Youth Social Action Resource Hub

This YSA starter pack contains the key resources needed to plan and deliver YSA in your setting.

Teaching young people about mental health and well-being in schools is essential, as it promotes awareness and understanding, reduces stigma, helps with prevention, supports early intervention, and encourages positive habits.

Lesson 1: Understanding and recognising mental health wellbeing in yourself and others. Lesson 2: Enable young people to understand factors which can contribute to mental health with strategies on how they can start to take care of themselves. Lesson 3: Understand daily factors which can have an impact on us mentally. Lesson 4: Learning about simple self-care techniques, including being physically active. As well as developing emotional literacy and resilience in young people to understand feelings. Lesson 5: Continuing the focus on emotional literacy and resilience to help young people understand how they are feeling and what they can do when things do not feel right. With a particular focus on Art and Music.

This resource on mental health focuses on the importance of mental health and well-being. It maps opportunities as to when mental health can be delivered across the national curriculum with suggested activities.

Made in 2020, 'Like A Person' is a short film, which was created by the LGBTQ+ young people of the Swindon-based Out of the Can youth project. This educational film captures the young people’s experiences in school and at home of allyship from those around them (e.g., teachers, parents, fellow pupils) and the huge difference that this makes in letting them be themselves and thrive. Examples include not misgendering a young person (using their chosen name and pronouns) and setting a positive example by standing up for a young person who was being bullied.

In Project 13, students initially narrowed down their choice of topic to ‘academic anxiety’. Each student designed their own contributions with guidance and assistance from adults and peers to create a classroom maze, which was representative of navigating the teenage years. Titled “The Maze of Emotions," it was constructed of PVC pipe and connectors and then filled with writing and art (later exhibited). Related learning and passions were also showcased onstage and/or in the classroom. Read the full article for useful insights into the steps in the development of this project.

Schools have a responsibility to tackle poverty and promote equality of opportunities. Teaching young people about poverty can empower them to understand the subject and its impact, motivating them to act within a school, community, or city.
Using the National Curriculum, we have linked as many opportunities as possible to deliver poverty through a range of different subject areas. These opportunities can be used to either deliver the topic as a stand-alone or through cross-curricular planning with a number of different subject areas depending on the focus of the school.