Shifting power: a pilot in participatory social investment with young Londoners

Trust for London has a history of including people with lived experience in its grant and strategy decision-making. We wanted to build on this within our social investment work.

Young Londoners are more likely to be unemployed than older Londoners – and than young people elsewhere in England. We decided to focus on youth unemployment, and recruited a panel of young Londoners with direct experience of unemployment.

The panel were involved in every stage of the process, from setting eligibility criteria to making investment recommendations. We were excited about the opportunity to listen to the voices of the young people who had experienced long term unemployment and what they felt was most important when making funding decisions.

We hoped this would enable us to reach more organisations that have traditionally been excluded from the social investment landscape and provide some rich learnings to apply in our day-to-day processes going forward.

New perspectives

The best part of this project was getting to see first-hand what was important to the young people when making funding decisions and collaborating on every stage of the funding cycle. Often investment processes are fixed and traditional. This can lead to a continuation of the status quo and prevent new and historically excluded organisations from applying. When a new pair of eyes, or six in this case, are questioning each stage of the process, it brings up some interesting insight.

For example, one young person questioned the purpose of analysing social impact reports and case studies, noting that typically the people chosen are cherry picked to demonstrate in glowing terms the organisation and its activities and values. They spoke from direct experience of being asked to do this from a charity they previously were involved with.

This specific example led to a new process where the young person being supported by the organisation would be interviewed by the panel, with this conversation adding more weight to the decision making then the traditional review of impact reports.

A more inclusive process

We were blown away by the level of interest we had in the project. The number of applications we received greatly surpassed our expectations – and this means we were able to provide investments to three organisations, all of which are looking to tackle the rooted issues of youth unemployment. It has also provided us with a rich pipeline of potential future investments.

We have no doubt that this was in part due to the process being designed by young people. It demonstrates the positive outcomes that participatory programmes such as this can achieve, reaching organisations who might not have otherwise applied to us, or who may have felt social investment wasn’t for them.

Challenges and learnings

Participatory processes take time and effort to get right. And inevitably, they come with challenges. Here are three learnings and considerations we took away from the processes.

Power dynamics

We understood from the outset the importance of recognising the power dynamics in play. We wanted to bring out the key strengths and experience of the young people whilst not shying away from our strengths and experience as a funder. Shift Design did a fantastic job in convening and facilitating which enabled us to build a rapport quickly with the young people.

The roles and responsibilities were defined and agreed early on in the process with a particular emphasis on being clear on who holds the power for decision making at different stages. This meant the panel would make a recommendation to the Trust for London Investment Committee that they consider and make their own assessment of. This felt like the right balance for a pilot and ensuring the young people get a legitimate experience of what an investment process looks like.

Outcome areas

While the outcome area we were working on (youth unemployment) is incredibly important, it isn’t necessarily as emotive or triggering as other outcome areas. This meant there wasn’t many conflicts or tensions, which in itself is positive. However, this also raises questions about learnings from the programme and whether if we were to replicate this focused on a more emotive outcome area, further challenges might arise.

Involvement in every stage

For anyone considering a participatory model, to do it well I believe the people with lived experience need to be there from the outset. It is no good having a person sitting on an investment committee when 90% of the work in getting that investment to there is done.

Get them involved from setting the eligibility right through to the shortlisting and assessing. Also ensure that there is safe, inclusive spaces to allow trust and relationships to naturally develop.

Looking to the future

Without a doubt, Vested was a worthwhile project. The individuals who took part in the pilot as panelists have shared a range of benefits that this has had on them personally.

We also managed to successfully make three investments into organisations looking to tackle youth unemployment and built a rich pipeline of organisations we remain in contact with from those that applied. Three of those organisations have gone on to receive investment readiness support.

We are currently reviewing our social investment strategy and are keen to embed this learning and experience into how we will work with a participatory approach in the future. In everything we do, we want to ensure that it brings value to the people involved and ourselves. To do this well needs time and resource. But the outcomes ultimately mean it is well worth investing in both of these things.

Find out more about the Vested project and find the full final learning report here.

Find out more about our social investment work here.