The Young Foundation

📢 Our Co-Director of Research, Siân Whyte, is giving the opening keynote at Day 2 of the Association of Volunteer Managers Conference today.   Sian reflects on the changing nature of volunteering, the broader societal and political contexts behind that shift, and the significant appetite for new models of community power and engagement within our communities and from government. Sian says: 🌅 📈 🤝 “The Young Foundation’s strategy is about raising our expectation of participation; empowering radical acts of co-creation across communities, sectors and boundaries; and welcoming a new ‘social contract’.”   This is seen in peer and participatory research, in social action, and in other spaces and places, Sian adds, as she imagines a future where individuals and organisations embrace their own “superpower”:   “Let’s value the process of volunteering as well as the outcome; challenge our preconceptions about what we think communities can be involved with; and ask ourselves, who gets the opportunity to participate – and how can we be ready to support them?” 👏 👏 👏   Read our Power of Participation strategy >> https://lnkd.in/gRAh3rbf   #Participation #PeerResearch #Volunteering #SocialContract #CommunityPower

EVENT 🌍 | Building practice for a JUST future Last chance to register for this online session to explore opportunities to participate in the new Centre for Joined-Up Sustainability Transformations (JUST), tackling social, political and environmental challenges, to create a just, sustainable future. 📅 7 October 2025 ⏰ 12.30pm Find out more: https://lnkd.in/emYNkar7 #Sustainability #JustTransition #NetZero #LowCarbonSociety #NetZeroPolicy ESRC: Economic and Social Research Council The University of Manchester University of Leeds Newcastle University Lancaster University University of Liverpool

Today, The British Academy and Nuffield Foundation’s Understanding Communities programme publishes its final report, supported by our analysis.   Launched in 2022, this programme has worked to inform policy and practice on how communities can improve social wellbeing across the UK 👏 👏 👏   Our Head, and Co-Director of Research at The Young Foundation, Isabella Pereira, says: “The Understanding Communities programme demonstrates the huge potential for community-oriented research to foster social connections. Our analysis demonstrates that doing this work well requires not just huge commitment and sensitivity from research teams but the right resources to support them too.”   >> Read the report https://lnkd.in/enF9NYgb >> Huge thanks to Jess Redmond, who wrote our final insight report, which you can read here: https://lnkd.in/ejYzFbKB   #CommunityWellbeing #CommunityResearch #SocialConnections #Society #SocialPolicy

🚀 NEW EVENT | Hive Minds: Exploring Participatory Research   Join us in November in Belfast with R F Associates for a collaborative session exploring the power of a participatory approach in research. Whether you are new to the approach or looking to strengthen your understanding, this event will offer space to explore practical examples, reflect on challenges, and consider how a participatory method can enhance research impact. We hope to see you there! 📅Tuesday 4 November, 10am-1pm 📍 Belfast 🔗 Register your interest here: http://bit.ly/42jtter

WE'RE HIRING! Are you a Senior Researcher with strong quantitative, statistical and data analysis skills? We're looking for a dynamic team-player to join our busy and friendly team. If you have the experience and expertise to work across government, public sector, and private sector-facing programmes - working with public, social and administrative data sets - we would love to hear from you. This role would suit: 💪 a motivated self-starter... 💗 with a passion for the work we do... 🤝 a deep understanding of social, sustainability and welfare issues... ✅ and a strong conviction for the role of research and evidence in shaping policy, practice and change. Sound like you or someone in your network? Find out more and apply: https://lnkd.in/eeqTWYtY #ResearchJob #Vacancy #QuantativeResearch #CommunityResearch #CharityJob

OPINION 💭 | Development is strongest and most sustainable when shaped with the people it affects, not done to them Brilliant to see Leonie Taylor, Siân Whyte and Laetitia Lucy share insights in the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA)'s latest journal, reflecting on why community participation must be at the heart of development - and setting out key factors for success. Read the piece 👇 #TownPlanning #CommunityParticipation #SustainableDevelopment #PlaceMaking #BuiltEnvironment

