Together with our partners, we design evidence-based interventions, co-created by young people. Our work supports families and communities, and includes clubs and workshops working with young people to produce high quality digital media, and in-depth qualitative research and reports.

Raising Teens

Raising Teens is a radio series created by Make (Good) Trouble and produced in collaboration with BBC Sussex and BBC Surrey. To date we have produced four series and 24 episodes covering everything from teen anxiety to self-harm, sleep, and drug use and county lines.

The show is supported by a closed Facebook group. It offers a safe space for families to ask for help, to share parenting challenges, and to find and offer support to other parents. We also run online Q&A advice sessions on all kinds of parenting subjects – so no one feels alone. 

🎧 Find out more and listen to all episodes: Raising Teens 

The Catalyst

Make (Good) Trouble is the driving force behind The Catalyst, a participatory arts programme for young people launched in November 2022. Its aim is to improve wellbeing, loneliness and employability and is commissioned by East Sussex County Council. The programme includes workshops, mentoring and networking for young people.

Find out more about The Catalyst

Facebook Live Q&As

Over the course of lockdown and since, we set up conversations between young people and people who work in organisations or institutions that affect their lives like the Police and the Children’s Commissioner for England. We have also spoken to experts who have offered brilliant advice to parents and young people about dealing with anxiety, promoting better mental health in men and boys, and getting better sleep.

Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Holiday Clubs

Make (Good) Trouble has run Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programmes over 2021 and 2022, commissioned by East Sussex County Council, providing young people in East Sussex with a safe, enriching environment in which to play, learn and unwind. There is a focus on active learning and nutrition with children and young people making food together.

Find out more about our HAF programme
Read about our evaluation work for the HAF programme

Beach Walks

In 2022, we held a series of accessible community-support beach walks along Brighton & Hove beaches, for parents and carers of teenagers. We got together for a coffee and a chat with experts in teen-related issues – including eating disorders, LGBTQ+ issues, conflicts at home and more. 

Find out more about our Beach Walks

Trauma-informed Training

Make (Good) Trouble, working in partnership with charity Oasis Project, has created a trauma-informed online training course. Launched in January 2022, it is a brand new virtual training course for professionals working across Sussex, which is designed to enhance front-line professionals’ understanding of underlying trauma that could contribute to an young person’s risk of involvement with serious violence and crime. 

Find out more about Trauma-informed Training

The Rez

The Rez is a sci-fi podcast adventure for 9–11 year-olds also told through a comic book and a game-based website developed by UK Comic Book Laureate Hannah Berry and a team of writers and psychologists, including Robin Banerjee, Professor of Kindness and Head of Psychology at University of Sussex. It’s our job to help evaluate the programme as well as create and distribute content to raise awareness of the podcast and comic. We also managed the process to get The Rez awarded a PSHE Quality Mark for their teaching guide and school lesson plans for Key Stage 2.

Find out more about The Rez

We Are Poppy

We Are Poppy is a project supported by the Lottery Heritage Fund. It explores women’s experiences of the First World War and how the War affected their mental health. It is a story developed and told by young people who ask: what has changed for women in the past 100 years, and which challenges do we still face today?  Created in a time of Covid-19 and lockdown, there are new parallels to be explored.

Goal Power

In April 2022, Make (Good) Trouble worked alongside photographic artist and artist facilitator Lindsey Smith, to help seven young players, aged between 12 and 14, interview legends of the game, and those working in and playing football today. The resulting podcast series, developed for Brighton Museum’s Goal Power exhibition to tie in with the Women’s Euros, gives us real insights into what it was like to be a player in the 1960s and ‘70s, and how that is changing for those involved in the game today. 

Videos: the teenage brain

Our videos give a voice to young people. Created to share on social media, and show at events, they help us to understand each other better.

📸 Main photo credit: Lindsey Smith