Social housing sector: Youth engagement

8. Recommendations

8.1 Whilst the main findings of this study indicate youth engagement in housing and wider community services remains as an ongoing challenge, it is important to note that housing organisations understand and value youth engagement – and are driven to gain a varied and representative tenant voice.

Respondents highlighted:

• We are motivated by ensuring that our tenants voices and views are truly representative. We want to explore youth engagement as they are currently underrepresented. Moreover, they are our future tenants.
• We are building houses for the future but without including or taking into consideration youth voices to influence and shape delivery appropriately. We need the voice of the next generation of tenants.
• We need younger voices and participation. They are the next generation of council tenants. We need to plan how best we can involve them in decision-making.
• We are eager to get younger tenants involved to learn from their ideas and perspectives.
• As an organisation we want to have a varied and balanced voice of our tenants. It's important that we have the voice of the younger tenants.

8.2 Communities flourish when multi-generational influence is considered. Participation at all ages supports community cohesion, social inclusion and promotes equality. Young people specifically, bring a unique perspective, in-depth local knowledge, fresh ideas and creativity when they have a stake in their local areas.

8.3 It is recommended that housing organisations consider:

• Setting up and maintaining a database of young tenants that live within their properties, to provide a better understanding of their tenant demographic, available to access quickly and efficiently, in order to inform targeted tenant participation activities.
• Recording and analysing the age range of all tenants who take part in their consultation, engagement, scrutiny and tenant participation activities to provide a better understanding of tenant demographics that are underrepresented.
• Partnering with wider community services, charities, schools and colleges, and voluntary organisations to support and enhance youth engagement practices, in a familiar setting, to encourage conversation.
• Finding out how young tenants want to engage, and most importantly, engage in a way that they enjoy and feel comfortable with.
• Developing participation options and activities specific to the young tenant demographic in order to listen and act upon their specific priorities.
• Providing resources, designed specifically for the young tenant demographic, focused on what tenant participation is, why it is relevant, what its contribution is, and why their involvement is essential. Written in a way that's easy to understand and is appealing, to provide a clearer overview of what is involved.
• Offering incentives for involvement – such as prize draws, gift vouchers, or complimentary refreshments in order to spark an initial interest to get involved and find out more.
• Developing more flexible participation options, that offer more choice and opportunities to get involved.
• Providing regular, timely updates on the progress and results of tenant participation activities in order to retain interest and ownership of the process.
• Developing training opportunities, specific to the young tenant demographic, focused on housing options and employment prospects.
• Dedicating a staff member to focus on championing successful youth engagement and build positive relationships with existing and prospective young tenants.

8.4 Social housing landlords are strongly encouraged to provide meaningful opportunities for young tenants to play an active role in shaping their communities, to have their voices heard and influence service delivery and to support them to develop skills, knowledge, and reach their full potential.

It is essential that the voices and needs of young tenants are listened to and acted upon now, to promote better housing for the tenants of today and tomorrow, and to influence positive change for the future of social housing.