Powerful partnerships are the driving force of YPI. The success of the programme is dependent on partnerships across an array of stakeholders including The Wood Foundation, schools, local communities, charities, education practitioners, funding partners, and, most importantly, young people. The collaborative nature of YPI is creating an empowered system says our Deputy UK Director Jonathan Christie. 

“YPI is built upon a myriad of partnerships, all of which are critical to the success, impact, and sustainability of the programme. 

“We have the privilege of working alongside 250 Scottish secondary schools. These partnerships are borne of a shared affinity with YPI and what the programme can address across a number of curricular and community objectives.  

“The basis of the relationships with schools, from SLT to delivery teachers and other staff, is collaboration, reflective of context. This allows the programme to evolve and embed in each school in a way that chimes with school values, priorities, and curricular approaches. The strength of these longstanding partnerships is due to flexibility, mutual respect, and shared objectives.

“The past six months have been tumultuous. Schools have faced unprecedented challenges and have had to pivot multiple times. As a value-add partner, we have been alongside them in that journey and adapted the programme to fit a very different academic year. To still have 250 schools committed to delivering the programme this academic year is testament to these efforts.

“The most vital partner of all? Young people. YPI empowers them to be equal partners in the process, devolving real responsibility and self-led learning, alongside the opportunity to learn more about their communities and actively make a difference. Since we launched in 2008, more than 200,000 young people have undertaken YPI, embraced the responsibility, and stepped beyond their comfort zones. This partnership between young people and the principles, aims, and objectives of YPI is the cornerstone of what we do. The partnerships they form in teams and with their selected charities, are significant. 

“Twelve years into the delivery and development of YPI nationally, the way in which third sector partners continue to share time and expertise is representative of a partnership with purpose, depth, and authenticity. 

“Another important piece of the puzzle is the small cohort of likeminded funding partners that has been central to releasing our full ambition for YPI.  It is far more than an opportunity to simply grant money, it is a vehicle to invest in young people and charities, while developing community relationships through school-based opportunities such as judging and mentoring. 

“This intricate web of partnerships, by no means limited to those I’ve mentioned within this piece, is cascading empowerment throughout the system with the ultimate goal of ensuring the impact, sustainability, and opportunities of YPI can be fully realised by our young people.”