Youth Social Action Key Steps and Resources
About
The first stage is in two parts. The first part involves understanding what Youth Social Action (YSA) is:
- What are the benefits of YSA
- The importance of engaging key student and staff leaders
- Ensuring detailed plans are in place for the implementation of YSA
The next part of this stage involves:
- Making all young people aware of YSA and their journey going forward
- Engage in sessions/discussions to inspire young people about YSA in class and through assemblies
- Start providing basic skills training
Key Steps
This is a crucial planning stage for the school and its leadership team to ensure they understand the broad framework, structures and systems needed to allow YSA to flourish in your school setting.
To support this, please see section 2 of the implementation guide.
This stage involves staff and pupil leaders to drive and develop the programme. Staff will need time to engage with the benefits of YSA and ensure sufficient resources are available throughout the YSA journey.
Engaging student leaders to contribute toward the design and delivery of the programme. It will also help engage their peers and give young people ownership.
Using the middle leader planning document and how to embed YSA into your school guide will enable the lead member of staff to plan the project.
Only lead young people will have been engaged so far in the project’s planning process. During this stage, we encourage all other young people to be involved in a programme. They must be:
- Aware of the benefits of YSA
- Inspired to take part by providing them with examples of YSA practice at a national and local level.
This can be through assemblies, media around the school, or the curriculum in a series of 4-5 lessons.
Concurrently with stage 1.4, all participating young people begin skills training covering Teamwork, Communication, Problem-Solving and Reflection. Skills development is ongoing it can occur at home, during lessons, or as part of the wider curriculum.
At each stage, young people and staff want to reflect on what has been achieved and what to undertake next.
Young people will be introduced to the passport, a tool to support them throughout the project.
Guides and Templates
The implementation guide supports the planning and implementation of the YSA project. It contains step-by-step details on how to implement the project in your school setting.
This folder contains presentations and supporting documents to support staff in delivering the training needed to provide the project and raise awareness of the YSA.
This folder contains the guides for delivery for each of the focus areas supported by lesson resources.
This folder contains resources and guides to support the delivery of the core skills programme. (5 hours)
This folder contains resources to support with maximising youth engagement.
This folder contains passports for each Key Stage and a guide on how to use the passports. The guides are broken down by each stage.
About
The second stage involves:
- Further development of young people’s skills
- young people will learn about existing youth social action activities
- Investigate the world around them
Gathering evidence and engaging with stakeholders is a critical part of this stage.
Key Steps
Lead staff will review key step 2 activities they need to:
- Have the resources in place
- Ensure staff have the relevant resources and support needed to deliver the project.
- Convey the key information to all young people
Skills training will continue in lessons with staff guiding young people covering Teamwork, Communication, Problem-Solving and Reflection. Additional resources to support the skills are also available such as the Tuckman’s stages of teamwork:
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing and how these can be taught through the YSA stages.
Schools should allow young people time within the school day to investigate and consider issues they want to address. The YSA research guide and presentation can be used to support both the teaching staff and young people.
With support, young people should start connecting with external stakeholders to inform their plans, and they will begin to create individual personal plans for their chosen projects.
Using the passport, the young people and staff want to reflect on what has been achieved and what to undertake next.
Guides and Templates
This folder contains the guides for delivery for each of the focus areas supported by lesson resources.
This folder contains resources and guides to support the delivery of the core skills programme. (5 hours)
This folder contains resources to support maximising youth engagement.
This folder contains passports for each Key Stage and a guide on how to use the passports. The guides are broken down by each stage.
This folder contains a guide on how to conduct research. This is supported by a presentation for delivery to pupils.
About
The third stage involves:
- organising young people into groups
- building their skills sets
- developing confidence as a team
- clarifying roles within the team
- conducting further research
- confirming delivery partners
- creating detailed plans
These plans and any budget available are agreed upon with lead staff who continue to play a crucial facilitation role for young people.
