Celebrating children and young people

There are nearly 15 million young people in the UK under the age of 18. That’s more than a fifth of our entire population. So with almost 30% of us under the age of 24, that’s why it’s so relevant to highlight that today we get to celebrate International Youth Day.

Today is a day that highlights the challenges and opportunities faced by young people and, perhaps more importantly, it's a day that honours their contributions to society and that raises awareness of how meaningful youth engagement can build a better future.

This is something that we are passionate about, and collectively championing and advocating for across the sport and physical activity sector.

We want to encourage and support organisations across the sector to put young people first and to incorporate their voices into their practice – not just as beneficiaries or recipients, but as active, empowered agents of change.

Young people have a right to have their voices heard and acted upon in all matters affecting them – this is the starting point to creating positive experiences of being active and of building a positive, meaningful lifelong relationship with movement.

Celebrating young people’s contribution

So, in the spirit of celebrating young people’s contributions, I wanted to take this opportunity to mark their day by sharing just some of the many examples of great work happening across the sector where young people are being supported to lead the way.

As part of the Go! London Fund – set up to reduce barriers to being active that young people in the capital face and to tackle social and economic inequalities – Sport England have worked in partnership with the Mayor of London, London Marathon Foundation, London Sport, London Marathon Events and the School for Social Entrepreneurs to support two cohorts of young entrepreneurs to grow their own sport and physical activity-based enterprises.

These cover fitness, swimming, football, cycling dance and more – all making a difference to young people in their communities.

Teenage girls have also been central to co-creating the new Studio You x Nike hub – a series of inclusive new video content for school PE lessons, teaching a variety of non-competitive activities like yoga, dance and strength training to ensure no girl is left behind in PE. 

Through in-person co-creation and online focus groups, girls chose everything from lesson duration and visual design, to their instructors.

One of the young people involved in the co-design process said that it felt “really good” to know that her voice was being heard and that it felt as if she was doing a service for the teenage girls who struggle with confidence and participation in PE. 

Also, through our Place Partnerships, there are some great examples of young people playing an active role in shaping the direction of work in their communities.

In Southampton, young people have created an evidence-informed model for embedding youth voice into decision-making processes; in Hull, young people have been sharing their views on barriers, perceptions and the future of physical activity; and in Bradford, young people have been leading the way to shape the development of their green spaces.

I’d also recommend taking a look at the Voice Opportunity Power toolkit if you’re interested in ways to involve young people in the design of their neighbourhoods.

To support the development of the government’s National Youth Strategy, a listening and co-design programme called Deliver You was launched in March this year.

It gathered views, feedback and ideas from more than 20,000 young people across England and we look forward to the publication of the strategy later in the year, which will set out a long-term vision for youth policy.

Some ways to get involved

Through the Play Their Way campaign, partners across the Children’s Coaching Collaborative (CCC) are working to create a movement of child-first coaches that put young people’s rights and voices at the heart of their thinking.

In fact, through the CCC, StreetGames are currently leading work to improve understanding of the range of youth voice work and resources available across the sector.

This is all with a view to maximising youth voice activity and supporting meaningful change across the sector.

They’d love to hear from partners working on youth voice activity and you’re invited to complete this short survey by the end of August.

Positive Experiences Collective – Patchwork Programme

Finally, if you’re interested in putting young people’s needs at the heart of your work and the principles of physical literacy into practice (a key and to-the-point explainer from the Youth Sport Trust), you can find out more about the Positive Experiences Collective and the Patchwork Programme.

The Positive Experiences Collective is open to all and exists to inspire more positive, meaningful experiences of movement for children and young people, embedding youth voice as a key enabler to help them build a lifelong relationship with physical activity.

At the centre of the Collective is the Patchwork Programme – a nine-month learning and leadership journey for 12 interdisciplinary teams.

The initiative is part accelerator and part leadership development, and it’s designed to embed physical literacy as a driving force for system change.

The next cohort of the Patchwork Programme is now open for applications until 5 September.

Final word to young people

I’d like to leave the final word to a young person who we heard from at the Sporting Communities Youth Innovation Conference in April this year, where we asked young people to tell us what is most important for us to share back with the sector to make sure that young people’s voices are heard.

They said: “Young people have the ability to speak out. Most don’t because they don’t think they have the authority to. That needs to change and be shown to young people.”

Let’s help them change that.