Blueprint for Belonging: Young voices on social capital

Resource type: Webinar

A thought-provoking webinar recorded on 16 April 2025, exploring key aspects of social capital and ensuring that young voices are represented in conversations about them.

With the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the Government has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes and deliver a 10-year infrastructure strategy. However, one critical element is missing: the foundational role of community – our shared civic spaces, places, and facilities.

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for young people to help shape infrastructure that strengthens social capital and supports the well-being of future generation ensuring new developments don’t just provide housing but also the spaces and connections that help communities thrive.

In partnership with Local Trust, drawing on over a decade of learning from the Big Local programme, this webinar centres young voices in the conversation about the future of community infrastructure.

This webinar is part of the Cumberland Lodge Youth & Democracy project.

Cumberland Lodge · Blueprint for Belonging: Youth voices on social capital

Webinar transcript

00:00:00

Munny Purba (MP)

Hi everyone and thank you so much for joining us this morning for Blueprint for Belonging: Young Voices on Social Capital. It’s brilliant to have so many of you with us for this conversation today. My name is Munny and I’ll be chairing today’s webinar, and this is a webinar in collaboration with Local Trust.

00:00:19

And local trust is a charity that works with communities to ensure they have the power and resources they need to shape their own futures through their work on resident-led change and long-term funding models, they’ve really pushed the conversation on what local empowerment can look like and how relationships underpin it.

00:00:34

And I’m from Cumberland Lodge, which is an education charity that exists to develop the next generation of leaders, providing them with the skills, perspectives, and confidence to question, challenge, and understand some of the most complex issues of our time.

00:00:49

And I’m very pleased to welcome Maddie Jennings, the Head of Policy and Communication at Local Trust with us today.

00:00:56

I’m also thrilled to have two brilliant young people joining us, April Beadman from Saint Helens Youth Council and part of Cumberland Lodge’s Youth and Democracy Network, and Ladajah Wilson, a youth consultant, Laidlaw Scholar, and My Life My Say Squad Leader.

00:01:12

They’ll be sharing their perspectives on this important and timely issue but before we dive in just a little bit of housekeeping.

00:01:20

So this session is being recorded and will be available as a resource on the Common Lodge website. We’re also using the chat and Q&A function throughout the webinar, so please feel free to share your thoughts, reflections and we’ll be hoping to answer your Q&A’s at the end of the session.

00:01:39

So as you’ll all be aware, today we’ll explore social cohesion, which at its heart is about the value that exists in our relationships, the networks, trusts, and sense of mutual support that allows communities to thrive, but also plays a huge role in who gets heard, who gets opportunities, and importantly, who gets left out.

00:02:02

So to help us breakdown the concept of social capital, I’m going to now hand over to Maddie, who will dive slightly deeper into the topic and why it matters, especially in today’s climate and for young people. Over to you, Maddie.

00:02:18

Maddie Jennings (MJ)

Thank you. So yeah, as Munny said, I’m Maddie. I’m the Head of Policy at Local Trust, and we are a charity set up by the National Lottery Community Fund in 2011 to deliver the Big Local programme.

00:02:32

And the idea behind the programme is that 150 neighbourhoods each get £1,000,000 to spend on pretty much whatever they want over a 10-year period, but the catch is the community has to agree what the priorities are and what they’re spending on.

00:02:48

And so although it wasn’t thought up to be a machine for sort of creating social capital, you’ll hopefully agree by the end of this webinar that that’s what we kind of ended up doing and certainly the closest thing we’ve got to such a machine in this country.

00:03:02

Before I go any further though, and whilst recognising that I’m covering definitions a bit later on, I want to be clear about what we’re talking about here.

00:03:12

So say if something good has ever happened to you because of someone you know that social capital in action basically. So if a teacher or tutor has ever suggested you apply to something and written a supportive reference about social capital kind of working, or if as a child you were ever looked after by a friendly neighbour, when your parents were late getting home from work, that’s social capital.

00:03:38

Big Local is all about developing and building on existing social capital and sort of bringing kind of new things to the table and our big idea is that you do that by providing funding that is long term flexible and goes directly to communities identified as having low stocks and social infrastructure, which as we’ll see is an important related concept to social capital.

00:04:00

And my job is to turn what we’ve learned in the last 15 years of doing this into recommendations for government, but also for charitable funders, community development workers, and researchers, so that nationwide and maybe even internationally, stocks of social capital can grow.

00:04:18

And the reason I was really keen to join this webinar and I was very grateful to be asked is that we’ve done some research over the last year or so that really shows how disconnected social capital theory has become from practical reality.

00:04:33

And I feel that if we want people to care enough to commit to strengthening social capital and our evidence shows that’s an important way to improve social outcomes in disadvantaged areas, then we have to talk about it in a way that makes sense and means something to people.

00:04:48

That goes doubly for young people because, as you already know, the services that used to support the development of social capital for young people have all but disappeared over the last decade. And what’s left is often unrelated to what young people would actually want or need.

00:05:02

We’re going to go into more detail about where this matters later in the session, but for now I’m putting on a sort of university lecturer’s hat and going to break down social capital for you.

00:05:17

So it’s a term that has many definitions and many elements, but for it to be of any practical use, we really need to start with an agreed definition that works for us today at least, and we’re all clear on. We all agree.

00:05:30

So based on a recent series of papers which we at Local Trust published with the think tank Demos, there are four main active elements of social capital that are relevant to the idea of building belonging. The first is social trust, really straightforwardly do you trust your neighbours?

00:05:50

Do you trust other people in the community? And you know how much? How far? With what? Then there’s collective efficacy and I’m going to keep coming back to this part because I think it’s a really important concept.

00:06:04

Most simply, it’s a group’s shared belief in their ability to achieve a common goal task.

00:06:09

Thirdly, we’ve got social networks online, in-person, formal, informal. We’re going to be covering them all, and the fourth is social integration for mutual benefit, which is a lot of words to say the pace at which newcomers are positively integrated into the existing community.

00:06:29

So because of these four elements being sort of deemed most important, based on our research, we’ve decided to use Ichiro Kawachi’s 2006 definition for social capital for practical policy use and that is.

00:06:45

Bear with me. A network-based process that is the resources available to individuals and communities through their social networks, ties, and social support.

00:06:55

Obviously there’s a lot to unpack here, but before we pause the questions, I might complicate things further by bringing in types of social capital.

00:07:06

So there are three recognised types of social capital as coined by Professor Robert Putnam, whose work in the 1990s brought the older idea of social capital back into the mainstream. So for reference, the term was first coined by an American social reformer in 1916.

00:07:25

The three types of social capital that we’re going to be looking at today are bonding, which is the strong ties and close relationships between family members and friends.

00:07:35

Which provide significant emotional and material day-to-day support, so this type of social capital is particularly good at enhancing social cohesion because members of a, we know that members of a tightly knit family and friend network are more likely to get involved in community activities more widely.

00:07:57

The second type is bridging, which involves connections and relationships between different and diverse groups. So this type of social capital links individuals to larger networks outside their immediate social circles. It provides access to resources to opportunities and to information that can be really important for individual and community advancement, so think about volunteer groups or community groups, youth groups.

00:08:26

That type of thing. And then finally we’ve got linking, which some would argue as a subset of bridging, but for today’s purposes, we’ve got as a third type. And linking social capital really refers to the relationships and networks that connect individuals and groups to the big formal institutions and organisations that run so much of our lives, so to government agencies, to businesses, to public services.

00:08:52

It is distinct from bonding because it focuses on the connections that take you outside of your locality, outside of your neighbourhood and sort of take you further out and bring hopefully good things in.

