Youth workers have taken to the streets to encourage young people to stay at home and follow social distancing rules while other groups have worked to move services online.
The sector response comes amid fears the crisis will have a huge impact on young people’s mental health due to factors including isolation caused by school and youth club closures and separation from friends, increased anxiety around young people’s own health and that of their families and concerns over education and uncertainty about the future.
The Princes Trust said: “We're continuously speaking to young people to find out what's important to them at this difficult, challenging and unusual time. From confusion around social distancing and worrying about friends and family with health issues, to nervousness around using public transport and feeling hopeless about the future, there's a lot on everyone's mind.”
Organisations, including UK Youth, have reported serious concerns around an expected rise in the risk of exploitation, county lines, safeguarding, increases in teenage pregnancy, child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse and youth homelessness during the pandemic.
In an open letter to the government from Back Youth Alliance, which includes UK Youth, uniformed youth groups, the National Youth Agency (NYA) and the British Youth Council, said: “We must boldly address the reality of what happens when young people have nowhere to go, very little to do, and few people to talk to about the anxiety they are feeling in relation to the outbreak. As with all matters of inequality, it will be underserved communities that are most impacted, and they will also be the ones who find it most difficult to return to normality.
“Youth organisations are working to redeploy their resources in order to continue supporting as many young people as possible, prioritising the most vulnerable. However, this doesn’t match the breadth of sports, arts, and social activities young people would ordinarily have access to through youth services.”
In order to combat these issues, the NYA, The Mix and UK Youth have launched a new website offering resources and support for youth workers delivering both online and outreach work and for young people.
Charity Redthread posts youth workers in hospitals to support victims of youth violence, however, the charity was forced to move services online due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Programme director at Redthread Jacqui Highfield said: “Many young people are more vulnerable than ever, and their safe spaces – schools, youth centres, sports clubs – are closed. Pathways to positive adults have been disrupted, leaving space for negative influences to potentially step in.”
The charity is now holding remote case management meetings with colleagues and young people as well as providing 24/7 online support.
Youth First, based in Lewisham, south London, has also moved services online.
Mervyn Kaye, Youth First chief executive, said: “We’ve taken a push and pull approach, so we’ve tried to meet kids where they are so have been using WhatsApp, YouTube and Tik Tok and used Zoom for live interactive elements.
We’ve put up challenges such as "bust a move" where a youth worker posts a dance move clip each week. We hope young people will pick that up and run with it so it gets a life of its own. We’ve been doing the same with online exercise classes and collective film watching using iPlayer.”
Kaye warned of increased safeguarding measures surrounding online activities, adding: “You can’t control who is in the room with someone when they are on Zoom for example so you have to be wary of anything inappropriate being said or written.”
Meanwhile, uniformed youth groups Girlguiding and The Scouts have launched an online programme of activities to allow members to carry on with achieving badges and providing resources for families to use at home.
However, many organisations face uncertainty over their capacity to continue running under financial pressure caused by the crisis.
Last week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £750m package to support charities on the frontline of fighting the virus.
However, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations has calculated that the charity sector could lose £4bn in fundraising, trading and investment income over as a result of the crisis.
The Back Youth Alliance has called on the government to provide ringfenced funding for organisations supporting young people.
It said: “The need for the youth sector will be greater than ever as society seeks to rebuild itself. We cannot be short sighted in our approach. We must address this emergency phase we are in, whilst also ensuring that we have the infrastructure in place for a sustainable future.”
UK Youth is among many charities to launch an emergency appeal “to ensure the survival of vital youth services for young people”.
Meanwhile, The Baytree Centre, in Brixton, south London, has also launched an appeal to give continued support to girls and women “many of whom are vulnerable and isolated and have therefore been hard hit by the wide-reaching effects of the coronavirus lockdown”.
The centre provides one-to-one and group mentoring sessions and lessons for women and girls from diverse backgrounds and are now offering sessions online as well as supplying access to food, gas and electricity packages and technology.
