OUR PROJECTS
There are many challenges facing children and young people today. Through our projects, we aim to tackle these challenges, taking our resources and expertise wherever we feel we can make the most impact. We take on projects to find new insights that are youth-led and solution-focused to address issues no matter how big or small, sensitive, or controversial the issue.
Our youth consultants
Our Youth Consultant programme is our way of putting the voice of young people at the heart of everything we do, guiding all our projects and other commissioned youth voice activities.
We aim to ensure young people are listened to and that their experiences, ideas and feedback inform and shape the world around them.
Creative Arts and Youth Voice
Project 13 - 31* is a two-year programme to empower seldom-heard young people using urban arts techniques. This transformative approach will empower young people within two grassroots youth organisations, allowing them to shape and inspire their communities through an exciting array of 40 immersive and creative workshops and community arts events.
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Project start date December 2023
*The project is named after UNCRC Articles 13 and 31. Article 13 states children and young people have the right to access information and express themselves through writing, speaking, or drawing, while Article 31 highlights their right to participate in cultural and artistic activities.
ACT: Acknowedge - Care - Talk
ACT is a college-based early intervention programme to enable young people to recognise the early signs of suicide in themselves and others.
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Why ACT?
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ACKNOWLEDGING the signs of suicide that young people display and taking them seriously.
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Letting people know you CARE about them and that you want to help.
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Encouraging help-seeking behaviours among young people including TALKING to a trusted adult.
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ACT is underpinned by evidence-based learning methods to create a 'safe space' to address difficult and sensitive issues. These include open forum discussions and role play, together with arts-based activities to fully engage young people.
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Project start date: April 2024
Preventing illicit substance use: a mixed-methods evaluation of a schools-based Theatre-in-Education intervention
Priority 1-54 is excited to be playing a key role in this innovative research project aimed at reducing substance misuse among young people. We will be conveneing a Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG), so that young people guide and shape the research process.
The YPAG will offer valuable insights and help design critical aspects of an evaluation of a Theatre-in-Education programme tailored for 12-14-year-olds. By placing young people at the heart of research design, this project underscores the importance of undertaking work that is rooted in their lived experiences.
This collaborative project is led in partnership with the University of Brighton and East Sussex County Council and is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
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Project start date: October 2024
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Potential Not Poverty
Originally commissioned by Save the Children to gather the views and opinions on the challenges faced by children and young people growing up in poverty.
To date the group worked alongside SCUK’s policy team to create a series of national policy reports, and met the Minister for Education and the Child Poverty Taskforce, culminating in a visit to 10 Downing Street in October 2024 to present their findings.​
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I'm Speaking
Launched in February 2025 with Comic Relief funding, ‘I’m Speaking’ seeks to empower young women to make their voices heard on several community safety priorities in East Sussex.
Together, they will co-produce guidance so that youth services provide safe spaces for young women and identify a range of quality-assured youth programmes that focus on healthy relationships, respect, and consent.
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Ongoing
Preventing violence against women and girls
Funded by Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, Steps to Respect offers young women a programme of engaging workshops that explore gender norms and stereotypes, the myths surrounding sexualised bullying and sexual harassment, consent and advocacy.
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Ongoing
Maps to Manhood
Funded as part of the national Safer Streets agenda, Maps to Manhood is a programme of creative and challenging workshops offering a safe space for young men to explore the importance of respectful relationships, sexualised bullying and sexual harassment.
The themes covered in the programme include:
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The 'Man Code' and what it means to be a man.
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Sexist banter and sexualised bullying.
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Young men as allies in challenging sexual harassment.
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Bystander/Upstander behaviour.
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Ongoing
Moving up to Secondary School
Funded by the Co-op Foundation #iwill fund, Smooth Moves was a 3-year youth-led project to support the well-being and resilience of children as they move to secondary school.​
Youth voice in mental health
The aim of our Connecting Minds project is to support a range of co-production activities with children and young people, to inform the work of Mental Health Support Teams and whole-school approaches to emotional wellbeing and mental health in East Sussex.
Key to the project is the use of inclusive and creative co-production methods to engage and amplify the voices of seldom-heard children and young people with lived experiences of mental health.
