NCS Trust has commissioned a new partnership and research project – YES (Youth sector Enabling Social Prescribing) – to address the growing mental health emergency among young people.

NCS Trust has partnered with StreetGames and the Social Prescribing Youth Network (SPYN) and researchers at University College London (UCL) to build evidence on the impact of youth sector provision on young people’s mental health. The partnership will deliver an evidence review which will inform the scope and design of a new social prescribing pilot testing the role of youth provision and enrichment activities in supporting mental health among young people.

Young people are facing a deepening mental health emergency, with almost a quarter aged 17-24 identified as having a mental health problem. With clinical services stretched to the limit, and hundreds and thousands of young people waiting to access care, there is an urgent need to explore alternative routes to early intervention support.

Youth sector provision, including non-formal learning and enrichment, has an important role to play in improving young people’s mental health and wellbeing in a non-clinical environment. However, the role of the youth sector is often under-recognised in youth mental health support services and policy.

Part of this project is to identify areas of good practice in Youth Social Prescribing in order to highlight the opportunities and barriers when developing this type of approach and to raise awareness of the great work that is already being undertaken.

This is where you come in!

• Are you running a youth social prescribing project?
• Are you providing Youth activities and linking in with Social Prescribing Link Workers?

If the answer is yes and you would like your project to be involved, please use the button below to get in touch with our Youth Social Prescribing lead Liza Jarvis.  liza.jarvis@streetgames.org