We are learning all the time about human development and we now know that the adolescent brain is extraordinarily plastic and that these in-between years (14 to 24) are vital for our future development. The right support and opportunities at this stage of our lives also offers us a potential second chance if things went wrong in our early years. So what support should we offer young people? Currently we focus on risk: how to prevent risky behaviours and on activities that will divert young people: youth only activities in youth only spaces. My work with young people suggests that this is the wrong approach: we need to open up and find ways to knit young people back into wider society. At Participle we created a new developmental service with and for young people we called Loops http://www.participle.net/youth
