On 16 July 2018, The Young Foundation and FEANTSA (the European Federation of Homeless Organisations) hosted a webinar on ‘creative ways to address housing exclusion’. Radhika Bynon from The Young Foundation discussed Reimagining Rent, the Young Foundation’s housing innovation programme, and Freek Spinnewijn discussed FEANTSA’s The Housing Solutions Platform. The Housing Solutions Platform is a... Find out more
Blog

The Young Foundation welcomes contributions from many sectors and standpoints - views expressed here are not necessarily held by The Young Foundation.
Ideas, as well as people, now move more freely. We have put new models, drawn from other classes and other parts of the world, before the local people, creating new aspirations and new ideas.Michael Young and Peter Willmott.
Family and Kinship in East London, 1957
The Rise and Fall of the Meritocracy? By Toby Young

To coincide with the University of Nottingham's debate about the state of meritocracy in contemporary Britain (24 October 2018), we're sharing this piece by Toby Young where he explores the question: What lies beyond the meritocracy?
Find out moreCommunity and plastic cups: reflections on what it all means on World Mental Health Day

Here in Bethnal Green, generations of researchers and innovators have been reflecting on the idea of community since Michael Young moved here to undertake the research that would become the foundations of Family and Kinship in East London.
Find out moreLaunching cohort seven of The Young Academy

We’re pleased to welcome eight new initiatives to the Young Academy’s accelerator programme for early-stage social ventures tackling educational inequalities. Through the Accelerator, participants will attend intensive workshops and receive one-to-one support from social impact experts, volunteer advisors and education sector leaders. Our goal is to create a space for ideas and projects to be... Find out more
Putting health into place: What’s it all about?

In 2018 in the UK people are much more likely to suffer from preventable, lifestyle related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, than they are to suffer from communicable diseases such as measles or tuberculosis. This situation is set to worsen. The number of people with diabetes is projected to rise by one million... Find out more
Meet the innovators Reimagining Rent: our second cohort

Through Reimagining Rent, we are committed to accelerating the innovations that have the potential to improve the private rented sector for vulnerable renters, including those on low incomes. We know that concentrated innovation at a local-level can create models for others to follow. This is our second cohort to the programme, which is funded by... Find out more
#3 What lies beyond the meritocracy? By David Goodhart
The final piece in our three-part series of guest blogs exploring what lies beyond the meritocracy? David Goodhart, journalist and author: Meritocracy is the worst system in the world for distributing status, responsibility and rewards, apart from all the others, to paraphrase Churchill on democracy. If one’s main priority is the efficient running of society,... Find out more
#2 What lies beyond the meritocracy? By Philip Collins
This is the second in our series of blogs exploring what lies beyond the meritocracy? Philip Collins, columnist, The Times: The site of the most dramatic action of Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy is a clue to something that lies beyond the idea. The narrative concludes in a civil war when the downtrodden, who have been... Find out more
#1 What lies beyond the meritocracy? By Yvonne Roberts
To mark the 60 years since Michael Young’s seminal work ‘The Rise of the Meritocracy’ was published, we invited some writers and commentators to answer the question: What lies beyond the meritocracy? Yvonne Roberts, journalist, The Observer: It is the 60th anniversary of The Rise of the Meritocracy 1870-2033. Michael Young, Lord Young of Dartington, social... Find out more
Building sustainable communities: It is what you do – and the way that you do it.

What does sustainable community mean to you? Is it one where everyone recycles? With a community orchard and plenty of green space to play? Or perhaps a town powered by renewable energy and clean air, where people walk and cycle to work, school and shop. At the tail-end of one of the hottest British summers... Find out more