Mapping Young London
MAPPING YOUNG LONDON: A VIEW INTO YOUNG LONDONERS AFTER A YEAR IN LOCKDOWN
Mapping Young London looks at a range of issues, the impact that Covid-19 has had, and the support or change that young Londoners want to see. Young Londoners have faced one of the hardest years in recent memory, with the pandemic and lockdown impacting their education, their employment, their housing, and their mental health that could last a lifetime. This will exacerbate existing challenges, like the cost-of-living crisis, or serious youth violence.
Mapping Young London has been co-designed with young people, with a survey and focus groups that spoke to over 1,600 young Londoners aged 16-25, from a range of lived experiences. Mapping Young London is a collaboration with 22 organisations, who have contributed their own research, or have involved the young people that they work with in the research.
KEY FINDINGS:
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Priorities - Housing, employment, and mental health are the most important issues for young Londoners now, with Covid-19 and lockdown having a huge impact on these issues.
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Covid-19 and lockdown - Young people are overwhelming unhappy with the Government’s response to the pandemic, with three in four (76.2%) believing the response was bad or very bad.
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Housing - Young Londoners are worried about not having a stable or safe space to stay (40.3%), with one in three having their housing situation impacted by Covid-19 and lockdown (31%).
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Employment - Two thirds (66.6%) said that Covid-19 and lockdown has impacted their, or someone in their household’s employment, and half (51.4%) had said that their future employment plans had changed.
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Mental and physical health - Young Londoners are facing a mental health crisis, with a third (34.4%) reporting wellbeing scores indicating depression, and a majority (75.5%) indicating poor wellbeing..
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Safety and the police - A majority (83.8%) of those surveyed said that they believed that there is systematic racism in the police, with even more (88%) saying that they supported Black Lives Matter.
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Discrimination - Just less than half (45.2%) of those surveyed said that they had experienced discrimination in London, while two thirds (74.4%) said they thought discrimination was common in London.
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Fairness and finance - One in five (20.2%) of those surveyed said that their financial situation meant that they have to go without essentials.
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Youth services - Nine out of ten (88%) of those surveyed said that they do not feel that they have a say in how youth services are set up and run.
COLLABORATORS:
The LONDON G - Z: GUIDE TO GEN - Z
This document is a literature review of research about Gen-Z in London. It cites papers of this age group within the past three years. With this generation touching early adulthood, it will be interesting to see how life is changing for those born after 1996, in comparison to their older counterparts, therefore we have chosen to also include some research from as early as 2009.
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This research outlines approaches as to how we design youth policy and young people’s services.
GEN Z VERSUS THE WORLD
This 3-part mini-series followed the experiences of a group of young people from London, in a focus group. They spoke about the differences and similarities between generations before them. They also spoke about the benefits that social media has had on their activism. Click here to read the full blog post.
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