We support young people from in and around Camden’s neighbouring communities to lead community action and create positive change for themselves, their peers and their community
Our vision is a society where children and young people are at the centre of their communities. They feel they belong and are active participants in leading and inspiring community action. Young people will be confidently fulfilling their potential, with the skills to create positive change in their lives, with their peers and within their community.
All our youth action projects aim to achieve these outcomes for young people:
Develop innovative programmes of youth social action that benefit young people and their communities
INCREASED RESILIENCE AND WELLBEING Increased confidence, positive relationships with peers and higher self esteem
Ensure that young people who face challenge or adversity are supported to lead social change
Young people feel more connected to their community
Develop a training offer to share the lessons learnt and help other organisations adopt a youth-led social action approach
Young people gain skills and experiences which help them move on into further education, training or employment
Diversify our funding base
Fitzrovia Youth in Action (FYA) was founded by young people who wanted to clean up a vandalised sports pitch and play area located behind central London’s Tottenham Court Road. The play area is now an attractive and well-used space, managed by FYA.
From our roots of young people organising activities to improve the Warren pitch and surrounding area, FYA has come a long way but young people leading social action remains at the heart of our work.
FYA is now central London’s leading youth action charity. Each year, we support hundreds of young people within Camden and neighbouring communities to lead their own community action and create positive change for themselves, their peers and their community.
Today, young people face new challenges in a rapidly changing society. Community divisions, insecure and constantly changing employment opportunities and decreasing levels of wellbeing and mental health amongst young people constantly hit the headlines.
Too often young people are demonised and opportunities to have their voices heard and be part of the solution are rare. The young people we work with have many hurdles in their path. However, they also have the skills, passion, creativity and commitment to overcome them, thrive and lead community action.
We believe in the power of young people to lead positive change, their right to be heard and their ability to make changes in their own lives and that of their peers. In an increasingly polarised world, FYA is characterised by our diversity and success in bringing the community together. These values underpin our work.
When young people take part in high quality social action, everyone benefits:
Young people develop their character and confidence. They experience higher levels of wellbeing that can help improve their mental resilience. They also develop vital skills and networks that can support future employment.
Communities benefit when young people feel valued, engaged and involved. It can create a greater sense of community and boost social cohesion and integration.
Organisations benefit from young people’s energy, ideas and capacity to create positive change. They gain a different perspective that can shift their way of thinking and open new ways of working.
Recent activities led by children and young people have addressed mental health, isolation, relationships, employment and community cohesion. Young people provide peer support, develop peer education programmes, organise community events and communicate the issues and challenges that young people face back to those in power and the wider community.
Young people explore issues they care about and are supported to design and deliver community projects which address these. Through taking the lead in planning and delivering programmes, young people gain confidence and skills but also ensure projects are delivered in a way which is fun and informal and inspires others to become involved.
Young people are far more likely to turn to their peers for information, advice or support than approach a professional or any other adult for help. Young people are also the best people to inspire other young people. This provides an important rationale for our work; building the capacity for young people to support each other. Over 60% of our staff are former volunteers with the organisation.
Our work is embedded in a partnership approach to ensure we engage young people from wide range of backgrounds and needs, and offer programmes which are integrated into existing pathways. We work with a wide range of statutory and community organisations, including most of Camden’s secondary schools and many of its youth clubs.
The youth-led approach has underpinned FYA since its inception. A widely recognised UK quality framework* lists six guiding principles to ensure quality for youth social action: youth-led, challenging, socially impactful, progressive (sustained and linked), embedded and reflective.
The FYA model incorporates all of these principles in our approach.
What is the key to our success?
Every year FYA supports hundreds of young people in tackling the issues that matter to them in their community
We believe that through youth led action, young people are empowered to create change for themselves, their peers and the community and we want to be able to evidence this
We use validated monitoring and evaluation tools to measure our impact. Our evaluation framework and standard of evidence have been accredited by the Centre for Youth Impact(Project Oracle Level 2).
