The Passion Project wants to help create a future of hope and opportunity for young people which is why we are sponsoring The Commission on Young Lives.
Launched in September 2021, the Commission is chaired by former Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield CBE. The Commission is gathering evidence to support the design of a new national system to prevent crises in vulnerable young people and help them to succeed in life.
The Commission brings together experts and other leaders to identify solutions that can change the future of the most marginalised teenagers at risk of violence, harm, criminalisation, and diminished opportunities.
The work of the Commission sits alongside the Passion Project and its Charitable Foundation’s plans to launch a new impact index dedicated to help inform future policymaking about the importance of individual health, welfare, and personal development and then to make it happen.
The Commission is working thematically to highlight how vulnerable young people fall into crisis and how the systems that are there to support them need to change. Over the following 12-month period, the Commission is publishing reports on teenagers and social care, strengthening families, building an inclusive education system and reforming our mental health system. The Commission will report on the concerning growth of grooming through social media and the hidden exploitation of girls in gangs. It will also put forward reports on young people and the law, on drugs and on the children who are both victims and perpetrators.
The first two reports have been published and are hitting the headlines. You can read them here Out of Harm’s Way and A new Partnership with Families. [link]
The Commission on Young Lives reimagines our aspirations and ambitions for the most vulnerable young people. It will put forward a new statement of policy and practice to prevent crisis and support our marginalized young people so that they can succeed.
A final report will be published in November 2022 with a national, fully costed plan for change.
Anne Longfield, Chair of the ‘Commission on Young Lives’, launching the Commission, said:
“Covid has dealt a strong hand to the gangs and criminals who exploit vulnerable children. It has compounded the cocktail of risks like domestic violence, parental mental health problems, addiction issues, and not attending a school that can see children falling off the radar and into danger.
At the same time, the methods used to entice and trap teenagers into criminality are brutal and increasingly sophisticated.
We are making it too easy for them to use our children.
Society is struggling to know what to do, and the response is often disjointed, underfunded and uncoordinated. Yet this is an issue that many parents are deeply worried about, and they fear is getting worse.
The Commission on Young Lives will develop systems of protection and support to help keep vulnerable children safe and inspire them to succeed. We will show how we can achieve better outcomes for marginalised children by providing affordable solutions to the government and others.
We need to start fighting back with coordinated national action that stops the conveyor belt of vulnerable children who are being groomed, abused and denied their chance to do well in life.”
Join us, add your voice to our growing community and help support the conversation.
- If you are interested to find out more or register as a supporter, please visit us at https://www.passionprojectfoundation.org.uk/founding-supporters/
