Positive relationships are trusting, safe connections between children and the important people in their lives. They can have a transformative effect on wellbeing – helping young peoples’ confidence to soar and empowering them to tackle the toughest challenges.

Learn more about positive relationships and how to build them.

More about the Power of Positive Relationships from Jess Middleton, Insight Manager at BBC Children in Need

When asked to describe ourselves we often talk about our key achievements, the experiences we have had, our milestones. Behind all of those headlines are people. The key people with whom we have had strong,  positive relationships that have underlined and informed our experiences. The parent or carer who nurtured us, the youth worker who challenged us and helped us to develop and build towards our futures. The peer we built skills and learnt alongside. The friend who made us feel seen, loved and gave us a sense of belonging. The people who have an active role in shaping us, the key positive relationships that thread throughout our lives.

At BBC CiN we believe that all children and young people should have access to a wide and diverse range of positive relationships. We know these relationships are fundamental to how we feel and how we develop and grow. We recognise how crucial they are to building community and accessing opportunities, connections and knowledge that help children and young people to get on in life and enable them to thrive. Strong, nurturing, positive relationships are not nice to haves, they really matter. For some children and young people, including those affected by the types of challenges our funding addresses such as poverty or mental health issues, they matter more than anything else.

Right now life is difficult for far too many children and young people due to twin crises in poverty and mental health alongside a range of pressures and inequities. They need these crucial connections more than ever so they don’t miss out and can thrive despite the barriers they experience.

We believe that their futures are not yet written. Through nurturing, transformative and joyful relationships with peers, friends, trusted adults, family and in the community children and young people can build skills, confidence and resilience. They can explore, learn and develop and strengthen their emotional, social and physical wellbeing, helping them to get on in life.

At BBC CiN our funding creates and supports spaces for these positive relationships to thrive but we want to know more. We are currently undertaking a review into positive relationships. With an advisory group of expert academics, practitioners and young people with support from a learning partner we are examining our role in positive relationships and what more can be done. We’ll be sharing more on this later this year, about the ingredients that form these essential connections and how we can all play our part.