● Havering Amplify · Built from the Youth Wellbeing Census
We turned how we really feel into something the borough can't ignore.
Amplify is a programme where young people in Havering explore their own school's wellbeing results and turn them into real recommendations for change — carried to the council, schools and local services. This is the sound of that turned all the way up.
8+
Schools engaged
100+
Young people engaged
65
Sessions delivered
95%+
Positive engagement
Programme running April 2026 → March 2027
What Amplify is
A youth-led response to the Havering Youth Wellbeing Census — not a survey about young people, but a movement led by them.
In 2023, 2,287 students across 10 Havering secondary schools took the #BeeWell census. The numbers told us how young people feel. Amplify is what happens next: Youth Unity facilitates structured group sessions in schools where students dig into their own results, decide what matters most, and shape the changes they want to see. Running from April 2026 to March 2027, the programme has already engaged over 100 young people — and the podcast is how they say it out loud.
How youth voice becomes change · The Lundy Model
Voice only counts when someone acts on it.
01 / Space
Safe space
Young people get inclusive, structured group sessions in school to form and share their views.
02 / Voice
Real voice
Discussion, Mentimeter, vision boards and podcasts capture what students actually think.
03 / Audience
The right audience
Findings go to the council's Youth Service, Public Health and Innovation & Improvement teams.
04 / Influence
Influence
Recommendations are acted on — and young people get feedback on what changed.
The next step · The Small Circle
Now the findings have landed, a small circle of young people takes them deeper.
Amplify has surfaced what young people across Havering are really feeling. The next move is youth-led and grows straight out of this project's own findings: Youth Unity is forming a "Small Circle" — a core group of students drawn from across the schools who carry the work further. They dig into the root causes behind the data, shape it into clear recommendations, and decide how the message gets shared. It's the difference between being asked your opinion once and helping run the conversation.
1 Census findings→
2 School sessions→
3 Small Circle goes deeper→
4 Recommendations→
5 Change you can see
Mapping what Havering's young people want
Across every school, the same things keep coming up.
When students were asked what they want more help with, three priorities rose to the top in all three pilot schools. The ranges below show the lowest-to-highest demand recorded across Brittons, Harris Rainham and Emerson Park.
Most-requested support
Money & budgeting
48% – 69% of students
The single biggest ask everywhere — young people want practical money skills before they leave school.
Most-requested support
Looking after mental health
38% – 43% of students
A consistent second: students want tools and trusted people, not just to be told to "be resilient".
Most-requested support
Healthy friendships & relationships
31% – 48% of students
Belonging and friendships sit right at the heart of how young people rate their own wellbeing.
What gets in the way
The same barriers turn up almost everywhere.
Three barriers also block young people from local activities almost everywhere: not enough time (41–48%), cost, and feeling unsafe — and roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of students rarely or never attend a youth club. The most-named problem in their local area is consistent too: people stealing things (63–68%).
The 8-week journey in every school
From belonging to broadcast.
Week 1
Introduction & Belonging
Week 2
Mental Wellbeing
Week 3
Peer Relationships
Week 4
Confidence & Identity
Week 5
Managing Emotions
Week 6
Future Aspirations
Week 7
Vision Boards
Week 8
Podcast Delivery
Live & growing
This is a living project.
Amplify is just getting started. As more schools complete their journey, we'll keep adding new findings, recommendations and — most importantly — the voices and feedback of the young people shaping it. Check back as the project develops to see what's changed, and what young people in Havering have made happen.
● The schools
Three schools. Three honest stories.
Each pilot school explored its own slice of the census. The data isn't a verdict — it's a starting point for a conversation students are leading themselves.
Beyond the pilot
More schools are on the way.
Amplify is also running across the wider borough — including Sanders Draper, Marshalls Park, Redden Court, Elm Park and Harris Academy Sixth Form — with more school stories joining this hub as their groups complete the journey.
● Week 7 · Creative expression
Vision boards: what we're aiming for, in our own words.
Before the microphones go on, students map where they're headed. Vision boards turn private hopes into something you can point at — calmer minds, real friendships, money skills, a school that listens. These are the themes that filled the boards across the programme.
On the boards
The futures students drew for themselves.
Made by young people
Every board belongs to its maker.
Each board is created and owned by the young person who made it. Photos of real student vision boards (with consent) can drop straight into the placeholders above — keeping faces out of frame and youth voice front and centre.
Straight from the sessions
Every word here was said by a young person in Havering.
Anonymous, unedited, and chosen by students. Filter by what they were talking about.