8: Endings and transitions

An illustration of a young woman walking over stepping stones

When young people engage in participatory group activities, there is often an end date attached to the initiative or project. This means that funding, and associated resources such as staff time, will end. It is important to be open and honest with children and young people about this and to plan for ‘official endings’ in the weeks or months before.

The ending of a project may have different impacts depending on children and young people’s levels of engagement.

If young people were already meeting for a different purpose, or were part of an existing participation group, an individual project ending may not be as significant.

If however a group were brought together specifically to work on a project, this may lead to a number of challenges and concerns for those children and young people when it ends.

As projects draw to a close, children and young people may:

  • feel sadness about not regularly seeing others involved
  • be worried that facilitators will no longer be able to provide support and advice
  • feel that they are just getting started, and are just at the beginning of the work
  • be annoyed that certain changes did not happen or certain goals weren’t achieved during the project
  • feel energised to get involved in different initiatives
  • be concerned that payment or other forms of compensation will stop

It can be helpful to encourage those involved in the project to think about these feelings and, as a group, explore how some of these concerns could be alleviated.

In addition to exploring emotions attached to endings, practical details such as how the project team will communicate with children and young people once a project ends, should also be considered.

It can be helpful to mark the formal ending of a project in some way. This may involve organising a special session with the children and young people and project partners involved to look back and reflect on successes and to celebrate what has been achieved.

An image of three people cheering at a finish line waving a chequered flag

For example, during the Our Voices Too project, the group of Youth Advocates in Serbia were supported to attend a team retreat. Whilst, at the end of the Small Steps project, the research team and project partners spent the day at the beach with the Youth Researchers to relax, celebrate, and reflect on the project’s achievements over lunch.

Even when projects end, there may be different ways for the children and young people involved to stay engaged with the work of the facilitating organisation or within the wider sector. There may be opportunities for children and young people to:

  • join advisory groups for new projects attached to the facilitating organisation
  • join external advisory groups/ bodies or panels
  • apply for funding to develop their own projects
  • engage in future research projects
  • transition into an employee role within the organisation
  • become a mentor for other young people

Practical example: Supporting young people to transition into different projects and roles

A number of the young people involved in the original Our Voices consultations in 2014 maintained their engagement with the Our Voices programme and worked with different, related external groups and bodies.

The LEAP Against Sexual Violence project drew on the findings and ideas from the original Our Voice consultations. A number of the young people who were involved in the UK consultations became Youth Facilitators in this project. These young people took part in training and were paid as co-facilitators to deliver a programme of workshops for other children and young people at risk of or affected by sexual violence. 

In Albania, a number of young people who took part in the original Our Voices consultuations later became Youth Advocates in the Our Voices Too project and Peer Researchers in the Small Steps project.

One of the young people involved in Small Steps, was also involved in Our Voices III and was nominated to join a panel for survivors assessing grant applications for a donor fund working in the field of sexual violence.

There may also be opportunities for groups to continue in a more informal way without having external funding.

Practical example: Making the case for continued work

As part of the Our Voices Too project, the youth advocacy group in Serbia decided that they wanted to share their work with the whole organisation through which they had been recruited (NGO Atina).

Members of the youth advocacy group met together and independently planned a presentation to deliver to NGO Atina’s staff team. Each Youth Advocate prepared a different segment about the advocacy group’s work.

On the day, the entire staff of NGO Atina, along with a number of other service users, attended the session and asked questions about the work of the advocacy group.

This enabled the wider organisation to understand more about the project but it also created a commitment from across the organisation to support the continued work of an advocacy group which is stil in place today.

If young people have accessed services from, and then been involved in participatory projects with, an organisation it can be challenging to transition into new roles as young professionals within those same organisations:

  • Relationships may have previously been established on different terms (not as peers and colleagues)
  • Staff members may not view young professionals with lived experience, who may have different educational and employment experiences, in the same way as other staff members
  • Young professionals with lived experience may be employed on terms that feel inequitable
  • Young professionals with lived experience can feel that there is an expectation for them to draw on, or be open about, their lived experience, or may feel they rely on their personal experiences when being heard
  • Organisational processes and procedures may not ‘fit’ when recruiting and paying young professionals
  • Young professionals with lived experience may require additional levels of support, particularly when it comes to navigating boundaries over when and what to share about their personal experiences

Read more in the Journey companion: Transitions

Research summary: The Transitions Project

The Young Researcher’s Advisory Panel (YRAP) at the University of Bedfordshire were interested in learning more about how young people with lived experience of exploitation during childhood had transitioned from accessing services to working professionally in the sexual violence sector. 

Members of YRAP co-designed an interview guide and eight online interviews were undertaken. YRAP members also participated in coding and analysis, as well as reviewing the findings shared in the report.

Findings:

Young people:

  • Are often motivated to get involved in the sector as they wish to improve things for other young people with similar experiences
  • From lesser heard groups (LGBTQAI+; ethnic minorities; neuro-diverse; disabled; migrants) may also wish to ensure these voices are represented in the sector
  • Often felt that they had not gained the right skills during their work with advisory groups and in other roles and felt the skills learnt were not always transferable into other sectors.
  • Found it challenging to navigate multiple different identities including those of ‘service user’, ‘young person’, ‘victim’, ‘survivor’, ‘young professional’, ‘professional’.
  • Felt that if they wanted to continue to work in the sector this was somewhat dependent on foregrounding their lived experiences of abuse
  • Believed that ongoing support from professionals was needed for young people transitioning into different roles (but that receiving support from those they were working alongside could be problematic)
  • Could find it challenging to maintain boundaries and a work life balance and felt this was often not modelled by the wider professional culture in the sector.
  • Could find the work triggering but also pressure to continue to work with triggering content and didn’t always feel they could share these concerns
  • Sometimes felt that their contributions as young advisors or professionals were not properly compensated particularly when it was provided in terms of vouchers or ‘work experience’ rather than a financial payment.

