Learning from EFF: Young people visions of the future

Although young people have been spared the worst health impacts of Covid, they have suffered some of the worst effects of the pandemic restrictions. School and university closures have cut them off from their education and friends. Lockdowns have denied them of both a social life and job opportunities. In the first six months of the pandemic, people under 25 were twice as likely to lose their jobs as the rest of the population. During the second lockdown, 29% of people aged 16-29 experienced depression, double pre-pandemic levels and significantly higher than among other adults. 

Yet over the past year young people have also been driving positive change and are at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter and climate action movements. Within the projects supported by the National Lottery Community Fund’s Emerging Futures Fund, many young people saw the disruption caused by the pandemic as an opportunity to break with the past and set out a new vision for the future. 

“This lockdown really highlighted and strengthened the huge inequalities in society,” said Kianna leader from Getaway Girls, a young women’s empowerment organisation based in Leeds . “Instead of just complaining I decided to take action in as many ways as I could”. This can-do attitude was echoed in many of the projects where young people were described as “insightful, optimistic, clued-up, passionate, and politically informed” and “resilient, resourceful and hopeful for the future”.

As well as wanting to address issues such as housing, mental health and employment opportunities, which were common across many projects, young participants in the Emerging Futures Fund demonstrated a particular interest in tackling legacies of colonialism and challenging the dominant western worldview. 

“They want from the future; recognition of their right to exist as a mix of cultures and identities, without being made to feel any 'less than' - as one participant put it; I am not half of something, I am whole,” reflected Sarah Younan of the Days Ahead project. “They want access to their culture and heritage, and possibilities to share these riches more widely. They want to move into the future drawing together the best of all cultures and identities they inhabit, changing narratives of what it means to be British, Welsh, African or Black and eroding boundaries and prejudices.”

And the urgency of the need to address the climate emergency surfaced as a theme in many conversations among young people. “This project opened a wider conversation within me regarding the future of humanity,” said artist Valeria Toro of their work as part of the EFF funded Hope in the Heat project.  “We are presently living in a capitalist culture in the midst of climate catastrophe, which only a limited, commercial few, have a direct effect towards. I want this project to invite people to critique the present we are in, and to engage with alternative responses as to how humanity can progress, but most importantly, how Earth can heal.”

There was a collective frustration at the disconnect between young people’s passion for change and how rarely their concerns are acted upon. “Young people don’t feel listened to,” said Becky Bainbridge from Reclaim in Greater Manchester.  “There are lots of opportunities to feed into things, but they never know where that input went. Adults nod and make notes, but they don’t see anything change. They feel sucked dry with no reward for their input”. 

Reclaim has now secured a commitment from the mayor’s office to continue to both consult and feedback following the recent election. But many projects found that decision makers only offer tokenistic engagement with young people that risks souring their enthusiasm for change into disillusionment and disenchantment. The projects saw the need for institutions that would engage broadly and respectfully with diverse communities of young people and that would have the power to make tangible change. 

Young people have the greatest stake in shaping the future that emerges from the pandemic. From the EFF projects driven by young people, it’s clear that they recognise the enormous challenges of environmental destruction and inequality yet are determined to build a different future post-covid with optimistic pragmatism.

It’s vital to ensure that they set the paradigm for the future that they will inhabit by creating the infrastructure for their imaginings and visions to be articulated - but also to be heard. Older generations must step up and support them, respect and value their ideas and enable them to enact the change they want to see.