00:09:13

Irrespective of the type, social capital plays a critical role in individual well-being and community resilience and can provide a foundation of support that helps individuals navigate challenges and enhance their quality of life.

00:09:27

It can also save your life. In his book Black Wave leading social capital academic Daniel Aldrich shows that among communities that experience the worst of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in 2011, those with the strongest social capital saw fewer lives lost and bounced back from the disaster much more quickly.

00:09:46

Now, I’m sure you’ve already started to think about ways that social capital could also have negative effects, potentially isolating, potentially groupthink. And maybe we’ll have some time to come to that a bit later.

00:10:00

But for now I want to get back to that definition.

00:10:04

And to the slightly strange term, a network-based process which immediately made me think of computers. But the way I like to kind of apply it to social capital theory is to think of a net or mesh made-up of our personal connections to each other.

00:10:23

In all their varieties. So not just sort of the same things over and over, but links in the net. That would be a different colour based on whether they’re bonding, bridging or linking connections.

00:10:35

My patch of the net would have links to my immediate and extended family, so it’s bonding social capital, my colleagues and school friends, but then also to say my GP or the teachers at my child’s school, which are more like bridging, they take me out, they get me to meet other people. I’m a governor for a local school, that’s a good sort of bridging example.

00:11:01

And then there’s linking so getting to know my local councillor or participating in formal forums with the local NHS where, you know, patient, participatory stuff and each of these individuals and groups would of course have their own connections.

00:11:20

So the net spreads out and local stocks and social capital, neighbourhood level social capital really depend on the strength of the net but also whether there’s plenty of all different types of connections, so it’s not just about the number of connection. If all of the connections are the same type, you end up with potentially quite a weak net.

00:11:42

You can find out more about all of this and how the theory was developed by Robert Putnam. There’s a really handy, relatively new Netflix documentary. I think it came out last year about his work called Join or Die, which is much more entertaining than it sounds, and also much clearer than I can be.

00:12:02

I think with, is this a good time to perhaps pause, Munny, and just see who’s got some questions?

00:12:08

Yes, definitely. I think that was a great overview, Maddie. And I think that gave us a bit more of an indication in practical terms, real terms what these kind of ideas and parts of social capital really means. I wonder if April or Ladajah at this point have anything to add in terms of what they’ve heard and what they think is important for themselves at this point to think about when it comes to social capital.

00:12:29

April Beadman (AB)

So yes, definitely I’ll start if that’s OK. Hi, everyone. I’m April. As Munny said before, I’m part of the Youth and Democracy Network. And I’m also involved in a wide variety of youth councils. So I’m an advocate for all things youth voice.

00:12:50

But something I’m really passionate about is this idea of young people having access to safe spaces. But when I talk about safe spaces and not just, you know, talking about having a specific building or, you know, having a specific area but the community as a whole.

00:13:00

I think, you know, young people, they do deserve to feel a sense of belonging and feel welcome in their community. But for that to happen, you know, the community, it has to be built with young people in mind, and it has to serve young people. And I think from my personal experiences, I can say that that’s not always the case, unfortunately.

00:13:24

And while me, myself, you know, I’ve benefited from youth clubs and youth provisions and you know, it’s part of the reason I’m here today on this call. You know, many of people don’t have that opportunity. You know, we’re seeing youth clubs closing left, right, and centre. You know, buildings are closed and youth workers are being slashed, funding’s being slashed.

00:13:44

You know, education needs reform. Mental health is on the ground. But I’m not gonna be too negative. Just what I mean by that is that’s why I think having these conversations and having these projects is just so, so important. And if anyone read the description for this event before they signed up.

00:14:02

There was a really good sentence in there that talked about, you know, this being a once in a generation project and I think that’s really important to talk about. You know, it’s up to us right now to have these discussions and make these choices to ensure that people and, you know, young people, they do feel safe and they do get the opportunities that they deserve in their local community.

00:14:25

Thank you, April. No, really strong there and powerful and I think we’ll dive a bit deeper further into what you think is really needed to build that those safe spaces and that space for young people to have a voice. So thank you for sharing.

00:14:39

No problem. Thank you.

00:14:41

Ladajah Wilson (LW)

Hi that was really good April. I’m Ladajah. I do a lot of youth work in like youth consultancy, ensuring youth voices embedded. Very passionate about it. Have you ever seen a no balls sign that says it across the it’s we’ll say it by a grassy area or things like that?

00:15:03

And I think when we look at the infrastructure when it’s built in that sense it is very anti-play, very anti-young people, is very the grass has to be green even if you have some neighbourhood watchers it’s always a perfection that a lot of young people cannot be kind of held to because you know tend to like to play.

00:15:24

Tend to like that. Things that don’t particularly look neat don’t look like brings into kind of like young people are seen as menaces to society. If you look at the way the media portrays them and so that anti-young culture and that anti-being together really breaks that social cohesion.

00:15:49

And the negative perspective, the perceptions that are held by those who are older of young people, being reckless, being like the criminals, and like being kind of vandals that really affects the ability for social cohesion and I think it’s really important to have spaces that actually allow that intergenerational integration also.

00:16:04

Thank you, Ladajah. I think the built space and the built environment is really key here as well. And I think we’ll go a bit further into that later on and really interesting to point out that intergenerational space as well. So we can dive a bit deeper into what that means to you and how that really is kind of a point of bridging and linking social capital. So thank you for both sharing.

00:16:23

I have a bit of a question as well and it’s around whether you found, Maddie, there was a difference in how social capital is built and whether communities have social capital based on socioeconomic circumstances, whether there’s a difference there in terms of the building of social capital.

00:16:41

So it’s hard to map social capital. It’s hard to sort of pin it down so that we can, you know, get the data on it. What we can do is map social infrastructure, which acts as a relatively good, although imperfect, proxy for the presence of strong social capital.

00:17:02

If there’s good social infrastructure, and by that I mean, you know, physical places and spaces, but also ohh, the lights got off in the room I’m in, physical places and spaces, but also the community activity that takes place in there. So if we’re seeing a lot of mother and toddler group adverts, you know, we know things are going on.

00:17:19

There’s likely to be strong social capital in those areas and the final thing is connectivity.

00:17:27

Is there decent access to the 4G/5G networks? What’s the broadband speed like? Can you apply for jobs easily? Is there a sort of decent public transport laid on? That kind of thing. Taken together, you can get a pretty good idea of social infrastructure in a place and the likelihood therefore, of there being strong social capital.

00:17:48

And we know from some mapping work that we did with the Oxford Consultants for social inclusion, that there are areas around the country where there is very low social capital and where areas in the areas where there is also a level of, a high level of material deprivation, so poorer areas, outcomes are much worse than in poor areas with great social infrastructure. So we know that social infrastructure and therefore probably social capital, really make a difference to outcomes.

00:18:27

And those outcomes are, well, education skills, health, mortality rates, well-being, mental health, all of those things are impacted by strong social capital.

00:18:39

Yeah. So that’s really helpful. So understanding the linkages between infrastructure and capital and how the lack of both can lead to lessening of opportunity and it’s a really key to think about both kind of in tandem, but also in a separate way, as well. So I think that kind of brings us on to the idea of community and community building.

00:19:01

And I know that there is a newly established conversation around the 1.5 million homes pledge, and that is something really important in terms of the building of social capital, building of community networks and what that means for young people and new communities in and across the UK.

00:19:22

So I wonder, Maddie, if you can, if you’ve got anything to share on that point at all?

00:19:28

Yeah, absolutely. So it’s handy that we’ve kind of already introduced the mapping work that we’ve done. So we call it the Community Needs Index.

