The Youth Compass Project

Supporting young people to make positive choices and develop the all-important moral and empathic skills they need to navigate through life.

Through extensive research, we have developed free resources which can be used with young people aged 11-17 years old in schools, by youth workers and youth offending teams – in fact, any organisation that works with young people.

By giving them a moral compass by which to steer their decision-making, Youth Compass can help young people to:

  • improve their relationships with teachers, peers and families
  • enhance their personal, professional and educational outcomes
  • reduce rule-breaking, antisocial behaviour and crime

The project is already having a positive impact and enjoying considerable success.

Seated on chairs in a semi-circle, a group of young people in discussion

About Youth Compass

Addressing the need for appropriate rule-following intervention programmes for young people.
Three young people in a garden, planting a seedling

Resources

Whether you’d like to deliver Youth Compass yourself or learn more about our research, you can access our programme materials and published articles for free.
A group of young people in discussion, pinning post-its to a corkboard

Project delivery

We’ve delivered and evaluated 14 trials in youth centres and nine schools nationally and internationally
A group of teenagers - sitting in a circle in a classroom, chatting

Meet the team

We are a small but dedicated team – keen to work with you to support the young people in your care.

Our heartfelt thanks

We are enormously grateful to our project funders for their generosity – The British Academy, Loughborough University, Anglia Ruskin University, multiple secondary schools in England, and The University of Cambridge. 

We would like to thank the following people and networks for their time, expertise and support – Dr Beth Hardie, Professor Alex Sutherland, Dr Alison Jane Martingano, Dr Nick Caddick, Jon Sanders, Dr Fran Azpitarte, Alex Dopadlik, Professor David Humphreys, Dr Patrick McClanahan, Dr Ali Wigzell, Dr Dominic Willmott, Victoria Gadd, Dr Xiaoya Xun, and the Leadership Partner Schools Network (LPSN).

In addition, we thank our practitioner partners for their tireless support facilitating the Compass programme deliveries, including Romsey Mill and the secondary schools - Commonweal School (Swindon), Ashcombe School (Surrey), North Gosforth (Newcastle), Chelmer School (Essex), Ash Manor School (Hampshire), The Petersfield School (Hampshire), Winstanley School (Leicestershire), Countesthorpe School (Leicestershire). Our special thanks to Charles Drew (Headteacher at Commonweal) and Steven Hampshire (Lead Compass Practitioner at Commonweal).

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