Today should, in my humble view, go down as a momentous day in UK history. The Office for National Statistics has published the very first official results from its new programme to measure our national wellbeing. The announcement has been rather low-key and the data is only based on a very small sample (4,200 adults)... Find out more
Blog
The Young Foundation welcomes contributions from many sectors and standpoints - views expressed here are not necessarily held by The Young Foundation.
Ideas, as well as people, now move more freely. We have put new models, drawn from other classes and other parts of the world, before the local people, creating new aspirations and new ideas.Michael Young and Peter Willmott.
Family and Kinship in East London, 1957
SIX – A global game of consequences
“Consequences” is a British parlour game. The game is very simple – everyone begins with a piece of paper and a pen. On the piece of paper is the following list: man’s name, woman’s name, place name, he said to her, she said to him, the consequence was (a description of what happened after), an... Find out more
Riots show why the happiness agenda is vital
In the aftermath of last night’s riots in London and other cities across the UK, people are shocked and angry. The images of burning buildings and streets in ruin are more like scenes from a disaster movie than something you’d expect to see in a prosperous country like the UK in 2011. There are far... Find out more
Growing Interest?
Government has high hopes in social finance (private finance that makes social as well as economic returns) to help preventative, innovative projects prove their potential. But will ‘Cinderella’ services go the social finance ball? Young Foundation analysis of the youth sector for the Catalyst Consortium reminds us that investment – even when it offers sub-commercial... Find out more
Is community organising just what’s needed in these tough times?
Community organising suddenly came into vogue last summer with the ringing endorsement of the new government, announcing their backing for a programme of 5,000 community organisers. But what is ‘community organising’? The intellectual heritage of the concept is complex – the US tradition of Saul Alinksy, more confrontational and disruptive, drawing on the power of... Find out more
Banking on the Big Society
This May the government endorsed a Big Society Bank to invest an unprecedented £260M in social enterprise. This looks pretty impressive against the £360M that Labour injected into social investment over 13 years. Big Society rhetoric promises better public services provided by social entrepreneurs, but the reality, sadly, seems to be privatisation to a handful... Find out more
Wanted: an opportunity to age well
A recent report by the King’s Fund suggests that there will be a social care funding gap of £1 billion by 2014 unless councils can achieve unprecedented efficiency savings. The impact of the funding gap could have a knock on effect on the NHS with cuts to frontline social care services leading to fewer people... Find out more
Aspirations from the street
On a cold winter’s day, late in the afternoon, I am trying to persuade Asad to come along to emotional resilience training, called ‘Face Up’. The training is taking place in the Wealdstone Resource Centre, a community hub hosting a youth centre, medical centre and library. The centre is a few metres from where we... Find out more