Vision and Purpose

The Open Youth Infrastructure project unites young people, youth organisations, funders, policymakers, and technology partners from across the UK with a clear purpose: to develop an open, collective infrastructure for the youth sector that any organisation or young person can use, reuse, and build on.

By exploring what truly helps or hinders youth organisations from sharing data openly, we aim to create practical solutions informed by governance, design, data, and sustainability, ensuring that every young person can access the support they need when they need it.

Openness is at the heart of this project, and we invite everyone in the sector to help us imagine and create a better digital and data infrastructure for all young people.

“Effective youth infrastructure cannot be parachuted in from outside – it must be grown from within communities, sustained through authentic relationships, and supported by funding models that recognise the value of local knowledge and long-term commitment.”

Open: Open means working transparently and collaboratively across sectors, inviting diverse voices to contribute, and remaining flexible and inclusive throughout the project.

Infrastructure: Infrastructure is the systems, standards and skilled people that help youth organisations share, learn and grow together.

Aims

The Open Youth Infrastructure (OYI) group seeks to uncover:

• What makes a strong, effective and inclusive community of support so that every young person can flourish, regardless of their circumstances, location, and background.
• How can we evolve youth services by being more open, collaborative and data-driven?
• The goal is to explore and share barriers to openness, identify successful models of collaboration and support, and ultimately generate insights and tools that can shape the next decade and beyond of youth infrastructure across the UK.
• At the heart of this is a belief that open working, shared data, and cross-sector collaboration can transform how services are delivered, ensure better support for young people, and foster more resilient, locally rooted, and nationally connected communities.

****NPC - Open Youth Infrastructure

Our definition of infrastructure

We mean:

• The digital and data tools used to support and manage the delivery of services to young people.
• Resources required for different stakeholders to sustain the services that young people need.
• Standards and governance - How we make decisions + where power has been distributed and fallen - for purposes of stewarding the work well.
• The people to develop, use, manage, and maintain the above, without a healthy workforce, we’ve got nothing

“True transformation requires a sector-wide shift in how we value transparency, reward collaboration, and build trust—not just between organisations, but also between funders, practitioners, and young people themselves.”

Research undertaken

Engaging directly with those who work with and support children and young people was a guiding principle of this research. Four distinct research activities were undertaken to deepen understanding and spark essential conversations:

• National Literature Review and Mapping: Provided a comprehensive overview of youth infrastructure across the UK, drawing on recent developments, best practices, and ongoing challenges within the sector.
• Survey of Youth Organisations: Collected both quantitative and qualitative insights from statutory services, voluntary and community groups, digital platforms, and national infrastructure bodies, spanning the full UK.
• In-Depth Stakeholder Interviews: Gathered rich perspectives from youth practitioners, sector leaders, and funders, offering first-hand stories on barriers, needs, and solutions for better support systems.
• Youth-Led Local Research: In Manchester and Bath, young people led research in their communities, surfacing local insights that complemented and challenged national findings.

Our thanks to Lucy Read from Future Views Today, who led the UK-wide Research, national mapping and survey conversations. Antonia Dixey and Temi Oluwadare from Participation People, who ran hackathons with children and young people. Lauren Bennett from AMPLIFY, who led the research with young people in Bath, and Sami Gichki from the iWill Movement, who led the research in Manchester.

The research can be viewed below:

Future Views Today - “Beyond Silos: Mapping Youth Infrastructure and Open Collaboration Across the UK”

Mapping Manchester - An Analysis of Open Youth Infrastructure in Manchester with a youth-focused lens

Youth-Led Bath Based Research - Leveraging Powerful Communities to Rebuild Youth Services Through Data Sharing and Digital Collaboration

OYI Hackathons report - 2025

Call to Action: Our 8 Statements

1. Youth voice must lead every decision Young people must be involved from design to delivery, shaping the systems and services that affect them
2. Data usage must be transparent and understood Everyone involved has confidence in who controls the data, who can access it, and how it will be used.
3. Use shared language and open standards Co-created clear, consistent definitions, youth-friendly language, and shared data standards to ensure meaningful, accessible communication
4. Inclusion must drive data collection Systems must reflect and represent young people, especially those from marginalised and underrepresented communities
5. Funding must enable long-term change Investment must move beyond short-term project funding to ensure sustainable services and infrastructure
6. Collaboration over competition Organisations must actively build collaborative ways of working, sharing learning and resources, rather than operating in silos
7. Relationships are the foundation Genuine and in-person relationships build trust and a lasting impact
8. A neutral, cross-sector group must steward the future Investment in an independent body is needed to continue to support the development of Open Youth Infrastructure.

Our Launch Event

Thursday, 27th of November 2025 - the day we transformed the youth sector!

This was the shock the sector needed - an event delivered transparently, collaboratively and differently.