The power of engaging young people
What better way to understand how to engage young people, than to hear from young people themselves?
That’s Regeneration Brainery’s approach – focusing on bringing the voices and experiences of 14-21 year-olds to the property industry and acting as a gateway into future careers. UKREiiF provided the perfect opportunity for leading built environment specialists to come together and learn how to effectively engage a younger demographic.
In partnership with Regeneration Brainery, Socius and Meeting Place, the hour-long workshop helped us think, listen and explore what the industry should be doing to provide more of a platform for young people whilst giving them access to skills and training.
Our top five key takeaways for engaging young people during the planning, delivery and operational phases of a development:
- 🔁 – Turn up consistently. We need long-term and meaningful connections with young people.
- 🕒 – Value people’s time. We rarely offer incentives for being part of the conversation.
- 🎨 – Utilise the arts. By connecting with popular and local culture through social media, music and creative industries, we can spark the interest of young people.
- ⚙️ – Change the system. Our ability to engage is trapped within the confines of budgets, planning requirements and a lack of top-down drive.
- 📚- Consider mediums. So often, we only offer one channel for engagement for people who see and experience the world in starkly different ways.
The power of engaging young people can be seen when we create space, listen, learn and empower future generations. This spans from engaging on specific projects to facilitating career progression and pathways to new opportunities.
As the future occupiers, managers and stewards of our buildings and spaces, young people are the most critical people to have at the table when we create places.
Engagement with young people should not be limited to a tick-box exercise or a ‘nice to have’, it must become an essential part of our development process to ensure that we create spaces that have a long-term legacy.