00:19:37

And as I said, it really shows us that areas with low stocks of social infrastructure and social capital have worse outcomes and we call these places doubly disadvantaged, incidentally, because of that double aspect of low social infrastructure and material deprivation.

00:19:57

And we believe that government policy and funding should be targeted at the areas and at these areas to help them develop social infrastructure and to enrich their social capital, which will enhance positive outcomes across a range of areas.

00:20:12

But, we, you know, that’s one thing and it’s a hard enough thing to do and we’ve got some ideas about how to do it. But we’ve started thinking about the preventative angle.

00:20:24

And how do you prevent places becoming doubly disadvantaged in the first place? How do you ensure that sufficient social infrastructure is present in order to give a sort of level of guarantee that people will be able to have a space to meet and gather and share experiences and become a community?

00:20:44

And with the government building or pledging to build 1.5 million homes between now and the end of the Parliament, there’s a really, really important moment to make sure that some level of guarantee can be put in place.

00:21:05

So what my team at the moment are doing is looking at the different ways we can influence government to prioritise or even mandate the inclusion of social infrastructure in all new developments of a certain size. And if they do this, then we can move on to the how, which is what we’re really talking about today.

00:21:24

And and the how is. How do we ensure that communities can be empowered and supported to design their own social infrastructure? I suppose the difficult bit is these communities don’t exist yet, so we’ll, I’ll get back to that in a minute. Of course, engaging communities, the point of it is to enhance their belief that decisions are made in their best interest.

00:21:51

And that they have the power to affect change. So it’s that collective efficacy aspect that I talked about a bit earlier.

00:21:59

And inclusion often leads to better design outcomes anyway, and because residents really possess the knowledge and insight about their neighbourhoods and about their community, that can inform the planning process.

00:22:12

As well as this, early and meaningful engagement can garner public support for developments. So from the developer’s side there’s a, you know, there’s a point to this if we’re being, you know, completely pragmatic, reducing opposition and resistance and generally having a sort of an easier time in the process. But it does involve investment upfront.

00:22:34

And that’s something that we are hoping to talk about today. Of course, you can’t engage communities that don’t exist. And so we need to find ways to invest in and develop capacity to engage with representative communities, or communities that live nearby.

00:22:54

So many new developments going to be… They’re not going to be in a field in the middle of nowhere with no nearby communities, they are realistically going to be urban expansions. So there are going to be existing pockets of communities who will be next to around very involved in and connected with, ideally connected with because we don’t want sort of isolated, kind of, satellite developments taking place. So there are people to engage. There are things that we can do.

00:23:23

And if we assume that social infrastructure new developments gets the go-ahead and we assume that planners and developers are open to proper engagement.

00:23:32

Then we need to think about who the people are in our communities, among our neighbours and networks, who can help us get the most out of the decision-making process, so local authorities, whether officials or elected officers, elected representatives are the obvious link and then there’s the Youth Councils of course, which are very well represented here today.

00:23:52

Community groups and local charitable organisations, especially those that can serve as intermediaries or help to represent the voices of residents from different groups, so young people, disabled people, elderly people, parents who might have specific requirements or preferences, or maybe just an alternative point of view.

00:24:12

And then there’s existing resident’s associations, which will often know how to frame responses to the questions being asked by developers and have a range of different contacts. And then there’s establishing a new resident’s association kind of in advance, which people can join bit by bit and can provide a forum for people to gather and discuss issues.

00:24:31

In the end, these are just groups of normal people pooling their knowledge, experience, and energy to form a network of sort of linking social capital. There’s no sort of magic to it. And I think I find that really reassuring.

00:24:47

That this is, this is doable by all of us every day, but identifying the sources of linking social capital is going to be a really important part of that. Shall I stop there and kind of open it up?

00:25:02

No, I think that’s really helpful because I think that gives a quite a good overview of why this is a really important moment in having this discussion, as April mentioned, it’s a once in a generation opportunity to really build that connectivity and build that kind of engagement, as you mentioned there. And we’ve got a really interesting question on that matter actually from Sam in the Q&A function.

00:25:22

You know, it’s really the idea that actually a lot of these 1.5 million homes potentially could be built in spaces that are unused but, unused but actually used by young people. And so how can we meaningfully engage young people in these conversations if spaces that they typically use for those kind of informal gatherings?

00:25:47

If they’re being used for the homes, how can we meaningfully engage young people? And I wonder if April or Ladajah have anything to share on this matter about in meaningful youth engagement in and in terms of linking social capital, how can those young people be engaged on these matters?

00:26:05

I suppose for me, my answer to that, and obviously it’s something that you really have to think about, isn’t it. But I think because we’re seeing a lot of these youth clubs closing down or you know as you said.

00:26:16

In instances where these buildings would be taken away from young people, we’re seeing a lot of detached youth workers being put in place, so youth workers that don’t have a building but instead go out into the community to engage with young people. So instead of young people going into their spaces, they are instead going to, you know, young people’s spaces and engage with them that way.

00:26:38

But I think as well try and engage with young people in school. I think that’s so important. It’s how I got involved in youth councils to begin with.

00:26:45

I’ve always found that schools are so important because you know, that’s where the majority of young people are gonna be, you know, five days a week. To me, it’s a bit of a home away from home, really. So I think sort of talking to them in that way as well.

00:27:01

But for me, you know, I’m so passionate about young people having a voice.

00:27:06

And you know, being actively listened to where they live. And I think that word actively is so key, making sure that we are listening to young people and implementing change that can be seen and that’s making a lasting difference.

00:27:20

So you know, I am involved in youth councils and I’ve sat, you know, on local council boards. And I’ve met with local decision makers and whilst those experiences are so useful, you know, a lot of the time they can feel a bit like they’re just there to tick a box.

00:27:40

And I think we really need to sort of remove that because it’s giving young people a lot of sort of false hope, I suppose. This kind of idea that young people are only there to kind of say, you know, for decision makers to say ohh we had a young person do this and not because they act, you know they’re actively making an impact.

00:27:57

And I think as well going on with that, this has become, turned into a bit of a quote that I say because I always say that young people so often hear that they’re the future and you know whilst that’s true, you know we are the future doctors and the future lawyers and the future politicians, you know, we’re the future and our communities do need to be designed to accommodate that and to, you know, support us in later life.

00:28:25

We’re also the present and our story, our voices, and our needs, you know, they matter right now. And I think that’s so often overlooked. So I think for that to happen, young people need to have the opportunity to have decisions, to have conversations with local decision makers and that these conversations are to two-sided.

00:28:47

Number one, I think that young people need to be kept in the loop, so when we’re having projects and conversations like this, I think it’s so important that young people are kept informed and that they can see the progress over time and that they have helped implement. And I also think that decision makers need to take the first step with young people.

00:29:07

I think if decision makers take the first step with young people, then it makes young people want to take the next steps with them, if that makes sense.

00:29:19

I think so often young people like myself, you know, we’re expected to go into these meetings and to adhere to their standards and everything like that. But I think actually, if decision makers made more of an effort to come into our spaces and see how we work from our side, I think that will just make the balance a lot more even. And I think it will make more people want to be involved.

00:29:38

And then number three, and I’ll stop in a minute. I don’t wanna take up all the time.

00:29:41

But I just think there also needs to be better at promotion and publicity of youth voice. And I think that kind of goes on to what Ladajah was saying before about, you know, young people sort of being mocked and ridiculed. I think when we’re talking about use of voice, when we’re talking about young people, there is a lot of stigma.

00:30:02

As part of my youth Council, as part of UK Youth Parliament, a couple of years ago I went to the House of Commons to do a debate and I, you know, loved it and I was made-up in a came out said, you know, motivated.

