Case Study: The Young Lives Foundation

Overview

The Young Lives Foundation (YLF) is a charity that listens, supports and empowers disadvantaged young people in Kent, through Advocacy, Mentoring, Befriending and Activity Programmes.

YLF aims to support young people to thrive through highly effective and accessible programmes where they are given a voice, heard and empowered, supported by consistent adults through times of challenge and change, and have opportunities and resources to be happy and thrive.

Through the advocacy Service, YLF aims to fulfil the needs of children and young people according to the i-Thrive framework:

Getting Advice: Many young people experience anxiety, low self-esteem, and emotional distress linked to trauma, instability, and not feeling heard. Neurodiverse young people often struggle further due to confusing systems. Clear, accessible information from advocates helps reduce uncertainty and emotional overwhelm.

Getting Help: Mistrust of professionals, past negative experiences, and poor communication can lead young people to disengage. Advocates use a person-centred approach to ensure young people’s views are heard and that they are genuinely involved in decisions, which strengthens confidence, engagement, and wellbeing.

Further Support/Getting More Help: Escalating anxiety, trauma responses, and emerging self-harm are common, especially when frequent placement and professional changes disrupt continuity of care. Advocates challenge delays and service gaps, supporting coordinated work across education, social care, and health to stabilise support and reduce the impact of fragmented systems.

Getting Risk Support: Some young people face significant risks, including severe self-harm, exploitation, and mental health crisis. Restrictive measures such as Deprivation of Liberty can worsen feelings of isolation and loss of control. Advocates uphold young people’s rights, challenge inappropriate restrictions, and ensure their voice shapes risk planning, helping reduce the psychological impact of high-risk situations.

Thriving: Ultimately, young people want stability, to feel valued, and to be treated as individuals. Advocacy helps build self-esteem, strengthen emotional resilience, and support long-term wellbeing, aligning with i-THRIVE’s focus on strengths, rights, and sustained recovery.

i-Thrive in Action

  • Shared Decision Making: YLF Advocates provide independent support to help young people understand decisions affecting them, express their views, resolve issues, and ensure their voices are respected throughout the decision-making process.
  • Needs Led: YLF’s Appropriate Adults safeguard fair treatment for 10–17-year-olds and vulnerable adults in police custody when a parent or carer cannot attend, delivering over 10,000 volunteer hours each year. Accompanying Adults support unaccompanied children during immigration age assessments, ensuring they understand their rights and that processes remain fair.
    YLF School Mentors promote mental health, emotional wellbeing, and resilience by offering a safe, trusted space to talk. YLF Mentoring helps young people at risk of offending or exclusion build confidence, improve behaviour and relationships, and engage in positive activities, including online sessions with the Legends team.
  • Accessibility: The YLF Legends Programme offers disadvantaged young people opportunities to explore new experiences through weekly groups, trips, camps, and educational activities, with young people involved in planning. YLF Advocates also support care-experienced individuals through change, providing information on rights and entitlements. Through strong networks, YLF connects young people with hardship grants for education, employment, training, and wellbeing.
  • Partnership Working: YLF’s Befriending programme matches young people in care with Independent Visitors who offer stable, long-term support, helping build social skills, self-esteem, and confidence. YLF also provides participation opportunities for those with lived experience to influence services, while Ambassadors deliver training to professionals. YLF further supports care leavers through employment and apprenticeship pledges.
  • Proactive Prevention and Promotion: YLF mentors help care leavers develop independence, offering support with budgeting, job searches, accommodation, and regular contact to reduce isolation. YLF also brings care-experienced young adults together through peer mentoring, social groups, and life-skills activities, building supportive communities and reducing loneliness.

Feedback

“She's brilliant because she just treats me like a normal person, not weird.”

“It just calms me down.”

“I like that we don't just sit there. We go out and do things, and then the heavy stuff just comes up naturally when we're walking.”

“It genuinely helps me handle my stress better. I feel heard.”

“YLF has helped me through a rough patch in my life and since they’ve been there everything in my life has changed and I’m now getting what I need. Icouldn’t have asked for any better and I’m grateful that they’ve helped me.”

Conclusion and Next Steps

YLF has over 200 volunteers across Kent and Medway, delivering 10,000 voluntary hours, supporting over 2,700 vulnerable young people per year. 94% have rated YLF 5 out of 5 for ‘feeling listened to and supported’.

Recognised system barriers to i-THRIVE include a perception of long CAMHS waiting lists, poor A&E experiences and delays, limited understanding of trauma and neurodiversity, professional burnout, placement instability impacting continuity of care.

Advocacy helps navigate these barriers, promoting a needs-led, person-centred, and coordinated approach in line with the i-Thrive framework.

Key focuses for YLF remain being young person led, trauma informed, safe spaces- beyond buildings, trusted and consistent adults, new participation charter, and adaptable models of delivery.