Ethos & Values
One of Journey Together’s priorities is ensuring that young people are integral to shaping the charity and its ongoing development; this includes having young adults on the board of trustees. In Sept 2025 we asked young people in our groups to identify key value words that represented their experience of the youth work. Three distinct groups (12 – 17 year olds in school, 15 – 18 year olds in a community setting, and 19 – 21 year old alumni) identified the same key words as reflective of their experiences of the youth work.
The key words that all three groups most identified as reflecting their experiences of the youth work: connection and inclusion. These value words underpin much of our ethos. The other key words identified were friendship, humour, joy and tangents. ‘Tangents’ reflects something deeply valued by generations of young people: the space to explore ideas creatively together; to go off the beaten path of discussion and forge into new territory. We are committed to building safe, small group spaces for young people to feel connected and included, to develop positive friendships, know joy, enjoy humour and have space to explore and celebrate tangents together.
Strategy & Impact
Journey Together responds to the identified needs of vulnerable young people in Oxford, utilising early intervention, the provision of safe spaces, and youth work to help them engage in school, make the most of their educational opportunities, make positive life choices and build positive mental health. Research has shown these three things to be key in supporting young people: early interventions, safe space provision, and youth work,
Early interventions
The importance of early intervention solutions is highlighted repeatedly in the National Youth Agency’s ‘Better Together: Youth Work with Schools’ report it states:
“Early whole-school and targeted interventions from youth workers reduce the strain of late interventions on school staff while making the most of limited resources.”
The Oxfordshire Joint Strategic Needs Analysis reveals both mental health and cost implications:
“Targeted prevention interventions can play a significant role in the reduction of depression and anxiety symptoms in young people … Late intervention in England and Wales for children and young people was estimated by the Early Intervention Foundation in 2016 to be £17 billion a year.”
History
Journey Together is building on the foundations of Viva Network’s Doorsteps Initiative. Viva supports networks of churches and organisations working together for children around the world, and, from 2015 to 2025, Viva’s Doorsteps Initiative worked to build partnerships of hope in Oxfordshire, connecting churches and organisations to respond creatively and practically together to the needs of under-resourced children, young people, and families.
In 2014, Oxford reeled with the shocking news of Operation Bullfinch: several men were arrested and seven convicted for their involvement in a child sex abuse ring in Oxford – ‘on the doorstep’ of Viva’s UK office. Catalysed by this, the Viva Team undertook a mapping exercise to identify the most pressing challenges facing children and young people in Oxfordshire, and out of this piece of work, Doorsteps began.
In 2025, circumstances aligned for Doorsteps to form as a charity in its own right, enabling its work to have a greater impact. After much thought, this new initiative was renamed ‘Journey Together’, reflecting the enormous privilege it is to journey with young people through their teenage years; the joy it is to journey with other practitioners and families as they support young people, and the truth that moving from child to young adulthood is a journey full of constant growth and change.
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