00:30:14

But then after that there were these comments being made online and things saying about how young people shouldn’t have access to those spaces and kind of undermining young people. And I just think that’s so wrong and I think that needs to stop. And I think we need to make more conversations to help remove this stigma and to help get more young people involved because of course, if the more people we get involved, the better you know, we’re gonna democratise this system.

00:30:40

And of course, you know I’m here today, but I’m not gonna lie and say that I can represent every single young person, because of course I can’t. So I think if we try and get more young people involved, whether that be through, detached youth workers, youth clubs, schools, I think that’s really important.

00:30:57

Thank you, April. Thanks for sharing. I think there was a lot there and a lot about how it’s important with that active engagement that there’s a follow through and that decision makers can meet young people where they are. So they feel really engaged and involved in, in the decisions and and outcomes. So thank you, that’s really, really helpful, Ladajah.

00:31:16

Yeah I would echo everything April said. I think one thing people do, ohh young people are very hard to find. They are mandatory. They’re supposed to be an education till 18. They’re not that hard to find. I think it’s just you or the way you are wanting to engage with them. You want them to come to you, you want them to be on your turf.

00:31:34

You want them to act the way you think they should act and not the way they are, and so that misconnect between reality and what they want is something that is really huge and in engaging young people as well as I think it’s getting the most vulnerable. So the people who are using the spaces that Sam was talking about are most likely those young people who actually can’t invite their friends to their home.

00:31:58

They can’t do that because they may feel if their home is not up to like society’s standard, they may feel a sense of stigma, shame, and things like that. And to have those, those spaces, I think it’s especially going to alternative education provisions, pupil referral units, talking to them. It’s like ohh, they have shorter school hours, so 8.

00:32:18

Maybe they may be going to school 9-til-2, so these are likely the places that they go to until mainstream schools finishes and it’s like we already alienate them already. We know the pupil referral to prison pipeline is humongous and it’s like so how can we actually not take their spaces away in that sense? And how do we engage with them to actually?

00:32:38

What would you like to see in society? What would actually make you, when we send children to the pupil referral units, we already alienate them from society. And so how do we also get them actually integrated back into society? And that is by reaching out to them, giving them a say about their community and allowing them to feel valued by society.

00:32:57

Thank you, Ladajah. Yeah, so really about going above and beyond the typical roots of finding young people and understanding that actually young people can be found everywhere, but we have to be able to go out and and and meet them where they are, again as April mentioned.

00:33:11

But in spaces where perhaps you typically wouldn’t think young people would would be interested in being involved, probably that they are really interested in developing their communities, so making sure that those voices are definitely included and integrated into the conversation. Thank you. That’s really helpful. And I think we’re touching a lot there on that linking social capital.

00:33:31

So how can we make roots for young people to decision makers and decisions that affect their community and their built environment?

00:33:41

And April mentioned something there about democratising the kind of processes and I think the kind of things that you’ve mentioned both of you Ladajah and April there that have, are really useful actually to take on board in terms of democratising that process. So really helpful.

00:33:58

I have a quick poll for the audience, I’m going to launch now and and it’d be great if you could participate, as I think this is quite an interesting question really on the idea of decision making in your communities. So just give you a few seconds to be able to answer that poll, which is around feeling or not feeling like you have a say in the decisions that affect your community.

00:34:31

Lovely so, we’ll leave that up there.

00:34:38

And keep that going while we start thinking a bit about physical spaces and social infrastructure and how that links to social capital. So when we think about our communities, a lot of people tend to think about perhaps spaces that we are able to frequent so that being parks and libraries and co-working spaces, perhaps as well as the networks that exist.

00:35:06

So I would love to ask the question around how do you feel that these spaces allow for the building of social capital and whether you feel that these spaces are as inclusive as they could be or are there directions that they could go in to make them more inclusive and more able to build social capital?

00:35:30

Whoever wants to jump in, feel free.

00:35:34

Yeah, I was thinking about this yesterday actually and I was writing some notes and it’s turned into a bit more of a brainstorm, so I’ll try and make a bit of sense of what I was saying here and obviously as I think have probably established at this point, you know, I have been talking about youth clubs and obviously I’m a huge advocate for these spaces. I think they’re so important.

00:35:53

And as Ladajah was saying, you know, we need to widen the access to them. I think there needs to be specific youth provisions designed for particular groups, whether these groups be from, you know, certain minorities or whether they be the most vulnerable in society. And I think as well there also just needs to be open access youth clubs that anyone can kind of come to at anytime. And I know that this comes with more funding and obviously I’m just being idealistic here but I think this is vital. I think there needs to be more safe spaces available. And so when I talk about safe spaces and I’m also talking about the youth workers in general.

00:36:33

I think youth workers can be the safe spaces for young people. You know, I can name so many youth workers that have had such a big impact on my life and I just think that as I was saying before because we’re seeing also this increase in detached youth workers because youth clubs are closing down. I just think there needs to be a balance between the two.

00:36:53

Because, you know, young people, they deserve an option. They deserve choice. We’re not a one-size-fits-all, you know, category. We need those options. Different things work for different people. And I think we need to accommodate that.

00:37:05

And I was going on from that really. I am also aware that youth clubs aren’t going to serve everyone. Some people might not be interested in going to them. Sometimes there can be some negative stereotypes that go alongside them and I understand that. So I think the whole community just needs to be designed for young people.

00:37:25

To give them choices and to give them opportunities. But currently it’s not.

00:37:31

So nothing really annoys me more than when adults say that young people never go out because I just think there’s nothing really for us at this moment in time, especially where I live. You know, shops are closing down, restaurants are closing down, the parks aren’t really up to scratch. Sometimes the streets can be really intimidating for certain people.

00:37:51

You know, I don’t know the last time I saw a library, for example. So sometimes I just think that young people don’t really think that there is much to do. And I think as well, you know, we mentioned there briefly before about public transport and I think it’s important to note as well that because you know young people, we can’t drive.

00:38:11

All we really have is our local community and that when that local community isn’t designed with young people in mind, it really does isolate them because it doesn’t give them the opportunity to socialise and to build bridges with other young people and that. But that’s not their fault.

00:38:27

So I think it’s important as well to note the financial barriers and I think we’re gonna talk about barriers a bit later on, but there needs to be a variety because when all these free opportunities like the parks and like the streets aren’t accessible, young people can’t afford to be out all the time, and especially those from more sort of less affluent areas.

00:38:48

They might not be able to afford to go shopping every day or afford to go for meals. You know, if they want to go into the city centre, for example, trains can be expensive, so they need to be more options on their doorstep and I and.

00:39:07

Yeah, sorry, I’ve got myself in a bit of a jumble. I don’t know where I really got to up to on my notes now and another one. Another thing that I was gonna say, for me, I’m 17. So I have a part time job now. But my job, it takes me an hour on the bus to get there and an hour back. And I think that goes to show as well because there’s not really opportunities for socialising.

00:39:27

It means as well that there’s not employability options and young people don’t really have the chance to kind of develop in their local area. And I think that’s a big worry. So I think we really need to shift our perspective and look at making improvements to our local community.

00:39:44

Because I don’t think that, you know, communities are so vital and they’re so important to everyone’s lives, and I don’t think that can be underestimated.

00:39:54

Yeah. Yeah, I think thank you, April, because I think that really does link back to the idea of the bridging. So the access to networks and opportunities, whether that exists in the community because of transport because of the closing down of these of these buildings and places where young people would meet and use,

00:40:05

Perhaps it lessens the opportunity and it lessens the capital. So why is that happening and how can again youth voice be involved in the conversation to actually hopefully change that for the better to be able to build stronger social capital and network.

