Community Engagement Guide
This guide can help users maximise the impact of working in partnership with the local community.
This guide can help users maximise the impact of working in partnership with the local community. Community and stakeholder engagement in a youth social action programme involves young people working with other interested individuals or organisations to deliver action and change. The engagement can help increase access to students' learning opportunities, boost student retention, promote optimism among teachers, and improve children's school attendance rates.
This guide's main aim is to help you understand the importance of teamwork when young people are working together on a group project. It gives you an overview of the different departments in organisations and the various roles young people can play in these departments. It explores the different stages of teamwork, such as forming, storming, morning, performing, and adjourning, and applies these to the five steps of Youth Social Action.
The main aim of this guide is to give you advice on: Youth Social Action project ideas (based on projects run by other young people) How to Turn Ideas into Youth Social Action Projects How to raise money How to raise other goods (hygiene products/food for the food bank) How to spread the word
SuperKind is an award-winning, free platform for schools to bring active citizenship and philanthropy into the classroom.
Earth Cubs is award-winning content about the environment, sustainability and climate change for 3-11 year olds.
Did you know that it takes 10–20 years for a plastic bag to break down and 450 years for a plastic bottle to do so?
Project Pristine is a youth-led litter picking scheme in which volunteers travel to beaches and collect litter in rubbish bags. There are three core aims: to protect marine life, clean beaches, and explore the ocean, as well as raise awareness about the issue. Other key partners were involved who helped with publicity and schemes like ‘Adopt a Spot’ where Project Pristine adopted and committed to regularly cleaning a beach with one of the worst litter problems.
The passport supports the reflection process of #WeWill projects. Passports have been developed as a medium for pupils to record their journey through the social action process. It gives pupils tasks to be completed in class or as part of their home learning process. The passport allows pupils to record what they have learnt, learn more skills, and solve riddles through the use of their problem-solving skills.
A hub of free resources for teachers to introduce environmental and social action, particularly around climate action, into the classroom. It showcases quality-rated resources, programmers and events available from various organizations. Highlights include: youth events, most prominently, the annual Transform our World Youth Summit. The Summit is free and open to young people between 8-18, taking place online every Autumn. Also available is the option to create and implement a Schools Climate Action Planner, an easy-to-use digital tool to enable teachers, students and staff to identify actions they can take to reduce their school's environmental impact and carbon footprint.
Refers to activities that young people do to make a positive difference to others while developing key skills and attributes and having fun. YSA can take place in various contexts (i.e. at home, schools, youth clubs etc) and can include volunteering, fundraising, campaigning or supporting peers. We believe social action can play an essential role: in young lives, the success of a school, the local community or more.
Our Resource Hub aims to act as a Youth Social Action search engine, offering tailored results to inspire and guide. The hub hosts a wide variety of resources, including our own Youth Social Action Toolkit, case studies, research reports, and helpful resources from other reputable organisations in the sector.
Our Resource Hub aims to act as a Youth Social Action search engine, offering tailored results to inspire and guide. The hub hosts a wide variety of resources, including our own Youth Social Action Toolkit, case studies, research reports, and helpful resources from other reputable organisations in the sector.
To find appropriate resources, use the filter feature to select the relevant options. You can filter by key stage (1-5), YSA theme (e.g. poverty), or a particular skill (e.g. communication). You can also filter by resource owner (Ormiston Trust or external organisation) and resource type, such as lesson plans. If you know what you are looking for, you can use the search bar.
To save or download resources, please sign up for a free account. In your user area, you can organise your saved items for quick and easy access. On the resource results page, you can save or download multiple resource quickly by using the tickbox feature.
Our Youth Social Action Toolkit has been carefully developed by industry professionals with input from young people to guide school leaders, support staff, and young people through a Youth Social Action project. Our curriculum guides clearly outline how YSA can be integrated into the curriculum of schools with limited time.
We don’t gatekeep – by sharing our sector knowledge and resources, we aim to enrich the lives of all young people by fostering skills development, improving agency and wellbeing, and promoting active citizenship.
The first step of the YSA process is to be inspired by an issue you care about! Check out our inspirational case studies on what you could do!
The second step of the YSA process is to explore your options! You‘ll need to research the issue that inspired you to take action to understand how you can help.
Ready to start planning your project? Access our Youth Social Action Toolkit here.
The third step of the YSA process is to plan your project! Lucky for you, we have a Project Planning Template for that.
The fourth step of the YSA process is to carry out your plan! This is when the physical activities involved like fundraising, campaigning, and volunteering kick off.
The fifth and final step of the YSA process is to reflect! Looking back at your plan, did you achieve your aims? What went well and what didn’t go so well? Can you sustain your project? Or did you take steps to ensure further projects aren’t needed?