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Major Programmes

The Youth of Today

The Youth of Today logo 

The Youth of Today is a consortium of leading organisations working together to increase the quality, quantity and diversity of opportunities for young people as leaders of change in their communities.

The Youth of Today buttonJoin the campaign!

Do you believe the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow? Are you tired of the negative portrayal of young people in the media? If so, pledge your support for the youth of today and become a fan on facebook.

Join the Youth of Today Fellowship!

  • Are you 13-19? Are you from: East London, South London, Birmingham, Coventry, Merseyside, Cumbria, Tyne and Wear, County Durham or Bradford?
  • Have you shown a leadership ‘spark’ in a family? in a campaign? in education, sport, or the arts?  at work? in local decision making? in your community?

If you are, do you want to join 300 other young leaders at a Summer Residential? Take action with 30 other young leaders in your local group? Become part of a National movement of young leaders?

If so, then we WANT you to join The Youth of Today Fellowship!

You will get the chance to meet new people, gain training and support, have fun, take action, make an impact, influence others and be part of a National movement of young leaders.

Get involved
For more information on The Youth of Today Fellowship, please see the attached registration document

Find out more at: www.theyouthoftoday.org

Find out more about:

You can also find out more at The Youth of Today website: http://www.theyouthoftoday.org/

For enquiries specifically about The National Youth Agency's role in delivering The Youth of Today Zelda Heney, Development Officer or Helen Cutting, Team Administrator.

The consortium selected by the DCSF to manage The Youth Of Today is made up of seven leading youth organisations:

The National Youth Agency is England’s national youth sector support agency. It supports those involved in young people's personal and social development to enable all young people to fulfill their potential. It also seeks to improve the life chances of young people and to develop their voice and influence.

The NYA is the lead partner in the consortium, responsible to the DCSF for the fulfillment of the contract.  It is also involved in work on establishing and publicising a framework of leadership opportunities for young people and on a strand of work challenging government and the public sector to involve young leaders in their work. 

Changemakers is widely recognised as one of the country’s leading authorities on youth leadership, and was an early champion of giving young people meaningful leadership opportunities. As well as running its own Future Leaders programme, Changemakers also supports other organisations to develop their approach to youth leadership.

Changemakers are responsible for all communications around The Youth of Today.  Changemakers lead on the intern and apprenticeship programmes; on the Fellowship and on ensuring that the programme can be seen to be young people led through the coordination of the Youth Leadership Teams and the Youth Scrutiny Group.

The Young Foundation is a centre for social innovation. Its main goal is to speed up society’s ability to respond to changing needs through innovating and replicating new methods and models. A number of its activities promote youth leadership including the UpRising leadership programme and Learning Launchpad, an early stage social fund developing promising ideas into new organisations that enable young people to make a successful transition to adulthood.

The Young Foundation run the Youth Leadership Fund on behalf of The Youth of Today and will undertake and publish research from around the world into best practice youth leadership. 

The Prince’s Trust helps change young lives by giving practical and financial support to the young people who need it most. It helps develop key skills, confidence and motivation, enabling young people to move into work, education or training.

The Prince's Trust have responsibility for the Campaign which will highlight young people as leaders. 

he British Youth Council (BYC) is led by young people, for young people aged 26 and under across the UK. It connects with a community of member organisations and network of Local Youth Councils to empower all young people, wherever they’re from, to have a say and be heard. Their take on training and volunteering and its powerful campaigns, both local and global, inspire young people to have a positive impact and make their voices count.

The British Youth Council are undertaking a programme where young people will spend time shadowing local councilors to learn and see how leadership works locally. 

The UK Youth Parliament supports young people aged 11 to 18 to use their energy and passion to change the world for the better. It works with partners to provide young leaders with the guidance, tools and contacts to enable them to make a difference.

The UK Youth Parliament are running a strand which sees young people shadowing government ministers so that the young people can see how national leadership works. 

Both the councilor and ministerial shadowing programmes are supported by the department for Communities and Local Government (CLG)

The Citizenship Foundation is recognised as the leading independent body serving Citizenship Education in the UK. It has worked on the development of Citizenship and related learning in the school curriculum, now supplemented by a range of activities beyond the school setting.

The Citizenship Foundation are delivering a website and materials which will enable participating teachers in schools and colleges to identify and promote leadership opportunities to young people within educational settings. 

Youth leadership is a key theme of Aiming High, the government’s Ten Year Youth Strategy, published in July 2007.

Aiming High set out a specific commitment to establish a National Body for Youth Leadership - now known as The Youth Of Today. This would enable organisations supporting young people’s leadership “to share best practice on approaches to supporting young people’s leadership and to increase the number of young people who benefit from these opportunities.”

In December 2007 the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) commissioned Changemakers to conduct a feasibility study into the proposed National Body for Youth Leadership. Around 50 organisations were involved in a series of activities and events in the Spring of 2008, and many more contributed ideas and experience to the final report which was submitted to the DCSF in April 2008.

In February 2008 the DCSF published Young People Leading Change, an interim statement on its plans for investing in youth leadership, in which it announced that the National Body for Youth Leadership would have a budget of £6.26m to March 2011.

Following further consultation with stakeholders, the DCSF carried out a procurement exercise in the Autumn of 2008. In February 2009 it was announced that a consortium led by the National Youth Agency had been selected to deliver the National Body.for Youth Leadership.

The consortium then worked to design and plan the programme’s activities and to ensure that young people have a leading view of the work and how it is undertaken. A Youth Scrutiny Group has been established and Youth Leadership Teams lead the work of each of the programme strands.

The programme was launched in early July 2009 as The Youth of Today with branding, imagery and a message that young people had been instrumental in establishing.

Useful Reading:

The National Youth Agency team working on The Youth Of Today are:

Zelda Heney - Development Officer
Tel: 07841 995399

Helen Cutting - Administrator
Tel: 0116 242 7455