00:40:27

And I wonder if Ladajah, you’ve got some ideas as to what an ideal scenario would be if we’re thinking about social capital and thinking about community in the physical space, what would look to you to be that ideal community?

00:40:40

Yeah. So my local library closes at 3 on Wednesdays at 5:00 every other day, which is like, obviously not ideal.

00:40:50

So if you wanna go to the library after school, it’s like you have very limited time. I think my little brother’s even banned from the library for him and his friends for being loud. So they’re not allowed things like that. So in an ideal world, I think it would very much look like infrastructure that is accessible to everyone.

00:41:10

Just, inviting spaces, I think safe public spaces like parks which are designed for children, maybe below eight which are now they don’t actually cater to the older kids needs and we know older children still like to play. It’s like once you hit eight it’s like no more play for you. You’re too big to go on all this stuff and things like that. So ensuring that there is things catering to that upper side and that older, bigger apparatus, bigger things that they can play because they are also kids.

00:41:44

Also I think digitally connected. So in free community Wi-Fi hubs that they can go in acknowledging that there is also space to talk. I think a lot of spaces, are like quiet and everyone associates, libraries, you have to be quiet, things like that. So that doesn’t foster community cause you go there, do something, put your head down. And so in the ideal world it would be something that allows people to actually have those conversations.

00:42:08

Something where people go, actually you can be loud there or there’s another space where you can be quiet. Those different actually variations would be ideal, especially for to cater to all people.

00:42:22

Especially I would also have places like gardens for intergenerational connection. Having those conversations, having those digital teachings, I think we all have can have a lot to learn and talk to about each other, and allowing young people to actually see people who are older than them as well allows them to actually have higher aspirations, allow them to talk to people.

00:42:41

Allow them to understand that sometimes when you’re young, it can feel like the end, the be all and the end all. But it’s actually not. And when you speak to older people, it’s like ohh, actually you do live past 20 and those things like that.

00:42:59

So yeah, I think it would be values. Housing is not just a shelter, it’s stability and dignity. And I think things that reflect that, also one of my huge issues but not issues is school catchment areas. I understand it, but it creates that divide.

00:43:18

It creates if you live in a better area, you get better schools, which creates your whole outcomes all because of your post code. And then we wonder why we have postcode wars.

00:43:26

And when we have young people in gangs because you teach them to be that way from having a catchment area, these are actually predefined things created by the actual use of the school catchment areas, of course, or the kids. That’s one gang. And that’s another gang because they all go to the school in the same area and they don’t integrate with anyone outside of that because they can’t. Because of a catchment area.

00:43:47

And so I would find a better way to create inter-school integration and inter- cross community integration, because in Birmingham I live in like one of the poorest areas.

00:44:00

But I live next to the richest area, and so the difference. They don’t even. The people from the richest area who where I went to sixth form don’t even know the poorest area exists, which is right next to, you can walk 10 minutes and you find that and they don’t know. It’s a whole different world.

00:44:19

And so actually creating that also cross-cultural and cross-community integration is key to allow people to network up as well.

00:44:27

Really interesting point you’re making there because even though that communities right next door, there’s not perhaps that chance for that bridge and capital to be able to connect. That’s interesting point to make.

00:44:38

So I wonder, if you feel then, the informal gathering spaces, do you see them in your communities, and if not, where do you think they could be for your best interest to understand what you need in a community to be able to build that capital, I wonder if you’ve got any thoughts on that at all?

00:44:57

I think the place I see them more is probably at the shop counter when you’re waiting in the queue at the shop and someone has a conversation at your local corner shop, I think that is the most you kind of get.

00:45:06

But I think it is very. But if you live in London, I don’t think you get that at all. So contrasting to like the lack of community in London versus from Birmingham is huge on that point. But I think yeah, there’s not many. But I think what we need more of maybe at the gym when you’re filling up your water, but I don’t young people and the like 16 are allowed to go to the gym so much.

00:45:35

I think it’s really key to have those actually facilitate those in part have more actual water coolers, simple access to water in public have those, the ones where you can actually get them like in the park like and things like that. If you want a drink, you have to go to the shop, you have to buy. You can’t just access water. And so actually encouraging those spaces.

00:45:56

Like also the book. And it’s like take a book, give a book and take a book. Those are really interesting to have and book exchanges, community book exchanges, also for that spontaneous kind of conversation and communities.

00:46:11

Brilliant. Thank you. So, some some interesting ideas there of of how we can build that. I wonder, Maddie, if you’ve got anything to share or add or any questions on this topic at all.

00:46:22

Yeah. And so much. There’s so much there from both of you that it’s just kind of really got me thinking, I think.

00:46:31

Number one, it’s just really reassuring that the way that policymakers think about social infrastructure outside of government. Certainly. So the way we think about social infrastructure isn’t very far removed from what you’re saying, which I think is is wonderful because it means that we’re not pushing for something that isn’t going to work or isn’t going to be relevant to young people who are going to be, you know, all the people eventually.

00:47:00

So I think that that’s, I’m just. I’m really pleased to hear that we’re kind of we’re speaking roughly the same language, which is really important. And then I think on April’s point there’s with the planning and infrastructure bill, which will bring in all of these new powers and kind of release the ability of the country to build, build, build.

00:47:21

We’re looking at different amendments that can be put to the bill and to make it better, and I know that Play England as an organisation are putting forward an amendment to ensure what they call play sufficiency so that all of these new developments are developed not just with playgrounds or with playing fields but so that they are suitable for children and young people too play and hang out everywhere.

00:47:46

They’re you know, they’re safe. They’re full of green spaces. They think carefully about cars and where they are and how people are going to interact with them, that kind of thing. So this play sufficiency is a really interesting idea and it’s something we’re going to be supporting as an amendment.

00:48:06

So do kind of look into that if you’re interested in it. You know it plays into that no ball games thing as well that you mentioned Ladajah, which is, you know, such, such like a Titanic, cultural kind of barrier, isn’t it? It’s like this kind of universal thing. And then shops and gym like, absolutely. And, you know, there’s no way that if we walked into the government department writing this stuff that they’d be like, oh, yeah.

00:48:37

That shops and gyms are where young people are having helpful discussions that are gonna help develop social capital and bridge.

00:48:43

And there’s no way they’re thinking about it. And it’s so important to come back to that again and again. And you know, here’s the reality or this is what social infrastructure is. Your gym is social infrastructure, shops are social infrastructure.

00:49:00

Especially if you think about these new developments, they’re going to be on the edge of existing places, by and large. And so they’re gonna have to build some shops in these places. And these shops are gonna be the only places that people can easily, on foot get to for some milk or, like essentials for the day or for the week.

00:49:16

So they need to work and they need to foster and be designed to create opportunities for discussions and meeting each other. And yeah, so important. So yeah, that’s that’s me. But thank you both those contributions. So I’m going to be going away and writing up.

00:49:38

On the point of shops, sorry. Like when you have the big developments and like the Tesco or Sainsbury’s, people who don’t really have that connection to the community versus the corner shop probably you went to every day, saw you grow up, and when you look at those, it’s more likely once you have that in the community and consistently in the community. It’s like you even reduce underage alcohol sales under a cigarette sales because you see that kid in the school uniform. You know that child.

00:50:04

And I think having those things and having their, they actually work as youth workers in their own righ,t in that sense of having that actually interaction before school with those kids having it after school is someone you see often which may you may, yeah, because all kids like to go to the shop before and after school.

00:50:24

Yeah, absolutely. That’s such good point. So sorry.

00:50:26

I’m sorry, I think we’re going to have to move on to the next point, but I think we could probably talk about this for hours and hours because I think so interesting.

00:50:35

That’s fine.

