Our achievements in Year 1

Our 25-year strategy sets out our ambitions for a generation of change.

Each year the ISMA steering committee publishes an action plan, highlighting 3 key aims that our young people tell us we should focus on in pursuit of our vision.

Each of these aims is achieved through acts of leadership from young people with support from ISMA partner organisations. These acts of leadership inspired and brought together individuals and organisations across Ipswich, taking the first steps to create the future our children and young people are asking for.

Our 2023-24 aims were:

• Create a safer Ipswich

• Amplify the power of youth in Ipswich

• Establish the “Ipswich Village”

Some of the key outcomes for each act can be seen below 

1. Create a Safer Ipswich

• Safe spaces: 4YP have been working with young people to design Child and Young Person (CYP) VR experiences, with key themes such as "Welcome and Private" identified to inform future work.  

• Mentoring: The Ipswich Community Media launched a Boys and Young Men project and Volunteering Matters is running the Equip mentoring program providing mentoring for young people and held the Hack hosted at the Job Centre in November 2025  

• Urban Room: Plans are underway for a design festival/week at Suffolk New College, with around 12 projects in gestation and funding being explored to create a safe space for young people to debate and shape their community. 

• Awareness in schools: Chantry Academy held an event on October 17th 2024 bringing together local organisations and young people. This allowed organisations that aim to support young people and communities to share their offers and ask young people directly about the issues that matter most. 

• Longitudinal research: The University of Suffolk has been busy planning and seeking funding for longitudinal research that will work alongside our 25 year strategy to measure progress against the "Ipswich Connected Life Model".

2. Amplify the Power of Youth in Ipswich

• Media engagement: Volunteering Matters has been working hard to build partnerships with local media to share stories of success using asset-based reporting to raise awareness of the incredible work happening in the local area through ISMA. 

• Youth Switching On Ipswich: Five successful "hacks" have been held, engaging over 500 young people at locations like Portman Road and Dance East. These incredible events brought together young people and local leaders to look at areas such as arts and culture, social media and poverty. These events were a brilliant way of creating moments of engagement in the town and allowing young people to lead the Hack events and discussions. 

• Student voice: Chantry Academy created the student commission, a group of students who are trained to support teachers with feedback on learning and action-based research. This amazing opportunity means students are confident to provide advice to teachers on their perspective of the quality of learning experience along with teachers having a student view of the strategies that they use to embed learning.

• Primary school alumni: The ASSET Alumni Young Leader Programme, which invites children leaving ASSET schools at the end of Year 6 to continue their development has been established. The program offers a range of opportunities to develop leadership skills and community work, including:

• Creating projects to improve their local community

• Trips and visits to inspiring places and people

• Workshops on school transition and preparation for the future

• Creating a social enterprise  

ASSET hopes to better understand how to prepare children for what matters to them in their future by continuing to work with them through secondary school and beyond. 

• Power of Youth Charter: with 35 signatories Ipswich has more signatories to the Power of Youth Charter than any other town. All key local leaders are involved and committed to the charter.  

• Community of Practice Network: 24-25 will see us establish the Community of Practice Network to enable Power of Youth signatories to share their approaches to amplifying youth voices and empowering young people to shape decisions within local organisations. 

3. Build the Ipswich Village

• Parental involvement: ASSET has been working on a community reading spine with Lets Talk Reading and ASSET families and family cooking opportunities have been delivered in schools, bringing families into schools to enjoy fun activities with their children and giving children the opportunity to try new recipes and learn more about a healthy lifestyle. 

• Support fair: 24 organisations ranging from home care, mental health charities and alternative provision providers attended Chantry Academy to share with pastoral leaders the support they offer at the support fair for third-party organisations that they arranged. Those schools attending had a potential reach of 3500 students who could potentially benefit from the opportunity, with the third-party organisations also making useful connections to enhance their work. Due to the success of the fair, they plan to hold a second event but extend the publicity to a wider audience to get a wider reach.

• Business engagement and youth social action: The Eastern Colleges Group and Ormiston Trust are expanding their models into more schools and colleges and have partnered with ASSET Education on the Good for me, Good for My Planet project, combining food and sustainability with education. The project is focused on healthy eating and sustainable practices, to move schools towards a more plant-based menu designed by young people.  

Overall, good progress has been made across the various actions in the ISMA Year 1 Action Plan. The plan has achieved success in engaging young people, creating opportunities, and securing funding for future sustainability.