Railway Children is proud to announce a significant £10,000 donation from CrossCountry, supporting the ongoing development of the Railway Children Youth Platform and Youth Ambassador Project. This contribution has already transformed the opportunities available to young people, enabling them to shape safeguarding practice, empower them and develop their own leadership skills across the rail industry.
Author: Amy Wright | Date: 19th February 2026
Before receiving this funding, many of the ideas generated by young people could not be brought to life due to financial constraints. The CrossCountry Community Fund has changed that completely – elevating the Youth Platform’s capacity and helping the service progress towards its strategic goals to empower young people.
Thanks to this support, the Youth Platform has been able to achieve an impressive range of outcomes, including:
At the Youth Forum Away Day in September, the young people expressed a strong desire to create a rail themed podcast – a youth led platform to talk about their experiences of travel, safety advice, and positive stories from across the network. The idea captured their imagination, but the team initially lacked the experience, equipment, and resources needed to get started a themed podcast led platform to talk about their experiences of travel, safety advice, and positive stories from across the network.
Following discussions at grant update meetings, CrossCountry’s contract manager, Thomas Lambe, who had already met the young people during the Christmas celebrations, explored how the organisation could support the podcast vision. He later reported that CrossCountry would kindly provide access to a professional recording studio whenever the group needed it.
This offer has transformed the project from an ambitious idea into a realistic, achievable opportunity.
What began as a simple conversation during the Youth Away Day is now developing into a fully youth produced podcast series – giving young people a new platform to share their insights, creativity and lived experience with the wider rail industry.
Railway Children’s Youth Platform exists to ensure that young people with lived experience of vulnerability have a genuine voice in safeguarding practice. CrossCountry’s generous support is playing a crucial role in making this possible.
We look forward to continuing this important work together and building even more opportunities for young people in the months ahead.
From 18 – 22 May 2026, 14 police officers serving under the Gender and Children’s Desk in Mwanza successfully completed a five-day specialist training on child sexual abuse interviewing and crime scene forensics, delivered through a partnership between Railway Children Africa (RCA) and the UK College of Policing.
In her first nine months, Nicki Mackin has helped safeguard dozens of young people and worked with rail staff, retailers and the public to improve awareness of vulnerability across the station.
As the only UK voices on the Children and Young People’s Global Taskforce for Care Reform, Railway Children Youth Ambassadors Corey and Elliot brought their lived experience to parliament!
Learn about safeguarding and how it relates to child protection on transport networks.
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Julia, 24, grew up as a boy but knew, early on, that the gender she’d been born into was not who she was. Here, she talks to Youth Platform about her journey, and what she wishes she’d know as a ten-year-old boy.