00:50:41

Thinking about the built space and and social infrastructure, but what’s also quite interesting is that recently having kind of coproduced this, the format of this webinar through a series of focus groups. In those focus groups, a lot of young people were talking about online spaces for social capital and network building.

00:51:01

And so I want to ask a few questions around this idea of online social capital and whether we can, as a community, as a society, be able to replicate physical spaces online.

00:51:12

And whether we’re able to build real relationships, strong relationships online as opposed to in person. And so I wonder if anyone wants to share their thoughts and feelings towards this, because I think the more we move towards the digital world, the more this will be a question that will be asked about the strong relationships or potentially non-strong relationships we can build online.

00:51:39

Yeah, I completely agree. I think social media and these online spaces this so, so significant and they can be so significant in creating social capital, as you said, you know, we are living in this digital age and we need to recognise that. All, well, most young people are on social media and I think it’s important for us to really utilise that as a tool.

00:51:59

So first of all I think you can really use it to build social capital in real life. So make those connections online that then turn into real world action.

00:52:12

I think these social media sites can be used to promote whether it be youth services, whether it just be things in the local area, but I don’t think that works. You know, if you just set up an account, you’ve really gotta utilise that. You know you need to be accessing people on the most popular sites.

00:52:31

So whether that be you know, your Instagram, your TikTok and you need to be active on these accounts. So you know keeping your page kind of active and updated, using trends that really engage with young people. You know commenting and following different accounts.

00:52:54

And maybe you know when I was talking about schools before, a lot of the time I see you know, a lot of schools have their own accounts and whether it be getting in touch with them and getting them to kind of promote these events and promote these services, I think that can just be a really easy connection to make. But I think it can have such a big impact.

00:53:04

But I think as well I think discussions can be made online and they can be really meaningful. So I know, even though I’ve just kind of really bigged up the algorithm, now I’m not gonna lie it can, you know, have it say a few of fair few sort of risks as well.

00:53:25

First of all, you know we need to be making sure that the information that young people see online can be trusted, and I went on a Youth and Democracy residential with Munny in November and that was something that we really talked about, you know, making sure that the information that young people have access to online is trusted and and is really meaningful.

00:53:44

And as well, I think you know, these online spaces for me, I think that we can see a lot of kind of echo chambers and a lot of divides alongside with them. So for me, when I’m on Instagram, I’ll like things that align with my views and align with my you know outlooks on life.

00:54:04

And obviously I know that the algorithm and the data kind of uses that and then I see things only that really only that are similar to what align with me and that means I don’t see the other side of debates and the other side of discussion.

00:54:19

And I think that can lead to a lot of polarisation. So I think we need to combat that, whether that be through having, you know, more trusted, unbiased news outlets, just having more, you know, accounts set up for young people and also just encouraging discussion that is a healthy debate, trying to encourage people to understand other people’s views and understand their backgrounds and why they think in a particular way, I think is so important.

00:54:46

But I think this all goes to show that social media is so important and it is such a huge tool in securing a following, and I think it can be used as an advantage to, you know, raising awareness on particular issues which I think is really vital as well.

00:55:01

Thank you, April. So as much as it can be a a connector of people and allow you to build a community and a network. Sometimes the echo chambers and and the algorithms mean that you’re kind of stuck in a group of people that would mean that you wouldn’t have access to other forms of information.

00:55:17

So thank you for sharing and I think you’re right in saying that it’s becoming such a significant part of our world and our lives and and how can we make sure that these are safe spaces for young people as well? Thank you. Ladajah, have you got anything to add at all?

00:55:32

Yeah, I totally agree with everything April said. It’s like communities can be mobilised through social media. We saw that in the riots last summer. We saw the way that happens. It can be negative. We can have positive ones. We can see that everyone’s invited.

00:55:47

That, and it’s kind of like it’s a flip side of those connections and actually that social cohesion, it depends what we’re actually all huddling around. And I think young people are very influential … influenceable, people can influence them people quite easily.

00:56:07

And because of that, we have to be very careful on the way we create those connections and we allow those connections to be created and it’s I think one of the most scariest thing is that it took the show Adolescents for actually older generations to see what’s actually going on in young people’s worlds.

00:56:24

And I think because we actually don’t, people who are supposed to be giving safeguards don’t actually understand what they’re supposed to be safeguarding against, or understand what they are actually even trying to safeguard. It makes a very risky thing to actually encourage young people to create social connections online.

00:56:44

I think it’s a positive thing having social media and talking to other people. It allows you to actually, it allows you to climb up as well. So from a from a low social economic background, look at the reach you can get on LinkedIn, look at who you can contact. If I wanna go message with CEO on Google off Google on LinkedIn, I can. If I want to go message this person I can.

00:57:04

And having that actually for the ability of social mobility, it means you’re not stuck to seeing your environment. So some people can live in limited environments where they don’t see anyone who actually succeeds and having social media can do that.

00:57:17

And when older people see that you’re trying and that you have, they want to invest in you quite often and they are becoming your biggest fans and your biggest champions. So I think it is really important, but I think it depends on the platform and also digital poverty is huge still and it depends on like who are we excluding by doing solely digital connections.

00:57:40

But yeah, it creates community. It can mobilise for bad or for good.

00:57:44

Great. So thinking about the positives then, the fact that you said that people are able as a community to mobilise bigger than just the physical community, but creating community online and networks where perhaps being able to connect with decision makers or you know that linking capital may not be available in physical space but on online space that may be there.

00:58:04

So how are we going to think about that when it comes to building these safe spaces for young people as well, I wonder if anyone has been able to make a successful connection and relationship and build some strong social capital directly from an online relationship or connection.

00:58:26

It might take a few minutes of thought there.

00:58:32

And that can just be a question for everyone in the audience. Or listening to the webinar, just a thought prompt to think about whether you’re able to build strong social capital online or whether you feel there also needs to be a physical element to the building of that relationship and connection.

00:58:50

So on that sense, I think when we look at like Discord and like if we look at PlayStation Chat, I think they do like my friend, my little brother has friends who were they met online, they’ve never met in person and they’re friends of friends and things like that, that actually mobilises community online. I think on social media, not per say, I think it’s still very disconnected.

00:59:11

And it’s still very, but I think things where you’re doing things together. I think when you do things with people, you build those connections and those strong connections can be built online. So if we’re playing a game together, we naturally build that really strong cause we have shared emotions, we’re going through the motions together of actually trying to win or we’re on opposite teams and things like that.

00:59:31

But I think just solely based on “ohh hi” on Instagram or like things like that, not so much of meaningful connections.

00:59:41

Interesting. So it’s almost sorry, April.

00:59:43

Sorry, carry on, carry on.

00:59:45

I was just gonna say the this replication of play in the physical environment being you know seen online can be a way to build networks and capital. So whether, rather than it just being a “hi and bye” relationship it’s actually built based on some you know shared interest and some play I think that’s really interesting point to make. April, go ahead.

01:00:07

Yeah, I was just going to say really quickly because I know that we’re getting short on time, but I completely agree with Ladajah. You know, in my experiences of using social media to kind of, you know, connect with whether it be local decision makers or politicians or whatever. I feel like for me, it doesn’t. Social media helps, but I’ve never, you know, experienced it being, you know, the the beginning of me starting a connection with someone, if that makes sense.

01:00:37

So for example, I think, I used to run a Twitter account or X or whatever it’s called now, and I don’t use it anymore, but it used to be a really good way. For example, if I met people to kind of keep in touch with them and to keep you know updated on, you know everything that’s going on with everyone else. But I don’t think it really ever helps to kind of start those connections with people. I think I’ve still found, in my personal experiences, those connections have been formed in person, so I think that’s something we can work on as well.

