Reflections on the Young Adults Panel

A missing demographic?

Unlock believes in an ear to the ground, voices at the top approach. We hear directly from people experiencing prejudice, stigma and discrimination because of their criminal record, and then we use our influence to enact change at the highest level.

However, the majority of people using Unlock’s website and services are aged over 30. Our last survey (September 2022) found that around 17% of the people we interacted with were aged 18-30.

This means it’s vital that we increase our engagement with young people – both to offer support and to understand their experience of the criminal records system. This in turn will shape the changes we’re calling for from government.

Engaging young adults with lived experience

Between December 2023 and March 2024, Unlock convened a Young Adult Panel. This group comprised four young adults who responded to our open call for participants. We aimed to improve our engagement with this demographic over multiple sessions discussing how they perceived Unlock, and the work we do.

This format of a small discussion group was chosen over something such as a survey with a larger number of people because of the conversations and debates that it naturally facilitates. Unlock’s user-led ethos thrived in this setting as the panel examined our digital and communication activities, our advice service and helpline, and our policy work.

We would like to thank the four contributors of the panel. We really enjoyed working with everyone on the panel over the last few months, and the effort of all members has provided us with valuable insights for our future work.

Some key themes emerged over the course of our time working with the panel.

Build our online community

Social media is ever-increasing in importance, and the panel felt that it is a crucial tool to connect more frequently and effectively with young adults. Although Unlock is active on some social media platforms, there was general consensus that the more platforms we post on, the better.

Our posts should be interactive where possible, also furthering engagement. This will help to build an online community, something that the panel strongly advocated for given the value they have found in similar communities themselves.

Provide advice in different formats

The advice and information that we provide was perceived to be thorough and instructive. However, the panel thought that we should strive to ensure the way in which we present the information is as accessible as possible. Whether this be making sure our information is easy to read and digestible, or making it quick and easy to access our helpline, removing these barriers will help to prolong engagement – not only with young adults, but all of those seeking our advice.

Representation

Increasing the diversity in images across the website was also an important issue for the panel. This could be in relation to race, gender, age and even clothing. The feedback we received was that a more diverse selection of images would increase confidence, trust and familiarity for users.

Showing images of young adults, especially on pages that are most relevant to them (e.g. education) would be particularly valuable for building a positive view of Unlock. More generally, this shows the value organisations can find in ensuring that they reflect the people they are seeking to support. 

Intersection with other disadvantage

The policy work that Unlock does was praised by the panel, with our work with higher education institutions being particularly valuable because of the relevance it holds to that demographic. It was suggested that Unlock should make efforts to engage with other issues that intersect with criminal records which young people are increasingly interested in such as socio-economic disadvantage or race. Recognising multiple forms of disadvantage and how they intersect with criminal records was something that it was felt would be really helpful.  

Would you like to take part?

We will be conducting further work concerning young adults with criminal records in the future. If you feel you have relevant experiences and would like to get involved email: policy@unlock.org.uk.