Youth work is already playing a key role in helping young people feel a sense of safety and belonging in our communities. Our policy manager Kevin Kane is calling for it to become a central part of our policymaking on loneliness and isolation.
Social isolation and loneliness can affect anyone at all ages and stages of life. There is increasing recognition of social isolation and loneliness as a major public health issue that can have a significant impact on a person’s physical and mental well-being.
It’s great that the Scottish Government has acknowledged young people as a priority in its Connected Scotland Plan to tackle social isolation and loneliness strategy. It’s reassuring to see youth work explicitly mentioned as a critical partner in delivery and recognised as a sector that builds stronger social connections.
We were delighted to support the sector through funding to address social isolation and loneliness. In just one round, we reached 842 rurally isolated young people. This provided additional resources to improve the inclusivity of current provisions, explore innovative and partnership approaches and provide extra support for young people in high areas of deprivation.
Research shows that youth work can recover and enhance our connections. It is vital in supporting children and young people’s health and wellbeing and reducing and responding to social isolation and loneliness. Youth Work’s Role During and in Recovery from Covid-19 evidence review highlighted youth work’s role in reducing isolation and loneliness during the most challenging periods of the coronavirus pandemic. Youth workers rose to the challenge of providing remote services and supporting some of the most vulnerable people in the country. The youth work approach helped broaden people’s horizons and increase their connectivity. We saw youth work recovering connections and making new ones.
Increasing understanding of social isolation and its causes and impacts is something the sector needs to be acutely aware. We know there are structural reasons and connected policy and practice areas where we can make a difference in poverty and equality, to name just two.
However, this should be coupled with understanding what works to reduce it – and what is working right now to alleviate it. As we can see across the aims of the Connected Scotland Plan, we are healthy and active, we grow up loved, safe and protected, and we respect, protect and fulfil the rights of people; it connects with the National Youth Work Outcomes of young people building their health and wellbeing, young people express their voice and enable change and grow up loved and fulfilling their potential. It’s all highly relatable to youth work. The primary national and youth work outcomes are interchangeable, and both are the bedrock of recovering our connections for the next three years.
We have the numbers. We have positive testimonies from young people and youth workers telling us that social isolation and loneliness are reduced through the prevalence of youth work in our local communities. The harm caused by social isolation is also reduced.
From the series of the Impact of Universal Youth Work studies, we know that young people routinely share how youth work helped with their sense of safety and belonging and reduced isolation and loneliness. The positive role of inclusion and belonging was mentioned repeatedly by young people and marked out as a priority area for youth workers.
As just some examples:
The Impact of Youth Work Providing Low-Level Mental Health in Schools Support in D&G
We know there is an increasing recognition of the need for collaboration across services to support children, young people and families. Shetland School used Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) to reduce social isolation on the island of Yell, ensuring every young person can attend the youth club.
Connection and mattering are also vital parts of the scaffolding for Imagine A Man, a leading project that focuses on positive masculinity. We know from the research that that mattering can hold significant influence, particularly over the lives of boys and young men at risk from the social harm of inequality and poverty. We know trauma and shame, feeling that you do not matter, can be potent emotional drivers in the dynamics of violence.
Celebrating the project-based work on this issue and recognising and promoting the essence of community-based youth work is crucial. The protective factors of youth work and its reassuring presence are fundamental to enhancing our connections and a pillar of civil society in Scotland.
An optimistic future is one where we provide the conditions to mitigate and minimise the spread of social isolation by investing in our crucial community assets and ensuring that everyone wins from a thriving youth work sector.