01:01:03

Great. So it can be an aid to continuing a relationship, perhaps, but not to build something strong from the ground up. That’s an interesting point. Maddie, did you have anything to to add on that point?

01:01:18

Only that this is so interesting and I think only going to become a more important kind of area of study really and policy. There’s very little by way of policy around social media and online spaces. There’s talk of regulation constantly, but never.

01:01:39

What we might get from it, how we might use it?

01:01:41

And this is there’s an area of work that I know that the University of Cardiff are working on with Project Emote, which is emotion and technology the emote. And they’re looking at things like design and social media. Are there specific elements of it? The likes, shares, comment boxes, the way they work that could be designed to be specifically good for developing social capital and for developing meaningful relationships, or conversely, not, and there’s some, there’s some really interesting work going on there, so, yeah.

01:02:17

Lovely. Just a quick one from Ladajah, cause we’re going to move on slightly to barriers and how to overcome them, but please feel free to Ladajah to share.

01:02:24

Yeah. So I think in rea life is winning at the moment. As Ruth put in the kind of questions about how people want to actually find their tribe and meet with each other. So I do think it is winning.

01:02:37

But one thing I have found when I do build online connections is an introduction, really helps, so it’s like oh this. I know this person who knows this person. Let me introduce you. So we do e-meet and and we’ll do an e-mail and be like, okay, I met this person and I think you guys will get along. Then we book a call and then we have that build that relationship like that and that is how an online relationship is mainly formed, I think you so much need someone to vouch for you, per se.

01:03:05

To be able to actually break that barrier and form that connection, and that’s what I found in my experience.

01:03:10

Right. Yeah. So again, mentioning Ruth’s question in the chat there or comment in the Q&A stating that actually some of these online spaces can be a bridge to then meeting in real life and a lot of people want to connect for a reason and finding a tribe as you said there Ladajah is really important.

01:03:30

So how can these build social capital not just in the geographical sense, but in based on interests and community based on interests.

01:03:38

So thank you. I just wanted to move on to a final kind of topic to touch on before we head further deeply into the Q&A, which is around the idea of barriers perhaps creating social capital. But really thinking about how we can overcome some of those barriers.

01:03:58

We mentioned slightly there about a digital divide, about digital poverty, also about the lack of formal spaces to meet or informal spaces to meet, also. So I wonder if you observed that happening in your lives recently or whether you’ve seen a kind of breakdown in social infrastructure and whether you think that there is a remedy to that and something that you may have seen that’s been positive, that’s worked in remedying these things.

01:04:26

Yeah, I can go. And just for the audience, you can put like your thoughts and questions in the Q&A as the chat is disabled.

01:04:36

But I think one thing that I now kind of see when my big brother who is 25 and my little brother who’s 15, the difference in that is 10 years. The difference in that is his youth club was run by the police and he had a youth club run by the police. He knew all the local police officers, they had the conversations and they built that relationship with those institutions. And that was very much respected and they had those.

01:05:00

My little brother who’s 15. He gets stopped and searched every minute for being outside. They always they always stop. He has a really big mistrust because of he how he sees the police, he’s never seen them actually be helpful. They always stop him. He knows the name of every operation going on in the area by the Birmingham Police and things like that showed that actually those 10 years and in that 10 year divide.

01:05:22

And how that actually the police could have been fostering that community with my older brother compared to my, the relationship they have with my little brother, all because the different roles they have played in community. So instead of actually bridging it and building it, they now police it in that sense.

01:05:38

Meaning that mistrust has kind of been created and that actually those conversations, who you would normally talk to and actually have those connections are no longer there, which actually builds that barrier to social cohesion because you don’t have trust in the institutions around you.

01:06:03

And if you don’t trust one, the likelihood is you’re not gonna trust any and that creates that kind of big barrier and I think what they used to do embedding themselves in communities, running things, being helpful, and things like that were really key in actually allowing communities to foster, giving them spaces. And yeah, I think there’s just that really big divide on what the community needs and what they think the community needs, I think.

01:06:27

Interesting. So again, thinking back to that idea of consultation and a true level of kind of engagement with the community, thinking about what the needs are rather than thinking about implementing something that perhaps is not necessarily in consultation with the community. And that’s really key. Thank you, April.

01:06:46

Yeah, I completely agree. I think it’s about having, you know, those meaningful discussions. I went to a meeting a few months ago and we was talking about, you know, parks and how we can make these, you know, outdoor spaces more accessible and more engaging and I think you know, some points that a lot of people are raising is about this idea that there should be more lighting.

01:07:07

You know, there should be more CCTV and more police officers and my whilst I think that those would help, I do also think like Ladajah was saying things like that can create more problems and because like people you know they do have mistrust in these institutions and understandably.

01:07:22

And so I think it’s about not just, you know, putting these things in place, but actually having these two-sided discussions with people and really trying to understand what it is that will make people feel more safe and make people feel more comfortable. Cause at the end of the day, you know, these communities are for the local people.

01:07:42

And you know, they deserve to to feel at home in these places. And they’re just, you know, we need to make sure that, you know, we’re having a really deep think into these things.

01:07:53

Yeah. Perfect. So again, about if a barrier is, can be overcome, it would typically be around the the idea of consultation thinking about the the true community needs and being as inclusive as possible. I want to just quickly think back to the idea of the the 1.5 million homes and how the barriers we’re discussing there and how they could be overcome, thinking about these new communities, and actually shape a community that is really well consulted and and thought about when creating and designing what sort of things would you think are important to have to involve these communities?

01:08:34

I’m sorry, on April’s point? Adequate street light, that’s one thing. So simple, so able to have safety that bothers me so much. Like on one of the roads, I have to walk to from where I used to have to walk through to get back from sixth form. They have street lights on one side of the road and it’s the most frustrating thing on Earth, because why?

01:08:51

But yeah, but I think adequate street lights. I think one thing that I’ve seen at Exeter University, which is really good, it’s like they have dots on the floor and once you stand on the dot, you know you’re on CCTV, which some people say flip point, but actually for women’s safety. I think actually if something happens you know if you actually stand there, you will be picked up by a camera.

01:09:15

I think initiatives that actually foster having a centre at a community, I think when you build communities you need actually a place that people can gather and have that kind of centrepiece, which allows for play, which isn’t exclusive to what any other group. But I think it’s also having very much going around having that knocking on doors.

01:09:35

Having that conversation like what do you like? What don’t you like? What could make your community better? Having those simple like standing on a high street with a mic and stopping and collecting data, just being very embedded in the community to actually see what each community needs for these changes is I think, really key.

01:09:54

Yeah, I think that’s an interesting point you raised there about actually, if you were to consult people, they would be able to tell you things like, well, there’s not enough CCTV, there’s not enough lights. But until you have this conversation, how will you know that?

01:10:05

So those conversations need to be happening more definitely. Thank you. Anyone else got anything to share on that? Otherwise we’re very open to questions in the Q&A, so please feel free to drop them in there if you’ve got anything to ask and the group at all.

01:10:25

Maddie, I wonder if you’ve got anything to add on on the topic.

01:10:29

So I think I’ll bring in how kind of Big Local works because it’s an interesting test case, I suppose. So when we.

01:10:40

I say we, I was not around when this happened, but when the money was allocated to the 150 areas and the 150 areas were chosen, they had to, they were chosen specifically because they were areas that lacked capacity. And so in a way, they were kind of new communities because they were not communities that were used to working together and getting together.

01:11:00

And what that meant was a lot of work from the funder and I think that we have to remember that and we have to, you know, push back on whether it’s the local authority, whether it’s developers, whether it’s central government, whether it’s something to do with kind of an NHS neighbourhood working setup.

