Summer 2026 update · Here For Youth

Alhamdulillah, the past few months have been an exciting and rewarding period for Here For Youth, with plenty happening across our communities.

From taking our youth engagement work to an international audience in Istanbul, to expanding our training network across the UK, strengthening our support for Youth Hubs and continuing our research into the future of Muslim youth work, we have kept building momentum. Here are some of the highlights.

june: faith-based youth work in focus

Our Head of Youth Work, Hamza Ahmed, represented Here For Youth on a panel for the National Youth Agency webinar Youth Work Insight: Faith Based Youth Work: Ethics, Boundaries and Practice with Young People.

The discussion explored the importance of ethics, clear boundaries and good practice when working with young people in faith-based settings. It was a valuable chance to contribute to wider conversations about how youth work can be delivered safely, effectively and with young people at its core.

july: an international audience

Members of the Here For Youth team travelled to Istanbul for The Prophetic Strategy Summit (TPSS), connecting with organisations and young people from across the world.

We delivered a workshop for emerging young leaders, From Intention to Impact: Youth Led Change, helping participants develop a research-led Theory of Change for projects they want to deliver in their local communities.

A Here For Youth speaker on stage in Istanbul in front of a slide reading: if we want prophetic communities, we must build prophetic youth infrastructure

We also gave an on-stage spotlight presentation to more than 200 delegates from countries including Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Maldives, the USA and the UK, sharing our work and our approach to youth engagement. The summit made space to explore the challenges facing Muslim communities today, including the impact of AI, and to reflect on prophetic leadership and strategy.

july: growing our network across the UK

July saw the end of another training cycle, with five organisations trained across the UK, from Glasgow in the north to Crawley in the south. This included our first training session in Scotland, another important milestone for the Here For Youth network.

Alongside the training, we continued our coaching and site visits, supporting organisations as they put the principles of youth engagement into practice, and welcomed several new hubs onto the programme.

august: supporting our hubs

We wrapped up Youth Engagement Coaching for the summer cohort, bringing together participants from Westminster, Crawley, High Wycombe, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Watford.

We're now preparing for the next training cycle and developing new resources to help our hubs with their youth engagement work. These will be released over the coming months, in sha Allah.

looking ahead: the 2026 awards

Nominations opened for the Muslim Youth Engagement Awards 2026. The ceremony takes place on Saturday 7 November 2026 in London, during Youth Work Week. Every hub could nominate itself or others across the award categories, celebrating the teams, young people and leaders who have made a real impact across our network this year. Nominations closed on 28 September.

get involved

We're recruiting volunteers to help with research, social media and marketing. If you'd like to help us reach and support more young people, see the volunteer roles.

And cooperate in righteousness and piety.
Quran 5:2

We can't do our work without you. If you believe in building a youth club in every masjid, please support our mission.