For Commissioners and Public Sector Partners
Firm Ground® Youth Intervention Programme
Youth behaviour change designed around underlying pressure and individual capacity — not behaviour alone.
The pressure of getting the decision right
Selecting the right partner to deliver a youth intervention can create a level of pressure that is rarely acknowledged.
You are responsible for budgets.
You have deadlines.
You need to demonstrate that public money has been used responsibly.
And you are making decisions that can affect young people, families and entire communities.
Behind all of that responsibility can sit a quiet, mind-numbing pressure:
“What if I choose the wrong provider?”
“What if the intervention does not work?”
“What will people think if I make the wrong decision?”
“Could this affect my reputation or my job?”
When you are carrying that level of responsibility, choosing a safe and familiar provider can feel like the most defensible option.
If the intervention does not create the expected change, the organisation was established. The approach was familiar. The decision can still be justified.
But familiar does not automatically mean better.
Are you choosing what feels safest, or are you choosing what is most likely to create meaningful change?
Where intervention design can go wrong
Behaviour is visible. The pressure underneath it often is not.
Many youth interventions focus on the behaviour being displayed. They provide information, consequences, activities or opportunities and expect the young person to respond differently.
But information alone does not change behaviour when the pressure driving it has not been addressed.
A young person may understand the consequences.
They may know what they should do.
They may even want things to change.
Yet something underneath may still be influencing how they think, respond and make decisions.
Before you can create meaningful behaviour change, you need to understand what is driving the behaviour.