Young people in England today are growing up with ambitions, expectations, ideals and talents that are unprecedented, driven by new technology, higher levels of education and globalisation.

As a nation, we have an abundance of strong organisations engaged in youth leadership, and in recent years, there have been extraordinarily creative experiments, many of them led by young people.

However, England's young people face new kinds of social challenges in a more complex world – a world that is more diverse, with increased pressures on families, greater caring responsibilities (including for the young), more intense pressures from markets, and employability and skills challenges. It is also a time when millions of young people are aware as never before of the scale of the leadership challenges we now face at a global scale – from climate change, to the ageing demographic, to inequality.

Yet, in many communities, talent continues to go to waste. Thousands of young people face acute difficulties in making the transition to adulthood. Public perceptions of young people – reinforced by media portrayals – are often negative, and position young people as part of the problem rather than the solution. At worst, they are viewed with fear and suspicion.

These negative perceptions mask the extraordinarily positive work in which young people are engaged – whether in the private or public sphere (through volunteering, caring or carrying out youth work).Young people are also still denied adequate representation in the places where power is exercised, from parliament and local councils, to businesses and voluntary organisations.

Funded and supported by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Communities and Local Government, The Youth of Today will provide an unparalleled opportunity to address these challenges. The Youth of Today will increase the quantity and reach of opportunities for young people; to build stronger evidence and an understanding of what works, and to create opportunities for young people to influence decisions affecting them.