This is a hugely tough time financially for young people.
Only this year, Centrepoint, the UK’s leading homelessness charity, said in its report ‘Young, homeless and hungry’, that a third of vulnerable young people often go without food for a whole day because of lack of money.
Independent social change organisation the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in December’s ‘Going under and without’ 22/23 winter tracker, found that 92 per cent of younger adults aged 18-24 go without essentials, up from 76 per cent six months ago.
The National Youth Agency (NYA) is deeply committed to supporting the youth work sector and supporting the needs of young people affected by the economic crisis.
Our practical new resource aims to assist youth workers, social workers and other allied professionals in helping young people understand the cost-of-living crisis, develop essential money management skills, and build emotional resilience and ways to manage their health and wellbeing.
The ‘Exploring the cost of living crisis’ resource pack responds to the negative impact the economic recession is having on the emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people, their families, and the communities in which they live.
Aimed at those aged 13 to 19, or up to 25 with additional needs, it provides 12 practical group sessions in a safe and non-judgemental space to help young people better understand how the cost-of-living crisis has occurred and open up difficult discussions about how it is affecting their life.
The sessions include the cost of living, the real cost of inflation, debt, savings, cooking and diet on a budget, relationships and family life, domestic abuse, wellbeing on a budget, the minimum versus the living wage, unions and strikes, and taxes.
All the activities in ‘Exploring the cost of living crisis’ fit with the National Youth Work Curriculum, launched by the NYA last year, which provides an educational framework and reference tool for decision-makers, policy makers, commissioners, youth workers and young people.