? vidal.kumar@vinspired.com
Addressing the gap between what’s needed and what there is
Better defining how youth social action should be researched
v-Inspired engages 30,000 young people a year – want to work more with academics to understand how well we are doing youth social action!