Youth work is essential in promoting the health and wellbeing of young people, offering a range of initiatives and activities designed to support their physical, mental, and emotional health. Through youth work, young people gain access to vital resources and support networks that help them lead healthier, more balanced lives.

Youth work takes a holistic, person-centred approach to health, addressing various aspects of wellbeing including mental health support, physical activity, and emotional resilience. A national evaluation revealed that 86% of young people participating in youth work reported improved health and wellbeing. One young person shared: “Being involved in youth work has helped me feel more positive about myself and my future.”

The Dumfries and Galloway Youth Work Service and Educational Psychology Service jointly deliver a project to provide young people with access to low-level mental health support in schools across Dumfries and Galloway. In 2022 YouthLink Scotland, Northern Star and University of St Andrews were commissioned to conduct an external, independent evaluation of the programme.

Through the qualitative analysis, the evaluation found that the impact of the Low-Level Mental Health in Schools Project on young people included:

• Developing skills for wellbeing – including learning how to open up and share feelings, self-awareness and learning coping strategies and tools.
• Improving health and wellbeing – including increased confidence and self-esteem and feeling listed to.
• Positive change – including improved relationships, improved attitudes about and attendance at school.

Wider impacts of the project include:

In 2020, we published the findings of our research into the impact of community-based youth work on young people who participated in these services in the Dumfries and Galloway area.

By using a transformative evaluation methadology, local youth workers were trained to become research practitioners and gather 100 impact stories from young people. Qualitative analysis of the stories revealed the importance of universal youth work to young people and its value in supporting young people to develop and grow in the following areas:

This report details the findings of a qualitative research study on LGBT Youth Scotland’s digital youth work. The study explored the impact of digital youth work on young people who participated during the coronavirus lockdown from March to July 2020.

Young people shared their reflections of significant changes they had experienced as a result of participating in digital youth work during lockdown. The stories were then contextualised by the youth workers to generate rich, co-authored significant change stories.

Qualitative analysis of the stories revealed the following impact of digital youth work on young people:

Please see below a selection of recent publications from YouthLink Scotland, the wider youth work sector and beyond about the impact of youth work on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. If you have any resources or publications you think could be included on in our impact hub, please get in touch!