24/11/2012

Handbook
Dear Superstar, welcome to the first Youth Chances Survey-a-Thon! Strap on your boots, get your facebook and tw itter ready and make it an evening to remember! As you wouldve probably heard us say a few times by now, the Survey-a-Thon, kindly hosted by the Metro with the invaluable help of the London and South East Queer Youth Netw ork, is a chance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and questioning young people all around London to come together, learn about the project and how to get involved, and have some serious fun in the process. Are you aged between 16 and 25? Living anywhere in England but able to get to London for a day on Saturday, the 24t h of November? We expect to see you there! Bring your A-game, your friends and your enthusiasm and positive energy - lets break the record for the most surveys completed/shared on a night! This handbook is a short introduction to both the project and the days activities, aimed to give you an idea of what the Survey-A-Thon is all about and, hopefully, to inspire you to make your own mark! Enjoy!

Yours, The Youth Chances Team

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The Project
Youth Chances is a social research and influencing project aiming to improve the liv es of 16-25 year old lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people across England. We are in Year 3 of 5, a partnership between METRO, the University of Greenwich and Ergo Consulting. We are funded by the Big Lottery. To find out more w atch our Youth Chances Mission Statement. Our main focus at the moment is our survey of 16-25 year olds - finding out what life is like growing up in 2012. There are questions across areas including coming out, safety, education, work and health. We are inviting anybody aged 16 to 25 to complete the survey. We want to recruit lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and questioning young people. We want to recruit heterosexual young people too - so that w e can compare experiences between different groups. We want to identify issues and the best w ays to tackle them. The survey can be found on our website at www.youthchances.org/thesurvey with 500 in cash up for grabs... We now have over 3,500 young people who have completed the survey on our way to our 15,000 target. I n September 2012 we shared interim findings from these survey responses show ing high levels of perceived discrimination and experience of abuseev idence that life growing up LGBTQ in 2012 is a mixed one.

74% of respondents have experienced name calling/ verbal abuse because they
are LGBTQ or people think they are LGBT.

25% have experienced physical assault because they are LGBTQ or people think
they are LGBT. These experiences sit alongside worrying rates of self-harm amongst the LGB and T respondents. The reported rate of self-harm amongst LGBTQ young people is much higher than national statistics. A full press release of those findings can be found here. The findings of the survey will allow us to understand what concerns exist for LGBTQ youth growing up today and will feed into practice and policy recommendations to help support improvements.

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We have a Provider Stakeholder Forum for organisations working with young people. The 60+ members of that forum include youth well-being charity 42nd Street in Manchester, national sexual health charity Brook and the local LGBT youth group in Bristol, Freedom Youth. These organisations will benefit from the findings to develop practice to serve LGBTQ young people better. We also have a Commissioner Stakeholder Forum for those commissioning services for young people at local authorities and health authorities. The 20+ members of that forum include Plymouth, Milton Keynes Council and Oldham Councils, as well as NHS Bradford and Bexley PCT. These commissioners will benefit from our data to inform decisions they make about funding of services in their areas, in line with the expectations of the Equality Act 2010.

The Day
As you could probably imagine, reaching out to and motivating 15,000 16-25 year olds to spare 15 to 20 minutes of their time to do what is essentially quite a serious survey was never going to be easy. We have teamed up w ith numerous organisations, utilised a number of media channels (most recently an in-depth article in the I ndependent on Sunday and a profile on Radio 4s Today Programme) and made some steady progress, but we still need your help! Our experience shows that the most effective way of engaging our demographic is through face-to-face contact. This is where the Survey-a-thon comes in its a chance for young people all over London to relax in a friendly atmosphere, learn about Youth Chances and the tangible impact our findings can have on their lives, watch a good mov ie and meet like-minded peers. Most of all, they are strongly encouraged to fill in the survey (if they have not done so already) and share it with their friends and networks, making sure that as many people as possible are afforded the opportunity to get their voices heard! Below is a rough draft of the activities that the Survey-a-Thon includes:

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Time
4.30 5pm

Activity
Arrivals + Refreshm ents

Description
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5 5.15pm

Youth Chances Presentation

An introduction to the project a few words about what its aims are, how the data collection works (numbers, representation, confidentiality, etc.) and how the findings will be used to influence policy-making and services. Sets the tone for the next part...

5.15 6pm

Do You Recognise Yourself in This Picture? A Forum Discussion on Youth Chances Interim Findings

Introduces some of the more striking of the projects interim findings statistics around self-harm, perceived and actual levels of discrimination and (physical ) abuse, diet and access to resources. The aim is to foster a safe space for discussion of whether or not young peoples anecdotal experi ences correspond to what weve found, collect personal stories to substantiate the data and encourage concrete suggestions as to what needs to be improved.

6 7pm

Your Top 10 Coming Out Songs + iPad Surveys/Social Networking

An hour-long free session, allowing young people to mingle and talk about any leftover issues from the group discussion. Allows time to fill in the survey using the iPad set-up or share the link on twitter/facebook; to record endorsem ent videos to use in promotion and to get to know each other before the film screening. Soundtracked by the Top10 coming out songs as per our survey responses.

7 10pm

LGBT Film Screening

Screening of Framed Youth + talk by Ed Webb-Ingall, followed by an LGBT movie of attendees choice.

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Getting There
Norman House, Metros dear home is located on the first floor of Norman House 110-114 Norman Rd Greenwich London SE10 9QJ Nearest station is Greenwich Station, accessible by train from Cannon Street or London Bridge. No DLR services on the weekend.
Call Peter on

0755 109 7264

or e-mail peter@youthchances.org

Hope to see you there!