A support network. A beating heart for change.
We support children, teenagers and young adults in healing after trauma and with finding the power and positivity in their stories. Our goals: individual change, and change to services and systems.
Our staff have experience of these support services, so can be better partners for young people as they develop the skills and experience to be future leaders. Together, we create ways for them to be heard and influence action as we support those delivering, designing or commissioning services for young people.
Peer Power was – and still is – developed in response to what young people believe will make a difference:
- Consistent, trusted relationships and understanding of their life stories.
- Meaningful involvement in services, their design and reform.
- Employment help and support to open up career routes.
The young people we partner with have experienced injustice and inequality, childhood adversity, abuse and trauma. Some of them describe themselves as being ‘abandoned by society’.
- 92% of young people with experience of the youth justice system have experienced loss or rejection, through bereavement, family breakdown or the onset of illness in a parent
- 60% of young people with experience of the youth justice system have a speech, language or communication disability
- Nearly half of all children in custody are from black, asian, mixed race or other minority ethic backgrounds
- Children in care are almost six times as likely to receive a formal youth justice disposal as their non-care peers
- Of children in custody aged 15-18, a third of boys and 60% of girls have spent time previously in local authority care due to abuse and neglect
- 31% of 13–18-year-olds in custody were found to have mental health problems, compared to 10% of the wider population
Towards services that put people first
We believe that systems and services designed to support children and young people are flawed, despite having inspirational staff within them.
These systems need to change, allowing for more listening, individual understanding and actions in response, so that children, teenagers and young adults get empathic support from social care, justice, education and health services. At the moment public money is being lost on services struggling to meet their needs.
The costs to the public purse of disengagement:
- Dealing with acute social problems affecting children and young people in England and Wales costs £17bn a year of public money
- Contact with the Youth Justice System costs £19bn a year
- The cost of PREVENTABLE health and social care needs for young people over 20 years has been estimated at £4 trillion
Our vision is that empathy-led services and systems support ALL children, teenagers and young adults to achieve their dreams and lead their best lives.
Our mission is to be a caring support network for young people, helping to change their lives through trusted, healthy relationships so they can change and inspire the lives of others and increase empathy in the services designed to help them.
Peer Power Youth CIO is a charity registered in England and Wales, no 1167758
