fbpx Looking back on 2019 - London Youth
London Youth Awards 2019

18 December 2019

The end of 2019 is fast-approaching, so we wanted to take a look back at some of the London Youth network’s achievements this year. Since January we’ve worked with tens of thousands of young people from hundreds of community youth organisations across the capital, launched a number of programmes and introduced new training and development opportunities to London Youth members.

January

We kicked off the year with the first pitch event for our ActiveLeads programme. The programme integrates our expertise in youth social action and sports development. In January, we heard from each of the teams on their girls-led, sports-focused social action projects. Find out more about the projects here.

February

The second annual London Youth Visual Art Competition took place in February 2019. This year’s theme was ‘belonging’ and we were pleased to display work from over 50 young people. View the 2019’s winners here.

March

In March we marked International Women’s Day 2019. This year’s theme, #BalanceforBetter, highlighted that a gender-balanced world is better for everyone. Read our International Women’s Day 2019 blogs here.

April

The start of spring saw the official appointment of our new President, Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE. This followed the retirement of our former President, Field Marshal The Lord Guthrie, who served as our President for 18 years. Read Sir Kenneth’s reflections on his motivation for supporting young Londoners here.

May

This year saw the launch of a number of new programmes, including our brand new employability programme, Future Talent. This year we wrapped up our Talent Match Croydon programme following two successful years of delivery. Lydia, who worked as our Partnerships Officer, reflected on the power of partnerships in her blog which you can read here.

June

Youth Social Action Day took place in June. To mark this, Robbie, our Youth Action Delivery Manager, took a look at each of our exciting youth social action programmes. Read more about the programmes here.

July

July was a busy month in Westminster, with a new Prime Minister and a number of new ministerial appointments, including the new Youth Minister, Baroness Diana Barran MBE. We were in parliament with two members of our youth advisory board, Dare London, as they gave their perspective on tackling violence. Read the full update on our blog here.

August

In August we launched the second phase of our East London Leaders programme, with a campaign focused on the positive things young Londoners are doing to improve their local communities. Watch the video here.

September

It’s been a a brilliant year for women in sport and in September we launched our Champion Girls programme which will work with 300 inactive girls and young women across the capital. National Fitness Day took place in September so to mark this our Sports Development Manager, John, looked at what the next three years has in store for sports at London Youth. Read the full blog here.

October

We attended the Labour Party and Conservative Party conferences to ensure the voice of grass-roots community youth organisations were heard. Read our reflections on the Labour conference here and Conservative conference here.

November

We were excited to launch our brand new campaign on youth work in action during Youth Work Week 2019. The campaign focuses on the unique relationship between youth workers and young people and starred four of our members and the young people they’ve worked with over the years. You can watch the full video below.

In November we also announced the winners of the London Youth Awards 2019 at a ceremony held at City Hall. Find out more about this year’s winners here.

December

The first December election since 1923 was held this year. With many spending commitments and campaign promises on reinvestment in the youth sector made during the campaign, we will be fighting to ensure the voices of youth workers are heard and we will take every opportunity to engage with the new government in answering the big questions facing the youth sector. Read more about the three manifesto promises we want the PM to keep here.

From all of us at London Youth, we’d like to wish everyone celebrating a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and Chag Sameach to everyone celebrating Hanukkah.

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