Peer Action Collective
Offers children and young people the opportunity to take an active role in preventing violence by doing research and taking action to improve their communities.
Evaluation type
Funding round
Peer Action CollectiveSetting
| Projects | Funding | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Peer Action Collective – East Midlands partner – StreetGames | East Midlands | |
| Peer Action Collective – East of England partner: Volunteering Matters | East of England | |
| Peer Action Collective – London partner: High Trees | London | |
| Peer Action Collective – North East partner: Youth Focus North East | North East | |
| Peer Action Collective – South East partner: Artswork | South East | |
| Peer Action Collective – South West partner: Young Devon | South West | |
| Peer Action Collective – North West partner: YPAS | North West | |
| Peer Action Collective – Wales partner – Media Academy Cymru | Wales | |
| Peer Action Collective – West Midlands partner: Birmingham Youth Service | West Midlands | |
| Peer Action Collective – Yorkshire and the Humber partner – The EFL Trust | Yorkshire and the Humber |
What does this project involve?
The Peer Action Collective (PAC) aims to create opportunities for children and young people to take an active role in preventing violence by doing research and taking action to improve their communities. Young people aged 16–24 who have been affected by violence take on two paid and trained roles: peer researcher and social action lead. Peer researchers conduct research with other children and young people to better understand violence in their area. Social action leads then use the research insights to design and deliver projects that promote change and improve safety for children and young people. Examples of social action projects include creating films and toolkits, running workshops, leading awareness campaigns and engaging with decision-makers. Social action projects also involve changemakers – a voluntary role for children and young people aged between 10 and 24 to help with delivering social action.
PAC2, the second round of PAC, took place between 2023 and 2025. Delivery took place in seven regions in England and Wales, coordinated by national delivery partner, The Young Foundation, and supported by fifteen local delivery partners.
Why did YEF fund this project?
PAC seeks to empower young people to take an active role in tackling serious violence. It is co-funded by YEF, the #iwill Fund (a joint investment between the National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport), and the Co-op Group. There have been two rounds of the PAC programme: PAC1 ran between 2021 and 2023, and PAC2, the focus of this report, ran between 2023 and 2025. This project aimed to create lessons which could be taken into the third round of PAC delivery, and to build insights into how youth-led, participatory research and social action can be evaluated.
The YEF funded a feasibility study of PAC2, which ran from March 2024 to June 2025. The study looked at whether the PAC model works in practice and how it could be further evaluated. It also explored the best way to design a future evaluation. A range of methods were used in the study, including interviews with a range of people: 34 with PAC researchers and social action leads, 46 with PAC participants and changemakers, seven with delivery partners, and 13 with external stakeholders (including community members and organisations working with PAC). Demographic monitoring data on PAC participants was collected, as well as data from observations of delivery partner meetings, PAC workshops, and monitoring and evaluation meetings. A stakeholder survey was conducted (generating 24 responses from three regions), and two surveys (one at the start and one at the end of the study) were conducted with young people in PAC roles. The pre-survey generated 83 responses from across seven regions, and the post-survey generated 43 responses from five regions.
Of the 43 young people in PAC roles who responded to the post-survey, 35% were from White backgrounds, 30% from Black backgrounds, 16% from Asian backgrounds, 12% from Mixed backgrounds, 2% from any other ethnic background and 5% did not specify. As of April 2025 (when data for this report was captured), five months of PAC2 delivery remained and the programme had engaged 2,211 children and young people.
Key conclusions
| PAC2 delivered youth-led work which reflected priorities identified by young people. Research covered topics such as education, trusted adults and positive activities, which informed social action projects, including a film, educational tools, workshops and awareness campaigns. Delivery across the seven areas varied, partly owing to intended flexibility within the PAC model and partly to establishing processes to support youth-led delivery. |
| A broad range of young people engaged in PAC2. Participation by Black, Asian and Minority ethnic young people exceeded the 30% target set. At the time of writing, recruitment targets for PAC roles and participants had been partially met (as PAC2 was still being delivered). |
| Young people generally enjoyed PAC activities, reporting that they built their confidence and research skills. Some young people felt that PAC was the first programme in which they had genuine influence. Delivery partners and external stakeholders felt that PAC increased young people’s confidence, skills and readiness to engage with decision-makers. |
| Programme design and delivery could be improved by prioritising recruiting young people with experience of violence, co-developing targets with delivery partners and planning timelines more flexibly. Integrating robust, consistent data collection methods within delivery processes could help better assess PAC’s reach. |
| The feasibility study found that PAC2 can be evaluated in ways that are both practical and consistent with its participatory ethos. Future evaluation should prioritise stakeholder- and community-level outcomes as the primary measure, aligning with PAC2’s theory of change. Recommended approaches include system-mapping workshops, pre- and post-programme interviews, and stakeholder surveys to track shifts in attitudes, practices and policies. |
What will YEF do next?
YEF is progressing to a pilot study of the third round of PAC which will pilot an approach to impact design. PAC3 will run from 2025 to 2028 across four regions in England.