Key Steps
Lead staff will review key step 2 activities they need to:
- Have the resources in place
- Ensure staff have the relevant resources and support needed to deliver the project
- Convey the key information to all young people.
Core skills (i.e. teamwork, communication, problem solving and reflection) training will continue in lessons with staff guiding young people as they put their skills into practice during this stage.
Young people are now afforded the time to consider and plan the YSA project and budget within the school day. With the support of teachers, young people should:
- develop further connections with parents
- the local community
- and the beneficiaries of the social action project to understand what their plan should involve.
Groups must ensure their project plans include the following:
- aims
- objectives
- delivery timeline
- roles for each person in the group and budgets.
Once the plans are ready, young people will present them to staff and or student key stakeholders for agreement or refinement.
Using the passport, the young people and staff want to reflect on what has been achieved and what to undertake next. At each stage, students and staff will want to reflect on what has been completed and what to undertake next.
As the process has just started, students will be introduced and asked to complete a YSA passport to help them consider what they want to achieve through the programme and what skills they already have and now want to learn.
Students will also be asked to complete a ‘baseline’ evaluation survey to capture their learning and progression in a validated manner. Students and staff ‘leads’ will want to assess the effectiveness of all 1.1 – 1.6 activities and report to executive staff about progress during this key stage.
Guides and Templates
This folder contains resources and guides to support the delivery of the core skills programme. (5 hours)
This folder contains resources to support maximising youth engagement.
This folder contains passports for each Key Stage and a guide on how to use the passports. The guides are broken down by each stage.
About
The fourth stage involves:
- young people delivering their plan of action
- collecting monitoring and evaluation data
- making immediate adaptations to plans where necessary with the support from key staff lead facilitators
Key Steps
Lead staff and young people will review key ‘step 4’ activities (i.e. confirm when young people will complete investigation activities) and that they have the resources in place, and then convey this information to all young people.
Core skills (i.e., teamwork, communication, problem solving and reflection) training will continue in lessons with staff guiding young people as they put their skills into practice during this stage.
During this stage (if appropriate depending on the Key Stage) additional skills can be taught for example teamwork skills focusing on conflict management.
Students are supported to deliver their YSA project (s)
Using the passport, the young people and staff want to reflect on what has been achieved and what to undertake next.
Guides and Templates
This folder contains additional resources and guides to support the delivery of the core skills programme.
This folder contains passports for each Key Stage and a guide on how to use the passports. The guides are broken down by each stage.
This folder contains resources to support maximising youth engagement.
About
The fifth stage involves:
- Finishing collection of monitoring and evaluation data
- Assessing impact
- Learning about what can be improved and celebrating success
Young people will then consider taking on new roles within their projects and engage in new social action opportunities.
Key Steps
Lead staff and young people will review their performance against the whole project. Young people will need information on key indicators for their project to be able to evaluate.
Core skills (i.e., teamwork, communication, problem solving and reflection) training will continue in lessons with staff guiding young people as they put their skills into practice during this stage.
During this stage (if appropriate depending on the Key Stage) additional skills can be taught for example teamwork skills focusing on conflict management.
Young people with support from staff will review the project based on evaluation data and key learning. They will likely want to consider the following:
- the overall project success and how it can improve further
- young people’s achievements and how to improve them further
- how the project has impacted the school in general.
All young people and staff are now recognised for their efforts to deliver the YSA process. Awards are also provided to some staff and young people who have demonstrated excellence.
Young people and staff will now want to share their success more widely (i.e. completing case studies for wider audiences, attending YSA project networks to meet other young people involved with YSA etc.)
Staff will have already considered how YSA can continue in their setting for years to come and will now support young people as they consider their next engagement in YSA programmes.
Guides and Templates
This folder contains passports for each Key Stage and a guide on how to use the passports. The guides are broken down by each stage.
This folder contains resources and guides to support the delivery of the core skills programme.
This folder contains resources to support maximising youth engagement.
This folder will contain any other resources which might help in the delivery of the programme:
- Certificate templates
