The Social Switch Project - Relaunch!
We are delighted to announce that recognising our impact, the mayor of London and its Violence Reduction Unit is now supporting our next phase of The Social Switch Project, backing our work to divert at-risk youth towards fulfilling digital careers.
The Social Switch Project was initially launched in 2019, co-delivered by Catch22 and youth violence charity Redthread, and funded by Google.org as they were seeking a way to tackle the growing issue of antisocial and violent online behaviour, which often leads to violence offline.
Antisocial behaviour was once limited to a physical audience, now harmful content is rapidly shared online, often resulting in retaliation in the physical world. 37% of respondents to Catch22’s National Online Harms Consultation said they have seen harm occur to them or a friend because of harm online.
We’re switching the narrative on how social media's relationship to youth violence is understood, tackled, and solved. To truly have an impact on levels of youth violence in London we must tackle the cause; disenfranchised young people operating in a radically changing world, often without positive alternatives.
The Social Switch Project has been delivered across 2 strands. Strand 1, Frontline Practitioner Training, focussed on professionals working with young people. It consisted of a free interactive course teaching the best practices for dealing with the digital world and supporting young people to be positive voices online. Strand 2, Digital Skills & Pre-Employability Training, was a free course for young people focused on unlocking the digital skills of a generation and encouraging them to use social media in a positive way.
Over the past 4 years, we have trained over 1500 professionals working with young people to deal with the challenges and opportunities of the online world, funded 40 grassroots projects across London which support and engage young people, and trained 109 young people into digital careers, and provided intensive career support post-programme.
“I’m very excited to start working on the new Social Switch Project. With our partners, RedThread and Genius Within, we have designed a new delivery model that will support more practitioners and young people than ever. We have also expanded our work to include parents and trusted adults which will allow more families to break down barriers when talking about young people’s use of social media. Watch this space for our new employability delivery model which empowers young people to choose how they start or continue their journey towards a digital career.”