INCREASED RESILIENCE AND WELLBEING
Young people report increased confidence, positive relationships with peers and higher self esteem
Young people feel more connected to their community
Young people are able to articulate and use their skills to move on into further education, training or employment
“I grew up in an educational system where we were laughed at by other kids. We were hidden, that is how some of us felt. When I came here to do this programme, I felt people were actually listening to me and understood because I was with other people like me. We were talking about our special needs and our experiences. It was quite nice to know I was not alone. We all felt we belonged here, when some of us felt like they had not belonged anywhere.
We learned how to help people with mental health problems. The project gave us a self-esteem boost that we never had. We got qualifications whilst doing the peer education programme, which is great for people like me or people in general who struggle in mainstream education and who just wanted someone to help them, someone they can relate to.”
Fatima (age 19), participant in peer education programme
“We all felt we belonged here, when some of us felt like they had not belonged anywhere”
Today, FYA manages the Warren Sports Pitch which its young founders had rescued from being a vandalised site. It is now an attractive and well looked after space. To engage local young people in our work from an early age, we organise football programmes in The Warren and nearby Cumberland Market sports pitches.
FYA recently opened a new indoor activity space right next to the Warren pitch called The Warren Centre. The Centre provides a space for young leaders to plan and host their own projects, campaigns and events to improve their community.
In Cumberland Market, we deliver weekly drop-in sessions for from the H-Pod.
Young people organise street parties, community dinners, planting projects and other community events to bring thousands of people from different backgrounds together each year and gain experience in events management.
Young people explore issues that matter to them, and are trained to share their new knowledge to over 1000 other young people through workshops they deliver in youth clubs and schools. As part of this, young people create short films and soundtracks to get their message across to their peers.
Young people at schools and youth clubs across Camden are trained and supported to provide mentoring support to other young people who are facing challenges at school, with friends or with their feelings. The programme offers a space for young people to access and provide peer support to one another through group work, 1-2-1 activities and discussions.
The Youth Ambassadors are alumni youth action volunteers who represent young people in programme and organizational decision making. They serve on our Board of Trustees and its sub committees, consult other young people and organise peer reviews of our core programmes.
We are working with a group of young people and community volunteers from the Regents Park Estate to steer community-led social action which involves all of the community but has young people at its centre. Local people are supported to organise projects to address local issues, as well as promote health and well-being activities.
In employability workshops, young people learn how to articulate their skills, talents, and relevant experiences gained through their involvement in youth social action, in job applications and interviews.
To share good practice and the lessons learnt, we provide consultancy and training to other youth organisations in supporting youth-led community action and peer support.
Supporting young people in and around Camden to create positive change for themselves, other young people, and their community
Our vision is a society where children and young people are at the centre of their communities. They feel they belong and are active participants leading and inspiring community action. Young people will be confidently fulfilling their potential, with the skills to create positive change in their lives, with their peers and within their community.
1. Develop, deliver and share fun, fresh and innovative programmes of youth social action that benefit young people and their communities. We want to ensure that young people continue to lead and create positive change within their communities by adapting our current programmes to meet their changing needs and developing new models of work.
° Putting friendship, fun and wellbeing at the heart of our programmes - responding to the challenges and that young people currently face we also want to support our young leaders to do this with a renewed focus on helping them to make new friends, have fun and support their wellbeing.
° Ensure that young people can use the skills they gain to help them on their journey in education or into employment. We want all young people to be able to communicate their skills to others, increasing their employability and access to higher and further education.
° Develop and share our models of place-based community action working through our home neighbourhoods of Warren Street and Regents Park Estate we will continue to embed, develop and share a model of community led action which involves all of the community but has young people at the centre.
° Develop a training offer to share the lessons learnt and FYA models of youth led community action, peer support and peer education.
2
. We want young people from all walks of life to find a place to lead change through FYA. Sometimes young people who have faced the greatest challenges have the insights and potential to lead the greatest change. We want to ensure young people who have faced personal challenge or adversity are supported to lead social change. We also recognise that some of the FYA programmes are not as accessible as we would like them to be for young people with disabilities, additional support needs or who are LGBT. We want to change this.
3
. We will support our staff to develop and grow through investment in their training, support and wellbeing, including new induction training programmes for young staff at the beginning of their career and career development for more experienced staff.
4
. We want to diversify FYA funding base and income streams. We will continue to review and diversify our income streams to ensure that the work of FYA is secure and allows us to deliver our strategic goals.
