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In this blog Olivia Darby, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer at WONDER Foundation discusses their recent research on youth work and family engagement. The WONDER Foundation works in over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America to empower women and girls to get the education they need to exit poverty for good.
“If we truly want to change the trajectory for young people, then we must invest in the relationships that hold them: parents, families, and the practitioners who walk beside them… We must speak honestly about the experiences of migrant families. Many speak of deep aloneness, of not having a voice that’s truly listened to.”
In my own youth work, as well as through strengthening youth work practice with partners across Europe and Africa at WONDER, I have always seen that young people thriving is about relationships – in the web of connections that shape a young person’s world. WONDER [
www.wonderfoundation.org.uk], founded in 2012, works with locally-led programmes in 24 countries to empower women, girls and their communities through quality education. A supportive parent, good friendships, a trusted mentor, a welcoming community… these are the forces that determine whether a young person thrives or struggles. Yet when we talk about youth work in the UK, we rarely talk about families.
This need for better support for young people became impossible to ignore post-COVID, as we spoke with young people, youth and community workers, and parents. Young people feeling isolated and uncertain about the future. Parents struggling with the cost of living and housing issues. Young people from migrant families translating for their families and navigating two – sometimes conflicting – worlds. Parents scared for their children’s safety, and unsure about how to protect them and prepare them for adulthood. How could we support young people effectively without engaging the families at the heart of their lives?
That’s what led WONDER Foundation into a two-year community research project exploring family engagement in youth work. There are many ways to think about youth work’s impact – the activities, the safe spaces, the skills development. Our research goes further, examining what happens when youth work intentionally includes families, particularly those from migrant backgrounds.
The invisible work that’s already happening:
We heard from 547 participants – parents, youth workers, young people, and sector leaders – across the UK through surveys, interviews, and workshops. What we discovered was striking: 84% of youth workers reported engaging with families, but this work was happening quietly, without recognition, training, or resources. Youth workers were building trust through regular check-ins, signposting families to services, celebrating young people’s progress with parents, and inviting families to informal sessions. Small actions were delivering high impact.
The benefits were clear on both sides. Parents reported greater confidence in supporting their children, stronger networks, and a deeper sense of belonging in their communities. Youth workers found that understanding families helped them support young people more fully and adapt their approach more effectively.
We also discovered that migrant families’ needs are far from uniform. Some wanted practical help navigating UK systems like schools and healthcare. Others were ready to volunteer, co-design programmes, and mentor other families. Approaches that looked at where things were going wrong, or made parents feel more uncertain, failed to recognise the many ways in which they were succeeding in the face of great challenges.
So can youth work truly support young people without engaging families?
Yes… and no! When we first started conversations with youth workers, the response was often “our focus is on young people, we don’t work with families.” Yet during those conversations, it became clear that the work was already happening, just invisible – even to those doing it every day. Parents were popping in for conversations with youth workers, worried about their children and seeing them as trusted people. When things went wrong, young people were reaching out to youth workers for help, and youth workers were supporting parents in conversations with schools, offending teams, even housing teams. It was in building these relationships and reinforcing young people’s home support systems that youth workers saw long-lasting change.
The evidence is compelling: family engagement strengthens outcomes for young people, especially those from migrant backgrounds. Parents become more confident, youth workers understand young people more deeply, and communities grow stronger. However, our research has also revealed why this work remains invisible. The way that youth work is funded, measured, and envisioned creates significant barriers. Time pressures, lack of resources, and limited institutional support mean this engagement is often unsustainable. Training rarely covers how to work effectively with families, and family engagement appears in only 11% of youth work training programmes we analyzed – usually in the context of safeguarding rather than partnership.
While our research provides evidence for family engagement’s impact, it captures only part of the picture. Youth work’s influence ripples through families and communities in ways that are profound but often intangible. When held alongside other evidence – the stories from parents, the testimonials from young people, the observations from youth workers – our research reveals an essential truth: family engagement is not an add-on to youth work. It is fundamental to youth work achieving its full potential.
That leaves me with a new question: how do we transform this invisible work into recognized, resourced, embedded practice?
What needs to happen next
It is clear that family engagement delivers results and that youth work has an essential role in supporting not just young people but entire families and communities. However, we know that youth workers are doing this critical work without the recognition, training, or resources they need. Three strategies are already proving effective: building trust through early contact and cultural respect; sustaining communication through consistent updates and translated materials; and fostering collaboration by inviting parents to co-design, volunteer, and lead.
But informal, under-resourced approaches cannot be the answer. Youth organisations must recognize family engagement in job descriptions, budgets, safeguarding policies, and training. Funders need to resource dedicated roles, translation services, and measurement systems. Government should embed family engagement in youth work qualifications, and ensure that the online parent portal in the National Youth Strategy is both accessible and relevant to families from different cultural backgrounds, but also links strongly into youth work. And the sector as a whole must shift how we view parents – from service users to partners and assets. I read a quote from a Children’s Commission document this week that put it so well:
“[Parents] role cannot be outsourced. Not to schools, not to politicians[…] . No one knows your child like you do. Meet them with patience and compassion – and extend the same compassion to yourself. Stay curious, stay involved, and keep the conversation open.”
As we enter a new chapter of seeing the National Youth Strategy in practice, we need to recognize that supporting young people means supporting families. Migrant and refugee families bring strengths, aspirations, and lived experience that can transform youth work – but only if we create the conditions for meaningful partnership.
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Olivia Darby is a Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer at WONDER Foundation
