● Generation Rural
Creating pathways for young people to stay, learn and lead in rural places
Generation Rural is a long-term project exploring how young people can build meaningful lives, work and leadership in rural places.
Across Somerset and Dorset, we kept hearing the same concern, young people were leaving, local organisations were overstretched, and many grassroots projects had no clear succession.
At the same time, young people who wanted to work in food, land, environment or community often couldn’t find paid roles or pathways to stay.
Generation Rural brings these challenges together, creating shared roles, partnerships and opportunities that help young people stay, contribute and lead change in their own places.
● The Starting Point
Across our rural community, we noticed the same pattern emerging
Local organisations were doing important work, but often with limited capacity and ageing teams. Many relied heavily on volunteers, with few paid roles for the next generation to step into.
At the same time, young people who cared about food, land, climate and community struggled to find ways to build a future locally.
Without pathways for young people to stay, communities risk losing skills, knowledge and energy, making long-term change harder to sustain.
We began asking a simple question:
How can rural places keep and support the young people who want to care for them?
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These challenges were connected.
Food growers needed help but couldn’t afford staff.
Community organisations needed capacity but lacked funding.
Young people wanted experience but couldn’t find paid work.
Training schemes existed, but were often disconnected from real local projects.
Instead of treating these as separate problems, we started to look at them as part of one system.
If we could connect organisations, funding and young people differently, we could create roles that strengthened both the individual and the community.
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Through this project, we began testing a simple idea, what happens if we create real, paid roles for young people inside the organisations that are already holding communities together
Working with partners across Somerset and Dorset, we developed shared roles that allow young people to gain experience across multiple projects while building skills rooted in place.
So far this has included:
creating two paid roles for young people working across food, land and community projects
partnering with local organisations to host placements and share supervision
working with the Youth Environmental Service to bring in additional support and training
supporting young people to develop skills in food growing, facilitation, organising, research and storytelling
helping small organisations collaborate instead of competing for limited funding
Rather than short-term volunteering, these roles are designed to build confidence, capacity and long-term pathways for young people who want to stay and contribute to their communities.
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By creating shared roles and partnerships, we have been able to:
support young people to stay in their communities
strengthen local organisations with new energy and capacity
build skills that remain rooted in place
create connections between projects that would not otherwise work together
show that rural communities can create their own pathways for the future
Rather than short-term placements, the aim is to grow lasting roles, relationships and confidence that help communities shape their own future.
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Living places need young people.
Without new generations stepping into leadership, community projects struggle to continue, local knowledge is lost, and change becomes harder to sustain.
Rural Generation is part of our wider work to build living infrastructure, the relationships, skills and shared capacity that allow communities to respond to change together.
By supporting young people to stay, learn and lead in their own places, we are helping create communities that are more resilient, more connected and better able to care for the future.
Project Partners
