Teenagers are suffering from record levels of loneliness, anxiety, self-harm and suicide.

Why?

Because they’ve been starved of places to hang out together in real life and swallowed up by social media.

We’ve taken away their youth centres, their leisure centres and their high-street hang-outs, leaving them nowhere to socialise face-to-face. And we’ve thrust screens into their hands and consigned them to isolated existences lived through social media platforms.

The debate about social media regulation is at the centre of the nation’s newsfeeds, but that’s not the whole solution. We need to address the root of the issue: teenagers are holed up in their bedrooms with only Instagram and Fortnite for company because they’ve NOWHERE ELSE TO GO.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

We refuse to lose a generation of teenagers to a mental health crisis whilst we sit here hoping the government might step in. So we’re taking matters into our own hands.

We’re launching the # IRL REVOLUTION.

It’s a movement to convert empty high street properties into incredible youth membership venues, giving teenagers a compelling alternative to life behind a screen and a safe and inspiring space to hang-out with friends.

This isn’t about youth clubs as we once knew them - a dusty ping-pong table in the back of a church hall. This is a totally new model for youth hospitality. A model where parents fund incredible spaces on our local high streets that provide a genuinely appealing alternative to the isolation of a life lived primarily online.

A new model that can fill the void left by government funding cuts and the death of the high street and provide mass access to inspiring spaces for teenagers.

Because teenagers are not charity cases. Teenagers deserve safe and inspiring places on their local high street to meet with friends. Just like everyone else in society.