Youth Elements is a youth-led organisation based in Manchester. We have been established due to the high increase of youth unemployment in the UK. Youth Elements promotes the development of social and emotional wellbeing and the improvement of mental and physical health.
Our main beneficiaries are children and young people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds that are benefit dependent and low wage communities. The communalities have high crime, low aspirations and high unemployment levels. The children and young people we engage with have behaviour issues, including involvement in criminal activities and disengagement. They lack in confidence, self esteem and low attainment. Our beneficiaries have issues related to mental health and wellbeing such as depression, anxiety and social isolation.
The work we do matters as we are creating first employment opportunities for individuals to led and develop the organisation. We hold true to youth work principles.
The impact we have on our beneficiaries is that they grow in confidence and self esteem. All our programs instil a positive 'can do' attitude which raises their aspirations and reduce anxiety levels. Furthermore, they develop personal resilience giving them the tools and techniques to respond to the pressures and demands they face in their lives and to help them identify opportunities to thrive. All participants including our youth facilitators feel more self-motivated and have a drive, zest and passion for life. By feeling better and self accepting of oneself they have greater ability to see and grab opportunities which betters their futures.
Youth Elements recruit young adults as session staff who are then trained and equipped to deliver projects, training courses and programmes to our beneficiaries and professionals who work with children and young people across the sector. Our services include accredited peer mentoring, personal development and leadership programmes. These programmes are delivered in housing associations, schools, Youth Offending Teams (YOT's) and Pupil Referral Units,(PRU's)
We also deliver issue based training courses and seminars to professionals. To date we have delivered workshops and training on housing, leaving care, mental health, homelessness and youth in enterprise, to name a few. The youth-led training and seminars create opportunities for professionals to hear and learn how these real life issues affect young people. Our events allow room for professionals to reflect on their own practice, network and feel motivated in the work they do. We are currently promoting mental health training in Manchester and London.
