More than half of youngsters participate in initiatives to make the world a better place

• 46% of young people do not feel they are taken seriously when they launch an initiative. Yet seven in ten (71%) have actively taken part at least once in the last two years in initiatives to make things better

• 69% would like more support when they do something to make the world a better place

• 89% want to participate in or contribute to an initiative to make the world a better place in the next two years

Almost sixty percent (57%) of young people aged 14 to 21 feel they are not regarded sufficiently as a group that takes action to make our world a little better. This is the outcome of research commissioned by ABN AMRO and Young Impact and carried out by PanelWizard in the run-up to Young Impact Day. Nearly half (46%) of Dutch young people feel they are not taken seriously by older people when they set up an initiative. Six in ten believe that old and young people do not collaborate enough to make things better.

A hundred thousand role models

Wendy Kakebeeke, Director of Young Impact: “It’s wonderful to see that over a hundred thousand young people have participated through Young Impact in initiatives around topics like equal opportunities, climate, society, diversity and health this year. These include activities like collecting sleeping bags for Sheltersuit Foundation, and recycling as many old telephones as possible for WWF.” In practice, projects run by or through schools have proved the most successful, with almost two-thirds of young people in the Netherlands taking part in this category. A quarter (24%) of young people set up their own initiatives outside of school.

Increase in initiatives for equal opportunities and mental health

"We believe young people have the power to bring about change. It’s amazing to see them taking action to move society ahead, and we are glad to partner and support them in their efforts,” says Sander Bestevaar, Head of Partnerships, Events [CR1] & Foundations at ABN AMRO. "Our aim is to keep inspiring young people to make a positive contribution. Recognition and support are key, and we achieve this by offering coaching by employees of the bank, and by celebrating this generation of impact makers at Young impact Day."

“The research also identifies the topics younger generations care about. Many of them want to take action in the next two years for equal opportunities, for example, and for mental health,” continues Bestevaar.

14% of young people who have participated in a campaign in the last two years chose to support mental health. This percentage looks set to rise strongly in the future: 28% say they want to participate in a campaign in the next two years related to mental health. More than one in five (22%) young people are most interested in helping to promote equal opportunities.

In the past two years young people have been most active helping other people, for example with initiatives relating to voluntary and charity work (47%) and disadvantaged people (37%). Campaigns around climate and environment are also popular among young people: 46% of those who participated in initiatives in the past two years did so in this area.

About the partnership

ABN AMRO has been working with Young Impact since 2019 to support social themes. Together, they work to activate and inspire young people around creating social impact that makes the world a better place. Driven by its purpose, Banking for better, for generations to come, ABN AMRO uses sponsorship to accelerate progress towards a sustainable and inclusive world.

About the research

The representative research was carried out in May 2023 by PanelWizard on behalf of ABN AMRO. Over a thousand young Dutch people aged 14 to 21, representative in terms of gender, age and region, took part in the study.