Author: Debbie Watkins

Our e-wellbeing team have been working hard to provide best practice guidelines for innovators working with children and young people. This has been co-produced by e-wellbeing (YMCA DownsLink Group), Roxana Pomplun (NIHR PhD Candidate) and Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex.

The checklist includes expert guidance from industry partners, as well as directly from children and young people. The digital checklist also includes a selection of resources that are free to view and download.

Children and young people are often missed when innovators develop and design their product or tech solutions. Innovators have said that this is because they don’t know how to engage with children and young people. However, to be successful, it is vital that innovations are co-designed with their target audience.

To help innovators know where to start, e-wellbeing and Health Innovation Kent Sussex have been working with young people to gather tips, resources and ultimately produce a checklist on how to engage best with young people. Roxanna Pomplun, a PHD candidate from NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Kent Surrey and Sussex, also worked with innovators to identify what support they needed in this space and identified good practice.

Click here to access the digital checklist. 

“The Prime Minister has announced a General Election for the 4th of July, less than six weeks away. This is an important time for our nation, especially for our young people.

I would like to express how essential it is for all young people who can to register to vote to make sure their voice, and their needs, are heard.

This next general election is an opportunity to put the needs of young people, the nations future, back on the agenda and at the forefront of the political conversation. The concerns of our nations youth need to be addressed and if more young people register to vote, the better influence they will have on shaping the future they want to see.

At YMCA DownsLink Group, we are seeing first hand the challenges that young people are facing from the cost-of-living crisis, the housing crisis and the lasting effects of the pandemic. Young people have been disproportionately affected by the current challenges we are facing as a society. It’s time for a more inclusive, youth-led nation. This starts with the next general election.”

-Emily Brock, CEO of YMCA DownsLink Group

YMCA DownsLink Group’s mission is to help children and young people have a fair chance to be who they want to be. We do this by providing a safe home, increasing life skills and self-confidence, and improving emotional wellbeing and mental health. Each night, we provide a home to 787 young people. Every year, we reach a further 10,000 young people and their families through our other key services, such as counselling, support and advice, mediation, and youth work. In so doing, we help young people so they can belong, contribute, and thrive.

But we can’t achieve all this alone. The local, business community plays an important role in ensuring the continued success of our projects. And we need your help now, more than ever. In the last 10 years funding to youth services has decreased by 73%, with a devastating impact on young lives. In the last year alone, demand for our housing projects has increased by 37%.

Room Sponsorship

Our Room Sponsorship programme is an easy and tangible way for your company to make a profound and lasting difference to a young person’s life. A (tax deductible) donation of £1,000, provides a young person with a room at one of our Foyers for an entire year. These special places offer young people a caring and nurturing environment to get their life back on track – for many, it is their first sense of home.

Room Sponsorship covers the annual cost of providing a young person with access to essential emotional support, life skills training, and 121 coaching. Delivered by our dedicated and experienced key workers, this additional help is vital as many of our residents often have a range of complex needs including trauma, abuse, poor mental health, poverty, and addiction. And that’s not all! For every room sponsored, £100 of the donation pays for the residents of the project to enjoy an evening together to promote a sense of community and create social interaction.

Here’s what a couple of our Room Sponsors have to say:

“As a local business, we see supporting the local community as central to the work we do and were inspired by the work of the YMCA DLG to work harder to support members of that community as best we can. We, therefore, see our partnership with the group as a way to maximise the help we give through the growth of mutual support for one another. ”

– Burt Brill & Cardens Solicitors:

“We see homelessness everywhere especially coming into Brighton and it is hard to know how best to help. When YMCA got in contact, we were thrilled to be able to help in a meaningful way. We are honoured to sponsor a room in Brighton”.

Click here to discover more about our partnership opportunities, and how you can make a positive difference in your community. Or get in touch directly, we’d love to hear from you.

‘Friendly’ and ‘welcoming’ was the verdict of OUR Youth Council after their meeting with the YMCA DownsLink Group Board of Trustees last week.

All three are residents living in our supported accommodation projects across Sussex and they are representatives on our Youth Council.

The Youth Council comprises of between 8-12 young people and representatives were invited to join part of the board away day on 21 March.

Three young people took the opportunity to share their reflections and ‘wants’ about living in our supported accommodation, and their experience of being part of our Youth Council. They also learnt more about the role of the board of trustees in defining the strategic direction of the organisation.

Key areas for improvement were WiFi connectivity, rents (too high), access to a digital application to report maintenance issues in their accommodation and generally access to more activities (group and individual).

This event was part of a programme of work where we are co-producing with young people inclusive and meaningful methods that can involve them in decision-making spaces at all levels of the organisation.

Watch this space as this work continues to evolve as part of our 2023-2026 strategy.

Statement from YMCA DownsLink Group: Closure of St Patrick’s Adult Hostel in Cambridge Road, Hove

St Patrick’s supported housing service located in Cambridge Road, Hove. St. Patrick’s is a 29 bed adult hostel for homeless people which has been run by YMCA DownsLink Group on behalf of Brighton & Hove City Council since 2019.

Last year, we made a strategic decision to only retender for services that directly support our core mission of preventing homelessness among children and young people – an area where there is growing need nationwide. This means that we did not retender to run the project at St Patrick’s.

Brighton & Hove City Council will no longer be commissioning supported accommodation in the building and will continue to work with providers in other parts of the city. As such, St. Patrick’s will no longer operate as a supported housing project from 31 March 2024.

We have been working in close partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council and other partners in the city to manage any potential impact of this service change on residents of the service, and many have already moved on to suitable alternative accommodation that meets their needs, in advance of the project closing. The accommodation considered for each resident to move onto will be individual to their needs looking at alternative supported accommodation in the city as well as more independent options.