Exploring the cost of living crisis – new NYA resources
21 February 2023
London Youth welcomes the new National Youth Agency’s bespoke resource to assist youth workers in helping young people understand the cost of living crisis. This includes help with financial literacy and money management skills, and support with building young people’s emotional resilience and wellbeing.
Exploring the Cost of Living Crisis: A Curriculum Resource from the NYA
We know how acute the pressures are in London for our members. A cross section of London Youth clubs shared insights of their current concerns in Autumn 2022 here. And we have also done some signposting of resources, which can be found here
We are also doing focus groups with young people on cost of living pressures, and engaging with London Assembly Members and Westminster parliamentarians to highlight the lived experience of young people in the capital.
The new NYA resource is particularly aimed at those aged 13-19, or up to 25 with additional needs. It provides 12 practical group sessions to help young people better understand how the cost of living crisis has occurred and open up difficult discussions about how it is affecting their life in a safe and non-judgemental space.
In publishing the new resource pack, NYA has highlighted research that underpins the crisis that many young people are experiencing across the country:
- Centrepoint, the UK’s leading homelessness charity, said in its report ‘Young, homeless and hungry’ that a third of vulnerable young people often go without food for a whole day due to lack of money.
- Independent social change organisation the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in December’s ‘Going under and without’ 22/23 winter tracker, found that 92% of younger adults (aged 18-24) go without essentials, up from 76% six months ago.
The cost of living tooklit is designed for youth workers who work in all settings, as well as social workers and others working with young people using informal education.
The sessions are comprehensive, and include: the cost of living, the real cost of inflation, debt, savings, cooking and diet on a budget, the impact of the cost of living on relationships and family life, domestic abuse, and well-being on a budget.
As set out by NYA, all the activities in ‘Exploring the cost of living’ fit with the NYA Curriculum launched by the NYA in 2022. This provides an educational framework and reference tool for decision makers, policy makers, commissioners, youth workers and young people.