What can help support transitions?

  • Clearer skills development plans
  • Qualifications (not just certificates that have no weight elsewhere)
  • Celebrating achievements
  • Developing timelines attached to youth roles that include planning to help young people move on
  • Planning ahead

Source: Walker, K., Warrington, C. and Howard, K. (2025) Transitions - what's next for us?: Pilot research exploring transitions from accessing services due to experiences of childhood sexual violence, to working as a volunteer or professional within the sector. Luton: University of Bedfordshire.

 

Research summary: Identifying challenges and strategies for supporting young people impacted by sexual violence to transition into peer supporting/mentoring roles

As part of the Our Voices Too project, the research team undertook a study to learn more about peer support for young people (aged 10–24 years) who had been impacted by sexual violence and how such initiatives work in practice. We were interested in learning from individuals who had experience of setting up and supporting either: peer mentoring services, group work opportunities or peer-led workshops.

Twenty-five respondents from 12 different organisations and initiatives, located in five countries (in the UK, North America and Eastern Europe), with experience of engagement in peer support initiatives for young people affected by sexual violence, took part in the study.

Findings: Tensions and challenges

Staff supporting peer supporters/mentors may:

  • Worry about bringing together young people with complex needs and a high level of vulnerability in groups and/or mentee-mentor relationships
  • Find it challenging to know when a young person may be 'ready' to take on the role of a peer mentor/supporter
  • Feel uncomfortable ‘holding risk’ and trying out new ways of supporting young people where they have less control
  • Be unclear of the peer/mentor role feeling it sits ‘between’ that of a professional and a service-user
  • Find it difficult to work with existing organisational processes and procedures
  • Be unsure of how, or have access to the resources, to support young people to think about career development and progression.

Strategies identified by participants that had been, or could be used by others, to address some of the challenges:

  • Starting with a strong foundation (having staff with experience of working with this group of young people and as an organisation having resources, partnerships and networks to draw on to offer additional support to those supporting and receiving the support)
  • Prioritising safeguarding and ensuring risks and needs are constantly being considered
  • Seeking advice and support from other organisations who have more experience of facilitating peer support
  • Reviewing existing policies and processes to see if these are fit for purpose when supporting peer support mechanisms
  • Clarifying peer support/ mentoring roles
  • Establishing equitable and transparent structures for pay and development
  • Working with all staff members to ensure peer support roles are valued and understood
  • Putting in place screening processes when recruiting peer supporters
  • Allowing for an extended period of shadowing and training and giving peer supporters the chance to take on responsibilities gradually
  • Working with peer supporters to think about and put plans in place to address triggering and discomfort
  • Provide ongoing support and supervision
  • Promoting and modelling self-care practices.

 

Read more about this study in ‘Keeping the informal safe’: Strategies for developing peer support initiatives for young people who have experienced sexual violence.

When a project officially ends, this is rarely ‘the end’. Often it can take months or years for knowledge and outputs to be fully disseminated and integrated.

In the case of research, the findings may be presented at conferences in the years’ following the end of the project and journal articles may similarly not be published for a number of years.

If influencing policy change, often it means waiting for a ‘moment’ when the learning and evidence can be used to influence and inform change. 

In addition to communicating project updates, it is also likely that new opportunities may arise for children and young people to get engaged in different projects, initiatives and roles attached to the work.

It is important to think about how updates on the work that children and young people have contributed to can be communicated with them after the project ends.

Ideally, in the case of research engagement, this is something that should be explored at the very start of the project and included in ethics applications, information and consent processes and verbally discussed with children and young people.

It is helpful to think about what is realistic from the facilitators’/ organisation’s perspective (being mindful of resources and staff capacity).

It may be worth discussing as a wider team different options (e.g. sending a newsletter every 6 months, emailing, texting, setting up a social media page to share updates) and then sharing these with children and young people to explore their preferences (recognising that not all young people will want to continue to receive communication.)

When communicating with children and young people who have experienced sexual violence, there are a number of things to consider regarding privacy, confidentiality and safety. This includes:

  • The potential for children and young people to be triggered when receiving outputs or updates
  • Concerns children, young people and their families may have about how their contact details are shared
  • The potential for unintentional harm if post is intercepted, or phones/ emails are checked or monitored by others which may lead to other people in young people’s lives, or future lives, becoming aware of that individual's association with sexual violence and/ or the project.

Read more about this in our Think list: Thinking about endings at the start.

If children and young people have established trust and rapport with others in the group and/ or with the facilitators, when the project ends this may leave them feeling lost and unsupported.

Research and practice both support the fact that relationships are central to effective practice with children and young people who have experienced sexual violence.

If young people have a history of relationships ending, this may have a substantial impact on children and young people.

As part of initial planning it is important to consider this and to work with children and young people to understand any ongoing support needs to plan how these can be met once the project ends.

Toolkit: Creating a safe space: Ideas for the development of participatory group work to address sexual violence with young people. Read more about 'endings', and see activity ideas in chapter 6 of the Our Voices Too toolkit.

Article: ‘It’s like a much deeper understanding and you kind of believe them more…’: the value of peer support in supporting young people affected by sexual violence. Read more about how practitioners can support young people and prepare them for transitioning into other roles within an organisation.

Journey companion: Transitions. This document draws on two research studies undertaken at the Safer Young Lives Research Centre exploring moving from a service-user to an employee in sexual violence support services. It summarises some of the common challenges that can arise for young people, staff and organisations. It also includes some suggested strategies for approaching these issues.