01:11:22

And ask them to do the work. So what we did was knock on almost every single door in the 150 areas to find eight people, eight people in every area who were willing to sit around a table and work out what they were going to do.

01:11:36

And obviously those eight people couldn’t just decide, they also had to work out how they were going to further involve the community and keep the community involved throughout. And so across the local areas there, there is so many different projects that have happened, some youth related, some not. Within the youth related work, there are so many things. I think I went on a visit in Dover the other day.

01:11:58

Where young people decided what they really wanted in central Dover, where there’s nothing going on for young people and if you want to go and do something fun, you’re looking at a drive to Ashford, which is, you know, it’s a good half an hour. It’s 40 minutes away.

01:12:14

Young people decided in consultation that they wanted a laser quest and and a local businessman who owns a carpet business and had some space above this carpet shop has made a little laser quest.

01:12:34

And the result of that is that young people are coming into the high street, using the laser quest so McDonald’s has come back, which means some fairly decent jobs have come back to the high street for young people with a progression route. You know these little things, and there’s no way a local authority consultation would have produced a laser quest.

01:12:52

So I think it’s really important to sort of remember that when we say community-led, we mean community-led, we don’t mean consultation, we don’t even mean kind of heavier duty things like participatory budgeting. We’re talking about handing over decision making, handing over funding and that’s really important.

01:13:10

Thank you. And on that point then about handing over decision making, I wonder if we can maybe finish off with thinking back to that linking capital, back to those bridging ideas? What do you think April and Ladajah are the key points in making young people feel they have a role to play in that decision making there?

01:13:34

I think I’ll just dead quickly just kind of, you know, reiterate some of the things that I was saying before about kind of this idea that like young people are being actively listened to and I think things like that that you were saying before Maddie are so important. These community-led drives in the sense of, you know, young people are saying what they want and they’re seeing that and I think then that’s creating and fostering such a positive environment.

01:14:04

And I think in the sense of linking young people to decision makers just again about keeping them involved, keeping them in the loop, letting them see the progress if they if they are saying to you “Oh we want to see this”, then keep them involved in that process. I think it’s so important because then they can really see the change that has developed over time.

01:14:18

And about young decision makers, you know, making the effort with young people. I think if young people think that decision makers do want to listen to them, then they’re gonna be more open and they’re gonna really voice their concerns and their needs and what they really want to see in their local area. I think that is really important.

01:14:38

You know, going into young people’s faces going in, I forgot who said it before, but about, you know, people being out in the local area and talking to the local people and seeing what they want, I think that’s so important because it shows that you know, change is being implemented in the area where it’s going to be made and if that makes sense.

01:14:52

And I think as well just removing all the stigmas around youth voice and making young people actually feel like they do matter because at the end of the day, at the end of the day, they do and, you know, they deserve to be made to feel empowered and feel that they can really make a difference.

01:15:17

Brilliant. Thank you for those recommendations.

01:15:21

Thank you April, I echo everything April said. I think it’s really key to have those feedback loops. It’s like a statistic that people 18 to 24, only 19% for that democracy serves them well compared to 46% of those aged 65 or over. We have a crisis where people are not feeling like their voices are heard.

01:15:41

I think having feedback loops and having tangible solutions and actually saying this is gonna happen, this is gonna happen, then this is gonna happen from your ideas and we’re not coming to you with an already made-up idea and we want you to check it off.

01:15:55

We’re coming up to you and we want you to be able to create your own idea and then we are your executors. You are the voice we are your executors. In this point, it seems like you are the executor. You are the voice and executors and we are the tick box. So allowing that meaningful that integrated discussion throughout, that integrated consultation allowing them to drive, actually being in the driver’s seat, and so that is key for feedback loops.

01:16:20

It’s also allowing people to come as they are not actually. Even what building you hold it and will affect the type of people you attract and it will all be effective if even the words you market it if you say ohh consultation, if you say something like that, it affects who you get. So actually being aware of who your audience is and actually how do you reach them?

01:16:44

Because I think one thing people should be aware of if you reach the most marginalised groups, everyone benefits because they are the ones who will be having the most disadvantage in that sense of the environment that affects them and so reaching them is key because it’s all good to sit reaching the person who sits on every school board and everything like that, that’s great.

01:17:04

But they’re not the really ones who we really need to get to the cusp of to see, actually, why are you not integrated into society as we hoped you would?

01:17:16

Great. Great. So thinking again, back to the idea of meeting people where they are and using language, using ideas that they can connect with so they don’t feel isolated and excluded right from the outset. How can we make the process as inclusive and democracy-led as possible?

01:17:37

So yes, there’s some really great points and comments that you’ve raised there and Ruth raises an interesting point as to the the outcome of this the session and the hope that these comments can lead somewhere and, as Maddie mentioned at the start, you know Local Trust have been working around these issues around the idea of the 1.5 million homes pledge.

01:17:57

And these conversations are hopefully going to lead towards some sort of discussion being had as to what can be involved in implementing the youth voice into that? I don’t know if Maddie wants to share a little bit more about what the hopes are going forward with yourselves and and the bill.

01:18:17

So at the moment we, we’re putting forward an amendment that requires greater community engagement, but also that considers the distribution of social infrastructure.

01:18:33

So we’re thinking quite, sort of, quite high level, quite kind of dry about not creating cold spots where there are no shops, no community buildings, no playing fields, but a sort of there’s an there’s a strategic bird’s eye view, I guess, of making sure that there’s stuff everywhere. So you don’t get these kind of desserts.

01:18:55

Beyond that, and we don’t expect probably to get our amendments in the bill, what we’re using them as a sort of kind of a wedge away in to have a broader discussion going on.

01:19:07

And we are bringing all of our evidence base to that discussion. And so that includes work that we’ve done on the importance of the youth voice and the importance, so one of the governments missions is opportunity and we’ve done a lot to flesh out what that means for the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. So the W-deprived neighbourhoods that we particularly focus on.

01:19:30

Because we think that there’s no point, to your point Ladajah, there’s no point kind of raising the bar kind of universally because you just end up replicating the massive gap between the most deprived neighbourhoods and the other neighbourhoods, so we think it’s really important to think, think neighbourhoods, think hyperlocal and to think about the very specific challenges and barriers that are being faced by young people in those neighbourhoods.

01:19:57

And how to engage young people in those neighbourhoods so no one-size-fits-all. No grand plan, but actually going back to relationships, to social capital, to the kind of human interaction that gets best results.

01:20:11

Thank you. Thank you, Maddie. That’s really helpful. And I think bringing everything together and thinking about how we as a community, we as a society can continue to push ryfukgkthis conversation forward because we don’t want to leave communities behind and we want to ensure that the communities that we are building and already existing and improving are led and created with these ideas in mind, with youth voice in mind, but also the idea of how everyone can try to build some social capital with the networks and relationships that are being created.

01:20:42

So I think if there aren’t any more questions in the Q&A, I think we will say a big thank you. So thank you everyone for listening in on this conversation and thank you, Maddie, April, and Ladajah for sharing some incredibly useful insights and brought a lot of life to the session.

01:21:04

We’ve heard a lot today about social capital and it isn’t just a buzzword. It really does affect how we belong, who we are, who we know, and how we’re able to move through our communities and the world.

01:21:11

So it’s something that we hopefully should be actively thinking about going forward and how we can build those networks of trust and people we connect with. So again, thank you to Local Trust. Thank you to Ladajah and April.

01:21:32

And I’ll just leave you with the final reflection. Thinking about what relationships, spaces, and moments of connection can we build as individuals that we can ensure that everyone around us feels like they belong?

01:21:47

So thank you once again, it was a really interesting conversation and I look forward to sharing the recording with you all.