Co-design strategies: Increasing access to youth spaces
- Published
- 08.10.2024
- Author
- Amelia Ahmed
As part of the ‘deeper discovery and co-design’ phase in Newham, one of the groups explored the following opportunity area: ‘How might we support existing communities and spaces that young people rely on for their wellbeing?’.
The groups started by creating systems maps (more to come on these soon!) to help understand the barriers that stopped young people from engaging with communities and spaces designed specifically for their wellbeing. The maps depicted how different aspects of young people’s lives interacted, illustrating the ripple effects that seemingly independent factors can have elsewhere. This helped us determine the core issues that interfered with young peoples’ engagement in communities and spaces. Here are just a few that were prominently mentioned:
1/ Distance to activities
Activities were often located in spaces that were too far for young people to travel to, often preventing engagement.
2/ Safety within the community
Young people told us how they are afraid to go to certain parts of the borough for fear they might become the victim of crime. Similarly, postcode wars will often prevent young people from engaging in community spaces for fear of being involved in violence. They are also often afraid to engage in spaces outside their immediate area as they feel they are more at risk of being robbed and less likely to ‘know people’ in the area, which would usually contribute to their feeling of safety.
3/ Financial barriers
Young people face financial barriers to activities. When there is a cost involved, young people told us they are less able to engage in activities, e.g. sports memberships or trips/excursions.
4/ Personal motivation to take part
Young people told us how they often don’t feel motivated to engage in spaces. Going to new spaces with new faces are hard to approach. Many young people will lack the confidence to do this by themselves, and would much rather just stay at home.
5/ Interpersonal conflicts
Young peoples’ relationships with their peers plays a very part in their levels of engagement with youth dedicated spaces. We were told it is very important to them that they don’t experience conflict.
6/ Public transport
Young people under 18 do not necessarily received free public transport, which restricts many young people from accessing youth dedicated spaces, as another financial and distance-oriented barrier. Public transport also feels dangerous for other young people, making it less effective as it’s not being put to use as they fear for their safety.
7/ Lack of information
Young people told us that they don’t feel informed on what is going on in their local area, and therefore are unable to engage in community spaces and activities for their mental health and wellbeing. Young people also aren’t making enough use of support centres in place for their mental health and wellbeing. They aren’t always aware where they are, so unable to access them, despite recognising the benefits of engaging.
What is the idea?
Since there were many issues to resolve, some of which weren’t in their hands, the young people decided to structure their final idea around a more targeted goal. The final co-design idea aims to:
- Increase awareness surrounding youth clubs in Newham
- Reduce stigma associated with youth centres
The strategy that young people devised will help to increase engagement across the borough and raise the profile of community spaces designed for young people, helping them to reach more young people.
The idea is to reintroduce Newham’s young people to local spaces, sharing that they are safe spaces designed for them. This will help them to develop connections within the community, which in turn will support long-term mental health and wellbeing.
How would this work and support the mental wellbeing of young people in Newham?
The strategy involves creating a series of short videos to be shared across social media platforms, addressing the concerns of families and the broader community.
These videos aim to keep everyone informed about the activities and benefits of youth clubs. As part of a comprehensive approach to narrow the divide between youth spaces and the community.
The second phase focuses on strengthening the ties between schools and community spaces. The goal is to foster greater interaction between the two by inviting schools into youth spaces and bringing youth volunteers/workers into schools. This initiative will allow them to engage directly with young people, discussing the positive impact such spaces can have on a young person’s mental health, well-being, and social skills.
We want to reach young people who don’t currently engage with the community or local spaces. It is important for young people and those in their lives, family, friends, teachers. They should all know what’s going on locally in order to better help young peoples’ mental health and wellbeing.
It’s important to young people to design videos that excite and inspire other young people to engage in youth spaces, be that in youth clubs or more wider community spaces. In highlighting these community areas however, t is important that young people feel welcomed when they enter them and that they are designed to be safe and take safety into consideration. Most important however is that young people remain informed on what is going on in their local area.
How can I get involved?
We are working with existing youth services in Newham to translate some of these ideas into practice, starting with generating youth-led promotional material.
If you want to get involved with this next stage, contact Kailo at contact kailonewham@uclpartners.com for more information.
Explore more
Co-design: Where the magic happens

The Deeper Discovery Phase

The Discovery Process

What is Kailo about?

Using systems thinking tools to explore mental health

Co-design strategies: Increasing access to youth spaces

Co-design strategies: Life skills for young people
