Working on the construction of the Hope Collective has been challenging but immensely satisfying. You often hear people talk about the importance of relationships and relationships have been absolutely key to the projects development. So many wonderful people all pulling together in same direction. So many awesome professionals prepared to commit and contribute over and above their already pressured day jobs. The Hope Collective is truly a partnership cohort with purpose!

We created the Hope Hacks not just by listening to young people and what they wanted from an evaluation programme like this but by also putting them front and centre of the development process.

This success of the 2021 HOPE HACK TOUR pilot across London, Belfast, Glasgow, Cardiff and Manchester (Oldham) is captured in the 2021 summary report CHANGING THE CONVERSATION https://www.hopecollectiveuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Hope-Collective-Changing-The-Conversation.pdf

You can also watch the report launch event and see some of the projects young stars from across the UK explaining the process and most importantly, why the conversation needed to change!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JYF-Uuem-VimIoHr8xyAcuEhtey7c2v4/view?usp=sharing

Now we have embarked on the next phase of the project. Having changed the conversation from knife crime, gangs and drugs and the many other symptoms emanating from poverty and inequality to engaging young people in the search for solutions to actually lifting communities out of poverty and inequality, we have now started the process of putting a report together that will provide the establishment with extremely unique insights into what young people think a fairer society looks like

Reimagined – A fairer society through the eyes of young people. We are aiming to publish the report around May 2023 so that its recommendations can be considered by political parties creating their manifestos for the likely General Election in 2024.

With the Hope Collective now being such an eclectic partnership cohort we also wanted to find support roles for all the organisations and many individual professionals wanting to get involved. Part of the process with the Reimagine report will therefore see 10 sub groups created to help shape the recommendations going into the final report. These sub (work) groups will cover every societal touchpoint that impacts young peoples lives. From education, youth work and the Criminal justice system to sport, recreation, skills and employment, social housing and the environment. Social injustice, racism and division are also important themes being covered. The sub groups will each be independently chaired and have ten professional practitioners involved from the areas of expertise. 100 professionally engaged stakeholders supporting the process and working with young people to co-design a solutions focused piece of work

Poverty and inequality are man made phenomena of course it is the adult establishment that needs to take responsibility for creating a fairer society. Young people must be front and centre of the solution process though and that is what the Reimagined report is all about. Giving young people a safe and supported environment to have their voices heard

Having UK Youth (8,000 members) NCS Trust and Onside Zones fully supporting the project was a fantastic contribution to helping the project reach the stage it has. Now with many other youth orgs such as National Youth Agency and Princes Trust aligning we feel our bold ambition with REIMAGINED is justified and achievable.

The youth sector is fully behind the development of the UK network of Violence Reduction Units and understands the philosophy of public health approach to tackling social ills is that everyone has a role to play. This is of course heightened when we are talking about the most vulnerable young people

The project has the full backing and support of the policy team at number 10 Downing street who having engaged with the youth leadership team in a mini hope hack last November, fully appreciate the projects vision to give the youth of the UK a stake holding in the levelling up discussion

The Hope Collective operations team will be launching the Reimagined report plan including the Hope Hack tour 2022 full itinerary in early April. The tour kicked off in Reading with Thames Valley VRU on March 4th The voice of the future – why youth voice matters – Thames Valley Violence Reduction Unit (tvvru.co.uk)

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog is you are encouraged to want to be part of the project you can email me on gary@hopecollectiveuk.com