Empower the young to give everyone a brighter future
THE country is at last emerging from its slumber: lockdown is easing and the economy shows signs of stirring back to life. But one group in particular needs special help. We all know the Covid youth generation has taken a pounding. For some of our young people and children, the pandemic has been a quarter of their lives.
Their mental health, domestic peace and confidence have been damaged, quite apart from the technical harm to their academic education from months without proper teaching.
We have spent billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money saving jobs, caring for the sick and elderly and rolling out a world-beating vaccine programme to propel society forward again in a post-Brexit era.
But we also need to equip our damaged youth to carry us forward.
It is of enormous benefit to society that the Government has introduced a generous Kickstart employment scheme. But for children aged six to 19, what are the ambitions we must realise? How can we get the next generation on the road to recovery and a brighter future?
ONE of the few benefits of Covid, is that it shines a light on the fractures in social mobility. We all know young people do not deliberately head for antisocial behaviour and then crime because they want to; it is because they have nothing else to do. There is a massive poverty of opportunity to address.
Today 500,000 children miss school or behave badly when they get there, fail exams, fail to find jobs: fail, fail, fail.
What they seek is the chance to succeed, to learn to look up, laugh, love and live.
At weekends they do not have parents who can or will take them to sports or performing arts clubs, let alone on trips in the holidays. Most cannot afford to go on school expeditions that are so powerful in binding friendships and confidence. Sadly a good number lack the confidence to even try.
The good news is there is a way to solve this that costs no extra money from the Government.
In Stoke-on-Trent, Luton and Gateshead, Challenger Trust is putting together local youth character partnerships with schools and youth services, to connect young people with positive activities at school and outside school hours.
The opportunities are there thanks to organisations such as The Prince’s Trust, Cadets and the National Citizen Service.
Some can go to sea with the Tall Ships Youth Trust or trek in the Himalayas: the sky is literally the limit.
Locally there are many clubs, schemes, and facilities available to bring together and present to pupils of all ages. These combine with the school curriculum for field trips and farm or museum visits.And don’t forget volunteering, which many children find rewarding and fun.
Why should we deny these opportunities to children whose families cannot access them, when we all know it is so good for them?
WE NEED role models among pupils and staff at school, and mentors from outside to give children the courage to step forward. Some need modest financial support, which we can give them in the form of vouchers to select activities they want to follow.
All our Challengers will follow their progress on a digital platform that we can also use to measure the performance of the child and the performance of the programme, to monitor and evaluate what is being achieved.
The outcomes of this scheme are immeasurable. Every day when a child does positive activity, they develop their character.
Courage, compassion, determination, grit and resilience, let alone self-esteem and confidence, propel them forward to achieve whatever they want to do; to succeed at school and get a job afterwards, this is the very definition of social mobility.
It costs £200 per child, and the budgets are already in place in the youth system.
We need to release vast sums of wasted money in the administration of big youth organisations and send it straight to local partnerships, where 80 per cent can be given direct to young people to spend under supervision on rebuilding their lives. We need to empower the generation to take themselves and all of us forward to a brighter future. They will literally vote with their feet.
This month the Government is reviewing its education and youth offers before the Treasury makes decisions on how to spend the £500million Youth Investment Fund, to which it committed in its manifesto.
This is not rocket science. Give young people the tools, and they will finish the job.
‘They want a chance to succeed, to look up, laugh, love and live’