Researching the priorities, resilience, and visions of young people in Wales beyond the Covid-19 pandemic

The Young People in the Lead Wales Team (YPITL) are a team of young people appointed by The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) in Wales. ProMo Cymru, in partnership with Ministry of Life (MoL), worked with this team to design and deliver a research project over a ten-week period.

About the project

The project researched the priorities, resilience, and visions of young people in Wales beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. It aimed to identify how National Lottery funding could make the most positive impact for them.

The YPITL team successfully conducted 60 Structured Interviews, 51 Digital surveys, and 11 Semi-structured interviews/ Focus groups.

Project findings

The research uncovered key priorities for young people. A snapshot of these include:

Access to quality support for their mental health and wellbeing
“Mental health plays a big part in young people’s lives and it has a knock on effect on everything”

A public voice and role in decision-making
“Often young people are put aside as not being involved.”

Their future – particularly employment opportunities and access to housing
“It’s almost impossible to leave home and even harder to not be renting for the rest of your life”

The Arts – concerns around the impact of Covid-19 on theatre, music, and film
“I’ve gone from everything being free to having to pay for lessons and instruments”

In addition to these themes, many issues were seen as important for young people from our consultation. These have been included in the below conceptual model.

Impacts

The co-produced research has led to important insights being drawn from young people across Wales about young people’s priorities, resilience and visions beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. You can read the full report here.

This research has led to the creation of the £10 million Mind Our Future grant programme which opened on 26^th May 2021. Find out more about the Mind Our Future grant here.

Working with ProMo-Cymru

ProMo Cymru are experts at supporting organisations to put the voices and needs of young people at the core of projects and services.

For more information about Digital Youth Information get in touch.