This blog, focused on young people’s involvement in evaluating the impact of Youth Social Action (YSA), is part of a learning series produced as part of the #iwill Fund Impact Evaluation and Learning Contract (IELC). It is hoped that by reading this it will raise awareness of how to best support young people to be involved in evaluating YSA, set out some benefits of involving young people in evaluating YSA, and share key learning from our process so far from the perspective of young people themselves.

This blog, focused on mental health and wellbeing in Youth Social Action (YSA), is part of a learning series produced as part of the #iwill Fund Impact Evaluation and Learning Contract (IELC). We specifically look at four themes that can better understand how quality principles apply to different aspects of YSA and in different context – these are: mental health and wellbeing, equity and antiracism, youth-led design and accessibility in YSA. It is hoped that by reading this it will raise awareness of mental health among young people taking part in YSA activities, which ultimately helps children and young people to have a thriving future. 

This blog, focused on anti-racist practice in youth social action (YSA), is part of a learning series produced as part of the #iwill Fund Impact Evaluation and Learning Contract (IELC). We specifically look at four themes that can better the quality of YSA practice – these are: mental health and wellbeing, equity and antiracism, youth-led design and accessibility in YSA. It is hoped that by reading this it will raise awareness of anti-racism within YSA activities, ultimately helping all children and young people to have a thriving future. 

UK Youth’s Thriving Minds Fund, which spans from 2022-2025, set out to support 99 charities and not-for-profit youth organisations to investigate best practices around mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people. A key ambition of the Fund was to enable and strengthen connection and learning between those working within the youth sector. 

As the Learning Partner on the Thriving Minds Fund, we’ve been working with UK Youth and grantees to generate evidence about what enables the sector to work better together and share knowledge around best practices to support young people experiencing mental health challenges.

Led by the Dartington Service Design Lab’s Lambeth-based community research team, eco-mapping was used to explore how (and if) systems of social support (like LEAP) influenced families within the nuance of their local social, economic, and cultural contexts.  We wanted to share the learning to help others looking to transform their services and community offers to better help families and children.

As part of our commitment to sustainable and participatory approaches to evidence, we wanted to promote the learning from the work co-designed by our three Community Researchers living and working in Lambeth, working with us to evaluate the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) systems change project. Using this method helps unpick complex, place-based systemic problems and can support tailoring services to better serve communities. We are sharing these insights to support others in the research and evaluation community who are thinking about or already undertaking community-led research, particularly in the early years sector.

AI is all around us, from text prediction in WhatsApp to generating all kinds of things via ChatGPT and other such tools. It's certainly not going away and is playing a significant role in not just our lives but the lives of children and families. So, what does this mean for AI in the youth sector? And what could it do for your work and organisation? Dartington Service Design Lab has been at the forefront of progressive applications of research for over fifty years, and we’re intrigued by the advances in artificial intelligence (AI), which is already changing the way we develop, deliver and evaluate services for children, young people and families – bringing a wealth of opportunities and challenges to navigate.

As we began the year, we set out our strategic priorities, with a core focus on the early years, mental health and safety for children, young people and families. Our work is increasingly concerned with systems change; working with partners to challenge and disrupt the conditions, structures and power that uphold inequalities in outcomes and experiences for children and young people.

This year we’re doubling down to catalyse systemic change and tackle inequalities in three main areas. One key strategic priority that we are committed to focusing on is to promote children’s and young people’s health and wellbeing, using our collective knowledge, skills, and resources to navigate and better understand the role of local partnerships in making the prevention of poor health outcomes a reality.

In 2023, we launched the start of an incredible partnership with leading children and young people’s cancer charities Young Lives vs Cancer, Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Teenage Cancer Trust, to apply an Integrated Approach to research and systems change with children and young people with cancer experience.