A new partnership of youth and community organisations is surveying young people in Plymouth to find out how they feel about their lives in these times of pandemic, social media pressure and uncertainty about the future.
Voluntary sector youth providers Barefoot and Mutley Greenbank Trust, with Fotonow media CIC, in partnership with Plymouth City Youth Service, are working with Plymouth Octopus Project’s children and young people network to launch the ‘Snapshot of You’ survey. This is based on a well-proven Children’s Society questionnaire that is carried out annually across the UK to inform their national Childhood Report. It looks at the aspects of life that young people identify as important and most influence their general well-being and will allow the Plymouth findings to be compared to the national picture.
Richard Marsh from Barefoot told us:
‘We all work with young people in different parts of the city and are aware of the huge pressures that are affecting their lives and, in many cases, badly affecting their mental health and hopes for the future. The aim is to get a city-wide picture of what life is like for teenagers in Plymouth through their eyes, so we can get a better idea of what needs to be done to support what will be the next generation of young adults.’
Cllr Mark Deacon, Cabinet member for Customer Services, Culture Leisure & Sport, said:
“After a particularly challenging year, we really want to know how you are feeling about life in Plymouth right now. Your voice is important in shaping our city for the future. We can’t assume we know which are the things that matter to you, this is your chance to let us know. The more voices we hear the greater our understanding will be to support the youth of our city.”
The partnership hopes to use the findings from the survey to identify and highlight the needs of young people so projects can be developed, and funds sought. Plymouth Octopus Project will host the findings and make these available to all organisations working with young people across the city.
The survey asks twelve questions that participants can ‘grade’ from 1 to 10 to indicate how they feel about that issue. It is anonymous and confidential with only postcodes being requested so the results can be compared across different parts of Plymouth.
This is the first time a City partnership of voluntary sector and local authority youth organisations have worked closely together on a large scale project and all the partners see this as a blueprint for future collaboration.
The survey will be released on Saturday 20th November - World Childrens Day - across youth sector organisations, and via digital platforms, shared with schools and will run till the end of January 2022. After which the results will be collated and a report will be released following this.
Comments