Our Impact Groups continue to bring partners together around the five priorities identified by young people through Powered by Youth. Over the last few months, the groups have been sharing what is already happening across Torbay, identifying gaps and opportunities, making new connections and, increasingly, turning conversations into practical activity.
Here’s a snapshot of what’s been happening.
Greater Access for ALL
The Greater Access group has been looking at how we make sure opportunities genuinely reach young people who can face the greatest barriers to taking part.
A big focus has been on creating inclusive opportunities in community settings. Active Devon is launching a multicultural football programme for 16–25 year olds at The Acorn, building on successful work with asylum seeker and refugee young people. A growing group of partners is now connecting around this, with ambitions to widen participation and create longer-term pathways for young people.
Alongside this, partners are developing community basketball and family dance opportunities, while continuing to hear directly from young people about what they want. Recent youth voice work has reinforced the demand for more football and for activities that happen within young people’s own communities.
The group is also strengthening links with young carers, care-experienced young people, young people involved with the Youth Justice Service and young people experiencing homelessness. Young Carers representatives will be invited into the group, with a workshop planned to help partners better understand their experiences and the current support landscape.
Transport remains an important access issue. Earlier discussions prompted links with the Bus Forum and exploration of SEND awareness for drivers, alongside thinking about how detached and mobile youth work can reach specialist hubs and communities where young people already feel comfortable.
Reducing Stress & Anxiety
Our most recent Reducing Stress & Anxiety meeting brought together Public Health and therapeutic partners to look at some exciting new developments in young people’s wellbeing.
Resilient Young Minds has secured funding for a new five-week programme for 18–25 year olds, using nature alongside emotional regulation and stress-management approaches. It will run from Shekinah Grow in Paignton with Taleblazers and will connect young people through a broad referral network. Importantly, the programme is also thinking beyond the initial five weeks and about how young people can move into other sources of support afterwards.
Public Health also shared the development of My Happy Mind, a whole-school approach to helping children and young people recognise and talk about their feelings. Funding has now been agreed in Torbay and work is underway to identify schools to take part. Meanwhile, Public Health and Active Devon are developing training to help gym staff and personal trainers feel better equipped to support people experiencing anxiety and mental health difficulties.
One recurring question has been: how do we make sure young people actually hear about all the opportunities that exist? Partners are exploring different approaches including schools, podcasts, WhatsApp-based communication and making information about therapeutic support available in different formats.
There is also an emerging connection with the work around safe community spaces: rather than thinking about wellbeing only in terms of services, partners are beginning to explore how mental health and wellbeing support can be built around the places and outdoor spaces where young people already feel safe.
More Spaces to Hang Out & Safer Streets
This group continues to focus on one of the clearest messages from Powered by Youth: young people want affordable, accessible places where they can belong, feel safe and spend time together. They also want quieter spaces, inclusive environments and greater influence over what happens in their communities.
There is already a huge amount happening. YMCA South Devon’s mobile youth hub is supporting the development of detached youth work across Torbay; Cycle Torbay/Crafty Fox continues to build strong youth-led activity; One Space has developed its relational drop-in approach; and partners including Windmill, Maker Arts and the Community Alcohol Partnership are creating and expanding opportunities for young people.
A particularly important theme is the shift from simply consulting young people to sharing power with them. At Crafty Fox, for example, young people are increasingly shaping and running sessions, and young people have taken active roles within the Youth & Families Partnership. The ambition is for youth voice to become part of everyday practice rather than something organisations seek only when they need consultation or funding.
YouthCo has also emerged through this work as an important opportunity to strengthen collaboration between youth work organisations, align funding and delivery, and amplify youth voice at a Torbay-wide level.
Ways to Protect the Environment
The Environment Impact Group recently came together to watch and discuss the People’s Emergency Briefing film and consider whether and how it could be used with young people.
The conclusion was clear: show the film – but don’t stop there.
The group felt strongly that environmental engagement shouldn’t simply give young people frightening information and then leave them with it. Any screening needs to be accompanied by opportunities to talk, process how it makes them feel and, crucially, do something practical afterwards.
The group recommended linking future screenings to local environmental action, facilitated discussion and appropriate wellbeing support. They also emphasised making climate issues relevant to young people’s lives in Torbay and finding creative ways of engaging young people who may not initially see environmental issues as something that matters to them.
Imagination Stations are emerging as an important part of that response – connecting young people with local organisations and experts and creating practical opportunities to explore solutions, take action and influence what happens locally.
There was also enthusiasm for young people creating their own environmental stories and films, bringing in younger and more relatable voices and showing what environmental change looks like here in Torbay.
The bigger picture
Across all of the Impact Groups, some common threads are becoming increasingly clear which align with Powered By Youth findings.
Young people are asking for opportunities that are local, accessible, relational and inclusive. They want things to happen in places they already know and trust. They want better information about what’s available, fewer barriers to taking part and meaningful opportunities to shape what happens rather than simply being consulted.
The Impact Groups are an opportunity to bring people together around those priorities. Sometimes the outcome is a new project or funding opportunity; sometimes it’s a connection between two organisations that hadn’t previously worked together; sometimes it’s identifying a gap or bringing young people’s experiences into an existing piece of work.
As our Steering Group recently reflected, the Impact Groups won’t all produce the same kinds of outcomes – but together they are helping us keep the Powered by Youth priorities alive and moving, connecting work across Torbay and turning what young people told us into action.
Thank you to everyone who continues to bring their time, ideas, connections and energy to the groups. These are rich spaces to work together.
Stay up to date, find minutes from meetings on the Impact Groups page.