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 If you were asked to summon up images of the coastline of England and Wales, you might think of sunny days, buckets, spades and carefree holidays. But for many young people growing up by the sea, decades of evidence tell a very different story. For them, rather than a picture-perfect horizon full of hope, the sea has become a boundary that swallows up opportunity.

With a 73% decline in funding for youth services in England over the past 12 years, and a lack of opportunities that has led to nearly 1 million 16- to 24-year-oldsnot in work, education or training (Neet), the situation for young people, especially in places of deprivation, has never seemed more desperate. England and Wales, you might think of sunny days, buckets, spades and carefree holidays.

On our journey around the coast we saw this first-hand – young people who had become isolated and despondent.

For decades, they have taken the blame, with countless media articles describing them as “lazy” or “feral”, and their towns as “scum”. Over the next year, the Against the Tide project from the Guardian’s Seascape team will be reporting on the lives of young people in coastal communities across England and Wales. Young people in many of England's coastal towns are disproportionately likely to face poverty, poor housing, lower educational attainment and employment opportunities than their peers in equivalent inland areas.

In the most deprived coastal towns they can be left to struggle with crumbling and stripped-back public services and transport that limit their life choices. For the next 12 months, accompanied by the documentary photographer Polly Braden, we will travel up and down the country to port towns, seaside resorts and former fishing villages to ask 16- to 25-year-olds to tell us about their lives and how they feel about the places they live. By putting their voices at the front and centre of our reporting, we want to examine what kind of changes they need to build the futures they want for themselves. We wanted to shine a light on the positive things that are being created by and for young people on the coast, to highlight just what it is we cannot afford to lose.