The Hope Hacks were events organised by the Hope Collective and the Humber Violence Prevention Partnership (VPP) to engage with young people in Humberside and hear their views and solutions on issues such as community safety, mental health, youth voice, and life skills.

The events involved workshops on seven key themes, guest speakers, activities, and presentations of ideas by the participants. The events also included surveys to measure the impact and feedback of the young people, showing that the participants felt more positive and confident by the end of the events.

The qualitative analysis of the events revealed four common themes across all areas:

• preparing young people for adulthood
• creating safe spaces
• inclusion and feeling heard
• education

The young people suggested solutions such as introducing life skills and financial education in the curriculum, improving street lighting and CCTV, increasing youth representation and voice in decision making, and making sports and activities more accessible and inclusive.

The findings from the Hope Hacks provide a baseline understanding of the needs and views of young people in Humberside and inform the future work of the VPP and its partners. The VPP intends to continue working with the young people to co-produce an audio-visual version of the report and publish it on its website. The report also raises questions and challenges for the service providers and authorities to address the issues and solutions raised by the young people.

Further information can be found here: Hope Hacks | Humber Violence Prevention Partnership (humbervpp.org)

The document ‘Hope Hack Overview Report Understanding the Humber Region from a Youth perspective’ can be viewed and downloaded below.