Our vision, mission, strategy and principles

Our vision, mission and strategy

London Youth is a vibrant network of 400 community organisations serving young people and their families in every London borough.

We’re here to help young people be the best they can be.

We do this in three ways through…

Development

We help our member organisations increase their effectiveness by training youth workers, providing information and supporting organisations to achieve the London Youth Quality Mark. (Last year, we trained 420 youth workers and worked with City and Guilds to achieve national accreditation for our work on quality standards.) 

Opportunity

We work directly with young people, innovating and delivering projects in partnership with youth clubs to create opportunities that a single community-based organisation working alone could not. (We do this in London through programmes focused on sport, youth leadership, youth crime, employability and volunteering – and out of town at our two residential training and outdoor education centres, Hindleap Warren and Woodrow High House, where we also run a specialist disability programme, Activenture.)

Voice

We advocate on behalf of young people and youth workers - ensuring the daily experience of on-the-ground practitioners informs the thinking of powerful policy makers and funders. (In 2010, for example, we led a coalition of 14 London and major national charities to develop United We Stand, a manifesto for the London elections).

Look right and you can download a more detailed synopsis of our strategy and programmes.

Our principles

We do what we do because we believe in the value of...

•  Good youth work – working over the long-term, building young peoples’ all-round character and confidence
•  Grassroots community organisations - places where young people choose to go

Underpinning our work are seven key principles

• We work with young people in all their brilliant diversity, placing a particular emphasis on those who are disadvantaged or at risk
• We put young people at the forefront of our decision-making
• We balance young people’s needs for care and adventure
• We balance quantity and quality – we always want to do more, but we are not interested in growth for growth’s sake
• We work hard at working with others – because we get more done together
• We are honest about what works (and what doesn’t) including our mistakes (from which we are committed to learning)
• We are committed to continual improvement in everything we do – in our front-line services and our own organisational development

We don’t always get it right. So we try again.