What do young people living in our Housing services need to help them take their next step?

Earlier this year, our Housing team decided the best way to find out was to ask them.

The answers were practical. Young people wanted help with budgeting, understanding their payslips, managing their mental health, finding work, navigating relationships and preparing for greater independence.

But there was something else in those conversations.

Some young people were struggling to see a way beyond living at YMCA. They weren’t simply asking to learn how to budget. They were looking for the tools to move on.

Those conversations became the starting point for Your Journey, Your Future, a new programme beginning to roll out across our Housing services this September.

The work began in March, when Sam Edwards took on a project to understand where the gaps were in the support and learning already available to residents.

And residents were only one half of that conversation.

Colleagues were asked about their experience of delivering sessions too. What emerged was a very different challenge.

Staff were already creating learning around the needs they saw, but preparation could take anywhere from one to nine hours. After investing that time, changing circumstances, low attendance or no-shows could mean only a handful of young people actually took part.

It became clear that colleagues didn’t necessarily need more to deliver. They needed something that made delivery easier.

That thinking shaped the core curriculum behind Your Journey, Your Future.

Instead of colleagues repeatedly creating sessions from scratch, the programme provides ready-to-use resources that offer a consistent starting point while still allowing support to flex around the person in front of them.

The subjects reflect what residents said they wanted and what colleagues knew they were encountering every day: budgeting and debt, tenancy skills, confidence and wellbeing, healthy relationships, education, employment and preparing for work.

The programme combines this learning with personalised 1-to-1 key work and targeted group or specialist support where it is needed.

And that flexibility is important.

Residents also told the team about some of the things that can make joining a session difficult, including anxiety, illness, work or college commitments, low energy and being around too many people. Colleagues highlighted the importance of understanding the needs of neurodivergent residents and those experiencing high levels of social anxiety.

So accessibility hasn’t been treated as something to consider once the programme is finished. It is part of how the sessions are being developed and tested.

For Sam, the hope is that what young people eventually take away is much bigger than the content of any individual session.

It’s a toolkit for their own journey.

Something that helps them understand and manage their money. Support their mental health. See a pathway back into work or training. Build confidence in the skills they’ll need to live independently.

And, ultimately, help them move forward with their lives.

The first core sessions begin from the week of 21 September, with further sessions introduced week by week as part of a phased rollout. Staff and resident feedback will continue to be gathered as the programme develops, allowing the team to test what’s working and make changes along the way.

That approach is perhaps one of the most useful things to come from the project.

The team didn’t begin by deciding what young people needed and building a programme around that assumption.

They asked. They listened. They tested. And then they built.

Your Journey, Your Future is what came next.