A national network for health & social care professionals, researchers and academics who want young parents and their families to have a fair start in life.
Believe in Us
Why Young Parents?
There are an estimated 38,000 parents under the age of 25 in England and Wales. They make up only around 5% of new parents, yet their babies are vastly over-represented in the most miserable of statistics; sudden infant death, neglect, family violence, emergency hospital admissions, developmental delay, behavioural issues, premature birth, and non-accidental head injuries.
Babies of young parents are born to mums and dads who have experienced complex childhood adversity; higher rates of sexual abuse, care, school absence, mental ill health, criminal justice, domestic abuse, violent punishment, and poverty.
So, it’s no surprise that they find parenting hard. Yet we punish them for it. Our youngest parents, some of them still children themselves, are misrepresented as ‘problematic’, and held individually responsible for the impact of generations of trauma, inequalities, poverty and discrimination.
And society doesn’t do enough to help. For many young parent families, the help on offer is too little and too late to enable change quickly enough to prevent babies having the same outcomes as their parents.
Believe in Us
Here in Cornwall, we have relentlessly demanded the help our WILD families deserve. We have snuck our way into every corner of the ‘system’, so that young parenthood cannot be ignored. The result? Cornwall is becoming young-parent-friendly; it’s not perfect, but it’s possible.
We are using this Cornish experience to bring people together to see what’s possible across the nation. We knew services and support for young parent families were often small and unconnected. But we also knew there were lots of people, across sectors, who knew the truth about the inequalities related to young parenthood and wanted to change this. These were allies we had met throughout our three decades; often accidental meetings that would create much excitement when we all realised there were others ‘out there’.
It turned out we were right; from small rural projects, to some mighty national organisations, over 80 practitioners, academics, researchers, funders, local authorities and integrated care systems, government advisors, commissioners, thought leaders, and policy-makers have joined our national network, and we even have international partners across three continents.
Taking its name from a poem written by young mums in Cornwall, our Believe In Us network wants to change hearts, minds, policy and practice, so that young parents and their babies have a fair start.
Together with young parent families, we are building a movement that is bigger than the sum of its parts. Breaking down the silos, we want to better research and learn together, share practice, pool specialist expertise, and amplify our families’ voices and case for change.
How we will deliver our manifesto
Our Network Vision
How Our Network Will Be
What We Will Do
Our Impact
Intergenerational change for a fair start for young parent families
Shared values, understanding and learning, to build power to influence
Connect theory and practice, amplify family voices, and focus on babies at the centre
Change the narrative and the system
So that...
every young parent believes in themselves
every young parent has the best possible mental and physical health
every young parent can be the parent they want to be
every baby born to a young parent gets an equitable, fulfilling chance at life
adversity is not experienced through the generations of young parent families
we all benefit from the talent, skills, and love they bring
everyone believes in young parent families
Our impact
Explore below, the collective work we are doing to improve the experiences of young parents and change the narrative around young parenthood.
WILD at the Houses of Parliament!
Holiday Sale
Jo Davies, was invited to speak at the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Jo attended the meeting in Parliament alongside Alison Hadley, OBE, Dr Sarah Salkeld of MSI Reproductive Choices and Lisa Hallgarten of Brook; all highly regarded in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health.
Book: Teenage Pregnancy and Young Parenthood
Authored by Believe in Us Network member and Director of the University of Bedfordshire Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange, Alison Hadley OBE.
This updated edition of Teenage Pregnancy and Young Parenthood examines the research and practice in this vital field since the end of the UK Government’s highly successful Teenage Pregnancy Strategy (TPS) for England which contributed to reducing the under-18 pregnancy rate by well over 50%.