5 Years of the Involving Young People Collective

The IYPC

The Involving Young People Collective (IYPC or Collective for short) is a group of 12 young people aged 18 - 26, connected by their drive for social change. They work closely with Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, as paid consultants, to design and test ways to involve young people more directly in the Foundation’s work, and to improve the organisation’s funding practice.

Foreword from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

At Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, we have always believed that young people should be at the heart of decisions that impact them. The last five years of working with the Involving Young People Collective, with support from Hudl Youth Development Agency, has been transformative. What began as a pilot to explore youth involvement has become a core part of how Esmée operates, influencing everything from funding decisions and how we fund to our organisational culture and the conversations we have with applicants and partners.

As well as bringing expertise, challenge and joy into our work, the Collective have helped to embed a culture of co-production that creates space for reflection, accountability and ongoing learning across the organisation. Having a ‘test and learn’ mentality has helped us to try out new approaches and be open to innovation and challenge.

The impact of the Collective goes beyond Esmée. Through sharing learning and working alongside partners, the Collective has contributed to wider conversations in the sector about how power can be shared more meaningfully with young people. It’s also deeply encouraging to see what a positive experience being part of the Collective has been for the young people too. IYPC members describe taking the confidence, values and ways of working from their experience into their careers - from influencing how they advocate for youth voice in other roles, to shaping what they expect from workplaces and the opportunities they pursue.

At its heart, this work has required us to think differently about our role as a funder: to listen more deeply, to question our own assumptions, and to recognise that we are at our best when we work collaboratively - across generations, perspectives and experiences.

This report reflects on the past five years of our journey together. It captures the insight, energy and commitment of the young consultants who have shaped this work, alongside colleagues at Hudl and across Esmée. We haven’t got everything right, and at Esmée, we know that we are still learning about co-production. But we hope it shows what’s possible when young people are recognised as peers and partners in shaping change.

Dame Caroline Mason CBE

Chief Executive, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Introduction from Hudl

What the IYPC has achieved over its first five years is a testament to the curiosity, commitment and courage of everyone involved. These values have allowed us to explore co-production together, to test our collective boundaries and to support each other to go further, share more, and experiment. Curiosity, commitment and courage have also given us space in which to learn and develop; and they have afforded us the confidence to trust one another, taking forward steps even when the destination is unknown.

Not everyone can work in this way. Endowed foundations have a unique privilege in terms of their wealth and stability, and therefore their ability to both experiment and plan. In establishing the IYPC, and in how they have worked with the Collective, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation have stepped into their privilege and by doing so, allowed us all to learn far more about co-production than we might have otherwise.

Sharing that learning is the ambition behind this document. We hope that it is useful, and that it supports and encourages others to deepen their co-production practice. Most of all, we hope it leads to more exciting opportunities for young people, and more collaborations embedding curiosity, commitment and courage into their work.