Youth Organisations and Coronavirus
By Alex Guy
Youth organisations play a crucial role in the daily lives
and development of children throughout the world, and Covid represents an
unprecedented challenge to keep these services and systems functioning. During the pandemic, youth organisations have
been providing access to education, peer to peer mental health advice and other
programmes to support young adults in lockdown.
Between 20th -27th March 2020, UK Youth surveyed the needs
of the youth sector and young people in the wake of Covid and its potential
long-term impact. 252 respondents, representing 235 organisations completed the
survey, and most respondents (88%) indicated they are likely or very likely to
reduce service provision to young people. 31% said that staff redundancies were
likely while 17% said permanent closure was likely. 64% of respondents said
that they were likely to lose sources of funding. Moreover, 72% of respondents
said that their organisation needs access to emergency funds to support
organisational needs to aid young people during and after the pandemic. There
have, however, been attempts to engage with young people virtually, with 86%
indicating that they were doing so or were planning to do so, where possible.
This, however, is not available to children without computers or internet access,
who may desperately need the support.
Multiple countries have created online campaigns to keep
young people informed of the measures to protect themselves and others, such as
the international campaign #youthagainstcovid19 to map and share myth-busting,
fact-checking websites and resources. This is useful in keeping young people
knowledgeable but may also help with keeping them involved with recovery plans.
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