Shaping Positive Futures
The Shaping Positive Futures Youth Programme is an immersive residential experience for 16–24-year-olds that inspires ambition, develops employability skills and introduces exciting career pathways that many young people never knew existed.
Delivered at Community Threads’ beautiful 14-acre home, Trafford Hall, our residentials combine employer engagement, practical learning and outdoor experiences to help young people realise their potential and take confident steps towards employment.
Creating opportunities for young people who need them most
Across the UK, more than 1 million young people aged 16–24 are not in education, employment or training, that’s nearly 1 in 8! Each one is an individual young person who may feel that work, progression, happiness and success are simply out of reach.
For young people facing disadvantage, the journey into work can feel overwhelming and unobtainable. Without people around them to open doors, share experiences and help them see what is possible, many young people can begin to doubt themselves and their future. This results in poor aspiration, isolation, low self-esteem and uncertainty. The need for practical, confidence-building support cannot be ignored.
We’ve been supporting young people for over 35 years and are here to change that.
Programme impact
Our Youth Programme creates more positive futures for 16–24-year-olds by giving them the time, space and support to build essential skills, improve health and wellbeing, increase resilience, strengthen employability and explore sector-specific careers.
Community Threads creates a different kind of learning environment: one where young people can step away from everyday pressures, try new experiences and start to see what could be possible for their future.
By combining career inspiration, personal development, health and wellbeing support, and meaningful employer engagement, we’re helping young people believe in themselves, discover what’s possible and take their next steps with confidence.
This residential experience has been transformative for me. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to rediscover my strengths.
I’ve grown more confident in expressing myself, learned to collaborate effectively with a diverse group of people, and gained a clearer understanding of my own potential. The experience has helped me become more empathetic and resilient in everyday life.
Mohamad
Participant from Army of Kindness, Rochdale
What is the Shaping Positive Futures Youth Programme?
Shaping Positive Futures opens doors that many young people may never have known were there. It introduces them to new sectors, real employers and career pathways, while helping them build the connections and personal skills they need to believe they belong in the world of work.
The programme is designed primarily for young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET), and for those from communities facing disadvantage and inequality.
Each residential programme focuses on a specific employment sector and supports the transition from education to work through direct, in-person connections with employers. Young people leave with a clearer sense of their value, what is possible, where they might fit, and how to take their next step.
Alongside career insight, participants develop the skills and confidence that make a lasting difference to employability, health and wellbeing. This includes building resilience, problem solving, communication, leadership and teamwork through non-traditional, fun and engaging activities, both indoors and outdoors in the natural environment.
Every young person has something to give: a skill, an aptitude, a potential.
No young person should be written off because of where they start in life: the family they are born into, the school they attend, the health condition they have, or the barriers they face. The NEET problem is grounded in social disadvantage. The people and places that suffer most are too often those with the least.
Department for Work & Pensions
Independent Report “Young People and Work: interim report”
I attended the residential with an open mind in the hope that the young people would develop their skills and knowledge around the environment and hopefully spark a passion for sustainability (if the spark wasn’t there already!)
The residential also offered an opportunity for young people to utilise their newfound knowledge and skills to develop their own projects. Ours has come in the shape of our Garden Project and is something that has captured most of our residents at the Foyer in some form or another, bringing the community together and having a compounding positive impact on our young people’s wellbeing and living space.
Emily Conway
Project Housing Officer, Your Housing Group, Chester
Opportunities like this are a real benefit to those people that perhaps don’t really know much about the energy industry and what careers are out there.
It’s a really good opportunity for young people to get involved with.
Sarah Wright
Programme Manager at Energy for Tomorrow, Centrica and youth programme pilot funder
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t see an answer to your question, don’t hesitate to contact us, where a member of our team who will be delighted to help you.
Shaping Positive Futures was first developed as a pilot in partnership with Centrica’s Energy for Tomorrow and young people were involved in the design. The pilot had an initial focus on green sector careers, and sustainability.
It has since grown into a flexible model that can introduce young people to a wider range of sectors while continuing to strengthen confidence, personal growth, resilience, health and wellbeing. It can be delivered as a stand alone programme or as a valuable addition to a longer employability, skills development programme.
The pilot showed what can happen when young people are given the right environment, the right encouragement and meaningful exposure to future opportunities.
Participants explored emerging careers, learned practical ways to contribute to sustainability, and developed the confidence to try new activities, connect with others, improve their wellbeing and put their ideas into action through community projects.
The results demonstrated the strength of this approach:
- 100% participant satisfaction
- increased confidence, wellbeing and environmental awareness
- Net Promoter Score of 75
- young people stepping outside their comfort zones
- new friendships and stronger support networks developed
- post programme work experience opportunities in the green sector
- community projects designed and delivered by participants
The programme was a huge success and is now part of our strategic delivery plan for the foreseeable future.
We have been supporting young people, across the country, for over 35 years.
Community Threads brings together something few organisations can offer: trusted relationships, practical learning expertise, a focus on health and wellbeing, and a residential environment designed to help people grow.
Our partnerships across social housing, government, community, education, health and wellbeing, and business allow us to foster meaningful connections between young people, employers, support networks and opportunities that may otherwise feel out of reach.
Trafford Hall gives us a distinctive setting where young people can step away from their day-to-day pressures, build confidence, support their wellbeing and experience learning in a different way.
Be part of the change
Every community has potential. Sometimes it just needs the right support and influence to unlock it. Connect with us and together, with communities, we’ll create lasting change.
