#PlanForThe136k is 1 year old!
Cast your minds back to 12th-13th June last year, a warm week as the UK headed into summer. For us, that week included a small group of us heading into the Houses of Parliament to launch a new campaign called #PlanForThe129k. That kicked off a week of activity for 11 charities testing a collective call for a strategy to end youth homelessness. It was an experiment for a sector that is often ignored, all working with young people who are most overlooked when it comes to systemic change and political engagement. Well quite a bit has happened since then!
Together we have:
Grown from 11 initial charities to a group now totalling 143 organisations across the entire UK. And more join every week!
Changed from #PlanForThe129k to #PlanForThe136k to reflect the escalating statistics of the youth homelessness crisis
We launched our policy briefing, this campaign website and delivered a huge range of media, including live TV, national radio, popular podcasts and much more! Many of which was supporting our Parliamentary petition at the beginning of the year, garnering over 15,000 signatures.
We worked with 20 celebrities and at least 40 MPs, Ministers, senior Parliamentarians and civil servants
The campaign has been mentioned in the Greater London Assembly, the House of Lords, and recently we secured the first parliamentary debate on youth homelessness in 40 years
Not too shabby for a rag tag bunch of campaigners scattered across the UK!
So what’s next?
We’ll be sharing our Policy check list of the first 10 changes that should be made through a strategy to end youth homelessness. This is by no means a comprehensive list of what is needed to end youth homelessness in the UK but any of these would make a real tangible difference to young people’s lives, from now into future generations.
We’ll be reacting to party manifestos, continuing our campaigning and raising the flag for young people when it comes to any commitments around housing or homelessness.
We’ll be pestering whoever forms the new government that they should place young people at the heart of their policy, resourcing and decision making around housing, public health and housing. We think young people should be in the room where decisions are made, receive their fair share of funding and systemic change, and be supported into positions of power as we shape the country we want to live in.
Make no mistake #PlanForThe136k isn't going anywhere. We'll still be fighting for safe, appropriate and affordable housing for young people and we'll still be calling for a strategy to end youth homelessness, no matter what happens on the 4th July.
We want to say a massive thank you to our amazing campaign collective, the team driving the campaign forward and the amazing organisations we’ve partnered with so far. That includes so many creatives, members of the press and many politicans and supporters we’ve had along the way.
More to come soon….
Campaign representatives and young people dropping off our petition to 10 Downing Street