How do we Inspire young people to lead on events-based social action?

Inspire 2022 came from the inspiration behind the tenth anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, where a promise was made to ‘Inspire a Generation’, and the multiple national and international events which took place across 2022-23, writes Rebecca Habgood, UK Youth Project Officer.

Inspire 2022 was designed to be a flexible programme of youth-led social action and community events across the UK, putting young people in the driving seat, but with laser-sharp focus on the needs of the whole community. 

More than 2,000 young people from across the four home nations came together to deliver more than 300 social action events, drawing inspiration from a unique year of major national events, such as the Commonwealth Games, the Women’s Euros, the King’s Coronation and World Mental Health Day to raise the profile of their projects.  

These events helped bring people from across the community together, amplify young people’s voices in community spaces and leave a lasting legacy for the youth sector to encourage sustained social action in the future.

It was generously funded by Spirit of 2012, the Olympics 2012 legacy fund, and the #iWill fund, a joint investment between the Department
for Culture, Media & Sport and The National Lottery Community Fund, which helps more young people make a difference in their communities through social action. UK Youth also partnered with Local Trust, British Red Cross, Youth Scotland, Youth Cymru, and Youth Action Northern Ireland to deliver Inspire 2022.

The programme was co-designed with young people to create a flexible delivery model with funded youth worker time to provide ‘wrap-around’ support to the young people as they developed their ideas and brought them to life.

Flexibility was built into every part of the model; from the social learning curriculum to the grants model, and even the events themselves. This meant the programme could be tailored to participants based on their age, interests, communication needs and levels of confidence. 

Participants would form into teams of up to eight and then were ‘upskilled’ to deliver their events through a social learning curriculum delivered by their youth workers.

To develop their ideas, they conducted research into their communities and identified issues which mattered most to them. This included issues such as young people’s mental health and wellbeing, feelings of loneliness and isolation, promoting healthy lifestyles and raising awareness of people’s cultural and personal identities, as well as campaigning on climate action, to name but a few.

These were combined with the inspiration taken from the national and local events to raise their profile and generate community interest. 

Young people pitched their ideas to a panel of local community members, giving them first-hand experience of making ‘a pitch’ and building their confidence in delivering the event.

These Pitch Days brought together ‘Inspire Hubs’, where smaller organisations joined larger regional infrastructure organisations to help reach under-represented groups of young people through grassroots organisations.

After pitching their ideas, young people could receive grants of up to £5,000 through which they had control over the spending, showing Inspire 2022 trusted the young people to develop and deliver their ideas 

Events took place across 2022-23 and culminated in a National Inspire Celebration Event, which brought together Inspire 2022 participants from up and down the country.

The young people got to share their successes through a social action fair, as well as take part in workshops alongside youth workers looking at community organising and activism. 

Finally, there was an opportunity to recognise the fantastic work of both the young people and youth workers through an online Celebration Event.

Inspire 2022 had a huge reach across the four n Nations, with 2,354 young people delivering 321 social action events across the 18 months.

These were attended by more than 22,000 people from local communities, representing all walks of life.

Up to 1,800 of the young people – roughly three in every four young persons on Inspire 2022 – had never led on meaningful social action before. 

This meant a total of £334,631 was distributed to young people in grants, with a further £25,136 distributed through an ‘Access Fund’ to support those with additional needs.

Of the more than 2,000 young people, 88 per cent said they would lead on a social action event again, showing that through all their hard work they were inspired to go further with their causes.  

Inspire 2022 not only developed the skills and confidence of young people, it also had a positive impact on their mental wellbeing. 

By the end of Inspire 2022, 97 per cent of young people reported positively when asked: “Do you feel better about your life and future as a result of being involved in this project?”

There was also a near 12 per cent rise in young people giving positive responses when asked: “How happy did you feel yesterday?” 

Beyond this individual impact, Inspire 2022 also supported young people to promote cohesion within their communities, embedding this through their social action events. 

At the end of the programme, we saw a 17 per cent increase in young people saying people from different communities now get along better because of Inspire 2022.

Another lasting impact on communities was the stronger voice of young people. Through leading social action events, 70 per cent of young participants said they now feel more likely to have their voices heard in local decision-making, up by 37 per cent from the start of the programme.

This shows a significant outcome, with young people feeling more empowered to speak up on issues that matter to them 

Youth workers also shared first-hand accounts of the positive effects of Inspire 2022.

They and the young people developed new strategic relationships with local organisations and providers, ensuring ongoing support for social action in their communities.

By the programme’s end, youth organisations reported young people were actively seeking and securing funding for their social action event ideas, and were able to negotiate access to resources like event space with local organisations. The Inspire 2022 ‘brand’ helped legitimise young people’s ideas, encouraging continued support from local organisations. 

Moreover, youth workers experienced benefits to their own practices and organisations through their involvement in Inspire 2022. They gained insights into the social learning journey, enabling them to better explain the benefits of social action to young people, while accessing the Inspire 2022 toolkit equipped them to continue engaging young people in developing social action ideas in the future.

Lastly, it facilitated internal discussions about the role of youth leadership within their organisations.

Within youth-led social action there are underserved young people who are often under-represented in social action events, according to the National Youth Social Action Survey, 2019. Through Inspire 2022, we sought to address this by working closely with grassroots youth organisations with significant reach into these communities.  

Some 58 per cent of young people on Inspire 2022 were shown to face at least one or more ‘personal barriers’ to delivering social action events, such as low income, English as a second language, or having additional needs.

Furthermore, 44 per cent of all participants were from the top 30 per cent most ‘deprived’ areas across the UK, a typically under-represented group within youth social action.

Through working with grassroots youth organisations, providing direct grant funding and offering youth worker time, we were able to show to young people that they were trusted to deliver their social action events and would be supported throughout their journey.

The use of an additional ‘Access Fund’ ensured young people with an identified ‘disability’ could be given extra funds to help them access the programme with additional resources.

Overall, the programme showed real strength in engaging young people who had never led on social action events before, empowering them to lead on positive change in their communities, upskilling youth workers, improving wellbeing and creating a lasting legacy.

So how can we inspire all young people to lead on events-based social action? Hopefully we have given an answer.  

 To find out more about Inspire 2022, read the full report here.