Our purpose

To research and promote the all-round life-development of young men and women in their teenage years and twenties, so as to directly equip them with a trustworthy source of inspirational ideas, examples and information about making the most of their lives. Our research and reports aspire to have a global presence and relevance across geographical and cultural boundaries.

To improve our research, we would like to:

• Secure funding for 2000 and 2001.

• Establish the younglives.com HQ within the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University.

• Invite an alliance with The Study of Adult Development based at Harvard University.

• Establish a sister office in San Francisco to learn from the unparalleled American research experience in this field, and to link with the Institutes for the advanced study of human development at the Universities of Berkeley and Stanford in California.

To better promote our findings, we would like to:

• Maintain a website - with translations into several major languages.

• Produce at least a monthly newsletter for all of our website visitors.

• Make available a mail-order 'handbook.'

• Become a trusted navigator of the best sources of inspiration on 'individual life development' by drawing people's attention to websites, printed material, radio, television, films, or actual courses or events in which they can consider taking part.

• Work closely with relevant mass-media agencies to promote our findings.

• Host our own conferences and produce radio & TV documentaries.

Our previous work

In 1995, as the founding director for Learning From Young People's Lives, Dr Nick Baylis set out to conduct research into a whole new arena that had barely existed in the UK up until then. This research aspired to improve the life-satisfaction of young men and women and by doing so, help to reduce the self-destructive lifestyles and crimes against others that are so often caused by the bitter unhappiness, the lack of hope, the frustration, the desperation and the shame that can get the better of people.

Given its registered charitable status in 1996 (number 1056789), the charity went on to receive a major award from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust for innovative educational research in 1997, as well as donations from the Peacock and Cadbury trusts.

This on-going research enabled Dr Baylis to set up 'Trail-Blazers' in 1998, a £175,000 educational programme offering skills-training and mentorship-by-mail to the young men serving prison sentences in Feltham Young Offender's Institution in West London.

In 1999, Dr Baylis invited His Honour Sir Stephen Tumim to become Patron of the new younglives.com research initiative, in respect of Sir Stephen's strong educational interests developed during his career as a judge, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, and as the Principal of an Oxford College.

With the ever-dynamic help of Amy Lawson, Marketing Director at the leading London advertising agency WCRS, younglives.com was able to rally a team of famous companies who gave their charitable funding and their professional insights.

More recently, Geoffrey Wheating (Director of Strategic Development, Reuters Media) is kindly arranging for the translation of our web-report into several major languages, and has been invaluable in publicising the younglives.com site and our research findings. And who better? Reuters provides news and information to over 900 internet websites reaching an estimated 40 million viewers.

younglives.com has now dedicated itself to producing and regularly revising a wholly independent report for as long as it may prove useful to young men and women.