We know that we will only achieve our mission if we give young people the power to make change. That’s why it is our ambition for all our work to be delivered alongside young people. By building a movement for change, through which young people can create the societal changes they want to see, we know that far more young people will get the support they need.
Our three youth programmes had another successful year. Despite major political instability, we continued to support young people to raise their voices about mental health and campaign for the future they want to see. Young people also continued to support us as an organisation, advising on our strategy, informing our policy and shaping our work throughout the year.
Every young person who wants to can influence the decisions that affect their mental health.
Every young person who needs support - whether from the NHS, from local services or online - can get it.
Some of the key factors behind the rise in young people's mental health needs are reduced.
Despite the political turmoil of last year, the campaign managed to cut through and we celebrated lots of campaign wins.
We’re so proud of all our efforts and achievements, in holding the Government to account and giving young people a powerful platform to push for change.
Activist Nicole shares her mental health story at the #EndTheWait Parliament event.
As the campaign progressed, it looked like we were getting closer to securing our demands. However, continued political unrest led to changes in personnel that led to changes of plan. Now, as we enter the new operational year, we continue to work alongside young people to accelerate our solutions towards the most important Government decision makers. And we have secured the backing of the Labour Party on all our key campaign demands.
Our Youth Panel help shape the future of our charity and achieve our mission. They discuss things like strategy, safeguarding, fundraising, organisational culture, risk management, data protection, brand and marketing.
This year the Youth Panel had their most instrumental year. They participated in 92 activities across the organisation, including 343 individual actions from young people.
Interviewing for key job roles including our CEO.
Recruiting our anti-racism training provider and brand agency.
Advising on our Parents Helpline redevelopment.
Working on our major funders strategy.
This year we launched our new Youth Advisors programme, for young people aged 18-25 to have more direct input and influence in our work. We recruited and trained 15 Advisors, each one having a paid role in the organisation. Each Advisor will work as part of a key project team on significant organisational and service developments over the year ahead.
Our Activist programme is our biggest youth engagement programme. This year it was redesigned and relaunched to have a far greater emphasis on developing young people’s activist skills, both individually and collectively. Our biggest ever recruitment campaign saw 40 young Activists join the programme. We also launched Social Action Saturdays, a regular meet-up where dozens of young people can learn and develop their activist and campaigning skills alongside each other.