As details of the government’s ‘Pride in Place’ funding for deprived communities unfolds, our Director of Innovation and Practice, Dan Farag, reflects: “This announcement is a welcomed act of leadership from the government and an important first step in building trust and repairing the relationships between public institutions and communities. It also signals a much deeper and more significant move of recognising, valuing, and investing in the latent knowledge, energy and leadership that we know sits with communities across the UK.”   Our Co-Director of Research, Siân Whyte, says there is no shortage of evidence underpinning this: “Our evidence shows just how important investing at the neighbourhood scale is, making tangible improvements in local places and spaces that improve people’s lives. But community involvement is critical. Pride in Place is an opportunity for national government to not take a one-size fits all approach, but to instead set a tone, expectation, policy and funding environment that supports local and regional authorities, working locally and collaboratively." >> read our Power of Participation strategy https://lnkd.in/gRAh3rbf >> contact [email protected] to discuss place-based community research and social innovation #Place #Participation #Community #CommunityResearch #SocialInnovation

Announcing the government’s ‘Pride in Place’ funding in 330+ deprived communities, Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP said: "When people step out of their front doors, they know their communities are struggling. They see shuttered pubs, fading high streets and their local areas in decline. “Yes, communities have been stretched – but they haven’t given up. They’re working hard to make things better, and we’re backing them. “The government is putting power into their hands, so local people decide how best to restore pride in their neighbourhoods, not us in Westminster. “That's what real patriotism looks like: building up our communities and choosing renewal over division." Our five-year strategy, the Power of Participation, welcomes new ways of working to empower co-creation across places, sectors and boundaries. It’s a call to redesign the social contract between people, communities, state and business – and shape a fairer future. The Young Foundation's research shows that neighbourhoods are central to how people relate to the places that they live – whether they feel economically mobile, safe, or proud. Earlier this year, our response to the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods highlighted the need for neighbourhood-scale public investment in physical social infrastructures – spaces such as community halls, libraries, and sports facilities. This new fund has the potential to be precisely what neighbourhoods up and down the country need. We believe that better outcomes are achieved when local people are able to shape the places that they live. Neighbourhoods are – and must always be – shaped by and right for the people that live there. >> Read the government announcement 👉 https://lnkd.in/eQiseQA8 >> Read our Power of Participation strategy 👉 https://lnkd.in/gRAh3rbf #Neighbourhoods #Placemaking #HighStreets #Communities #PrideInPlace

We cannot make changes about young people, without them and this report from the Peer Action Collective highlights the value of youth voice! 💪 Explore key findings and learnings from two years’ hard work across multiple teams so we can continue to strive for safer communities and brighter futures for our young people. 📖 Read the full report now: https://bit.ly/47ZK8Hs

📢 Today, some of the brilliant and inspiring young people engaged in the #PeerActionCollective programme shared their research and social action projects at the webinar launch of our new report, 'Sharing power, showing understanding'. Attendees heard about youth-led work addressing the root causes of violence affecting young people. >> Our young speaker from the London PAC team shared their interactive film, designed to engage directly with peers, schools and policy influencers. “The most important thing is to roll our research out, get it into the hands of professionals.” >> Our young speaker from the Bradford PAC team shared their research into drug culture. “We need to be able to educate people before they’re caught up in the lifestyle.” She said young people need safe spaces. “They're hungry for change.” >> Our young speaker from the Hull PAC team talked about the importance of having adults they can relate to; “people who understand what life is like for them.” She shared the Hull team's work creating youth rooms, and their co-created toolkits. >> Our young speaker from the Lancashire PAC team shared the importance of building trust in schools “so teachers are not just authority figures, they become allies”. They designed a toolkit and games to enable conversations that better support young people. >> Our young speaker from the Exeter PAC team said youth mental health support should recognise "multiple factors at play". He added it should be tailored to the individual, and that it must be accessible and “human”. Congratulations to all participating young people 👏 👏 👏 And thanks to webinar co-hosts Tate G. Philip Mullen Ruth Stables Amelia Clayton Jem Hai and Eleanor Taylor, as well as colleagues supporting todays report and event Isabella Pereira Sarah Hogg Jessica Moore and Rachael McNiven. PAC is funded by the Youth Endowment Fund, the #iwill Fund (a joint investment between The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) and the Co-op. The Young Foundation is the programme's national partner. Read the report 👉 bit.ly/47ZK8Hs