The Power of Youth Explained is a six-part series of short interactive, digital articles curated by #iwill partner organisations and Ambassadors. The series aims to bring together research, experiences and resources that not only develops the readers’ knowledge and understanding of youth social action, but helps them turn it into action. They are also designed to help your organisation put your Power of Youth Charter commitments into practice.
ARTICLE 1:
What makes high quality youth social action, why & how should your organisation prioritise supporting it?
A LETTER FROM THE CURATORS:
Hello and welcome to the first article of the #PowerOfYouth Explained series!
Often people aren’t sure what we mean by high quality youth quality social action so we’re getting right back to basics and trying to answer that question. There is no ‘one’ way to do youth social action but we’ve set out some key things to think about and principles to include. We also address the question of ‘why should your organisation promote it?’.
The curators – Premier League Charitable Foundation, Centre for Youth Impact, and #iwill Ambassadors Claire and Katrina – have drawn on our experiences as young people and within organisations to highlight some of the reasons why you should promote youth social action. The rest of the series will give you some more advice on how to go about doing this, covering everything from youth voice to accessibility. So do read on, and any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out!
WHAT IS HIGH QUALITY YOUTH SOCIAL ACTION?
Six Quality Principles
The Six Quality Principles for youth social action were developed right at the start of the #iwill campaign, and have stood the test of time. It’s still true that really high-quality youth social action displays elements of all six of these principles, and should be considered when you a designing and delivering your opportunities. What we’ve learnt over the years is that it can be difficult to hit all six, so it’s worth viewing this model as a development tool rather than a checklist.
Take a look at this article from the RSA with reflections from teachers on how they’ve implemented the six quality principles – they said they found ‘youth-led’ the hardest, what do you think?

Other Frameworks for Quality
There are other useful frameworks, including some that consider youth engagement and participation more generally than just for youth social action, such as the 7 ‘Golden Rules’ of participation produced by the Children’s Commission Scotland. Many of the elements that make up those frameworks can be drawn upon when creating, or quality assuring youth social action opportunities.
The Confidence Framework is a self-assessment tool which focuses on the organisational behaviours and processes that support the design, delivery, evaluation, and improvement of high quality youth provision. This framework was initially developed by the Dartington Service Design Lab, and has subsequently been iterated and refined by the Centre for Youth Impact, for use within the Impact Accelerator. The self-assessment process sits alongside a package of training, consultancy and coaching to help organisations to use the tool to inform and drive their improvement and learning. Read more about the Impact Accelerator in the pop-out box to the left.
WHY DOES QUALITY MATTER?
The National Youth Social Action Survey uses ‘meaningful’ as a proxy for ‘high quality’ – in this case it means social action that is frequent, takes place over a substantial amount of time, and crucially the young person not only recognises a benefit to themselves, but also to those they are helping, be it other people, wildlife or the environment. The impact that high quality youth social action has on young people is clear:
Community belonging increased: 90% of young people who have participated in meaningful youth social action agree that they feel they belong to their community, compared to 67% of those who have never done social action.
Agency is increased: 88% of young people who have participated in meaningful youth social action believe they can make a difference in the world compared to 56% of young people who have never participated.
Engagement at school: 70% of pupils who have taken part in meaningful youth social action agree that their ideas are taken seriously at school, compared to 28% of pupils who have never taken part.
KEY THINGS TO CONSIDER
Here are six things to consider when you’re thinking about developing high quality youth social action opportunities.
WHAT’S THE WORD ON THE GROUND?
Check out these two case studies from organisations delivering high quality youth social action.
At times you will need to be confident that you can deliver high quality opportunities, flexibly (during a pandemic for example). We have two resources for you which will be helpful:
WHY SHOULD YOUR ORGANISATION PRIORITISE YOUTH SOCIAL ACTION?
A Perspective from #iwill Ambassador Katrina Lambert, writing for YouthLink Scotland:
Youth engagement can sometimes seem like a daunting concept. How do you reach young people? How do you support them? Is it even worth it? And when talking about it on a global and national scale, the task seems even more momentous.
Luckily, as someone who has engaged with processes at a national and international level from the age of fifteen, let me tell you this – if you commit to doing it properly, global and national youth engagement is absolutely possible.
Last year, I, alongside fellow human rights defender EJ Carroll, broke records as the youngest person ever to present evidence to the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva, highlighting Scotland and the UK’s breaches of children’s human rights.


A Perspective from #iwill Ambassador Claire Muhlawako Madzura:
Globally, the views of young people have been misrepresented, filtered and altered into perceiving us differently. With the rise of COVID-19 cases, we’ve seen that in that UK especially, young people have been blamed for things that represent youth of a different time.
It’s essential more young people are given authoritative roles so that our voices can be accurately heard. Our passions, our strengths, our goals.
In November 2018, I had the privilege of being a part of the Co-op Foundation’s panel from the Building Connections Fund Youth strand. I had the opportunity to decide where £4.2 million of funding went towards building a more welcoming environment for youth.
HOW CAN YOUR ORGANISATION PRIORITISE YOUTH SOCIAL ACTION?
Based on insights gathered from organisations supporting #iwill and the #iwill Ambassadors, the Power of Youth Charter provides a framework for your organisation to prioritise youth social action. It can help you empower more young people to shape decisions, take social action and make a positive difference. For more practical tips and tools on how to put your commitments into practice, keep following along with the Power of Youth Explained Series (that’s what you’re reading!).