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Against the tide

This year-long project from the Guardian’s Seascape series will be reporting on the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales

  • Orson, a dancer, on Blackpool beach. Photograph: Polly Braden/The Guardian

    ‘We were able to live their experiences with them’: the ripple effects of our series about life in coastal towns

    A year-long project exploring the lives of young people in coastal areas required a great deal of groundwork to give them a genuine voice and ensure they were properly heard. Their stories captured the imagination of audiences and policymakers alike
  • A boy and girl walk in the surf on a seafront promenade

    One year, 17 towns, dozens of voices: what we heard along the coast of England and Wales

    Reporting from some of the poorest seaside towns revealed how young people have been left isolated – but remain resilient and full of hope
  • Cornwall's housing crisis is forcing young people to live in vans. As second homes and short-term holiday lets drive up house prices, a growing number are turning to van life to stay in the place they love. The Guardian meets young people who say their van brings them freedom but also uncertainty, as they struggle to find water, safe places to park and secure a future

    Has Cornwall’s housing crisis created a van life generation?

    Video8:31
  • Louella playing in her van, Penznace

    ‘It can flip quickly from being idyllic’: the reality of life for young van dwellers priced out of Cornwall’s housing market

  • A person in a white cap and layered clothing jumps on a beach at dusk, with Blackpool tower illuminated in the background

    Deprivation, resilience and a giant bunny: Polly Braden on capturing the ‘beauty and bleakness’ of young lives on the coast

    In the Guardian’s Against the tide series, the documentary photographer got to know some ‘amazing’ 16- to 25-year-olds living on the fringes of England and Wales, and now her work is the centre of a new touring exhibition
  • The Lincolnshire seaside town is often written off by YouTubers as a place defined by deprivation and decline. But for many young people it's a place they love and are proud to call home, even though high unemployment limits their opportunities. As part of the year-long Against the tide project reporting on the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales, the Guardian follows 19-year old Cohen, who is desperate to find a permanent job while running a mascot hire company and chasing his dream of becoming a professional wrestler

    Vape shops but no jobs: one young man’s search for work in Grimsby

    Video9:07
  • A man dressed in a bunny outfit stands in front of what appears to be a fairground under construction

    ‘I’m throwing everything at it’: one young man’s search for a job in Britain’s ‘worklessness capital’

  • A young woman with tattoos stands on a beach wearing winter clothing.

    Crack and crime to confident and qualified: is the future about to change for Rhyl’s youth?

    The Welsh seaside resort has already seen a fall in offending and drug use, now a £20m investment and a fresh approach to building job skills is bringing new opportunities for under-25s
  • Jake Snell, 20, sits near the giant ‘Gulliver’ wind turbine at Ness Point, Suffolk

    Surrounded by windfarms but out of work: the reality of the green jobs boom on England’s east coast

    The government hails the ‘green revolution’ as a solution to economic decline, but some young jobseekers say the rhetoric does not match their experience
  • Three teenage lads standing on the parapet of a wall on a hill at dusk with the street lights of a town below them and the sea in the distance

    ‘When I leave, part of me stays’: why Scarborough’s youth won’t turn their backs on the seaside town they love

    Hemmed in by the sea and poor transport links, many young people from the Yorkshire town feel trapped, but there is also a pride in the area
  • Matilda Phillips, who helped set up the Young Fishermen Network

    ‘It’s more exciting than Tesco’: can traditional fishing lure Cornwall’s young people?

    Taster days and training are offering teenagers an escape from a future of part-time, seasonal work – and giving a boost to a declining industry
  • A group of people holding placards in front of a building that has the word 'PIE' on it.

    ‘Hope and relief’ as seaside town’s last youth centre saved

    Charity praises effort to stop Ramsgate’s Pie Factory Music closing but calls for more youth services in coastal towns
  • A view of Southend pier with a ferris wheel in the foreground.

    ‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?

    When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degrees
  • Blurred out photo of a woman sitting on a grassy cliff top against white cliffs and a lighthouse

    Living on the edge: what young people in England told us about life on the coast

    As part of the Guardian’s Against the tide series, readers aged 18 to 30 share what they love about living in their coastal town, the challenges and why they often choose to leave
  • Silock’s Fun Palace in Blackpool

    ‘We need to speak collectively’: can parliament solve the problem of ‘deprivation bingo’ in the UK’s seaside towns?

    Labour knows it needs to win over the ‘sea wall’ cohort of coastal voters in the next election. But as anger over inequality grows, time is running out
  • Three teenage girls in a playground, the centre one holding a pink football.

    ‘I used to be a bit naughty’: Portsmouth defied funding cuts and saved its youth centres – here’s what happened

    Two decades ago, Portsmouth city’s council chose to fund and prioritise playgrounds and youth clubs to help its poorer families – and the benefits are plain to see
  • Tom, 16, with Zoë Carassik in the yard outside Pie Factory Music, Ramsgate

    Last youth centre in one of England’s most deprived coastal areas faces closure

    Pie Factory Music in Ramsgate, Kent, runs creative projects and provides a range of support services, but the building that houses the centre is due to be sold off in February
  • Southend Cliff Gardens. Essex. 24/6/23

    Young people in the UK: share your experiences of living in a coastal town

    We would like to hear from young people aged 18 to 25 about their experiences of living in the UK’s coastal towns
  • A group of young people stand on a street in front of a mural of a woman's face, wearing a headdress

    ‘It’s Sellafield or nothing’: what life is like growing up in the shadow of Europe’s oldest nuclear site

    Young people growing up in Whitehaven on England’s north-west coast rely on the power plant for everything from jobs to civic investment. But for those who see their future elsewhere, options can be limited
  • A young woman with tattoos in a T-shirt and shorts stands on a sand dune

    ‘I say where I’m from and they tell me they’re sorry’: growing up in the most deprived place in England

    The faded resorts and coastal towns of Tendring in Essex offer few job opportunities but many of its 20-somethings are set on finding their way in an area with one of England’s oldest populations
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