ABOUT six weeks ago an envelope landed on my doormat. Inside was my annual Christmas card from Prince Charles. Yes, that Prince Charles.

You may be wondering what I have done to appear on the heir to the throne’s card list and in truth it’s not much; everyone who volunteers for his Prince’s Trust gets one as a small thank-you, presumably so they can flash it around in the manner of Hyacinth Bucket at their seasonal drinks party.

I only mention this because the Trust recently published a survey which didn’t get nearly enough media coverage. It revealed that one in ten young people feel they just can’t cope with day-to-day life. It discovered that more than a quarter of young people in work say they feel down or depressed, always or often. For those who haven’t got a job or college course it’s even worse, with 48 per cent of them admitting to suffering these feelings.

More troubling still is that nearly 25 per cent did not have someone to talk to about their problems.

And if you’re wondering what all this has got to do with you then consider this. One day, when we are all going ga-ga in the Gordon Brown Retirement Home for People Without Pensions, it is these very people – the young ones of today – we are hoping to rely on to nurse us, drive us around, discover new cures for ga-ga-ness and generally run the national show. Yet increasing numbers of them feel they can’t cope.

And many of the others can’t get a job, start their career, or train to become the citizens and taxpayers of the future because people twice their age and with vastly better educations have basically totalled the economy.

Compared to the youngsters of, say, Syria, or those who lived through World War II, their problems may seem mindblowingly trivial. But it’s only when you start talking to them you get an understanding of the absolute mess that many of them have to contend with and it’s a mess that’s been, in the main, created by many of the people who can’t see what all the fuss is about.

These youngsters are frequently the victims of family breakdown. That family breakdown may have been caused by drink, drugs, mental illness, a parent going to prison or general unforeseen calamity. Many young people are carers, either for mentally ill or infirm parents or for siblings.

Tragically this can lead to them being bullied, increasing their lack of confidence and interrupting their schooling. I am constantly gobsmacked at how many young people appear to have left school in Year 9 and no one appears to have done anything concrete about enticing them back in again.

For those who do go, is it any surprise they feel betrayed and muddled when they work hard for the myriad tests and exams the government demands they pass and they are then told by the very same ministers that standards are slipping, implying that it’s all too easy?

No wonder young people are confused, when they have it hammered into them that debt is a bad thing yet they are ordered to go into it to the tune of £50,000 to get a university education.

And who could blame them for feeling they can’t change anything when they vote for a politician who says he won’t raise tuition fees, does exactly that, and then quibbles over the definition of a pledge and a promise?

The problems facing young people today are a bit like a giant ball of wool comprising lack of investment in the right schemes, lack of imagination, unwillingness to tackle society’s ills, and a disgusting whiff of I’m All Right Jack-ery from the people in charge. But the Prince’s Trust is a bit like the person who’s found the end of that tangle and can start unravelling it all.

It runs various programmes – it hopes to assist 55,000 this year – and has a proven track record of achieving its goal which is to get young people back into education, employment or training.

It gets them out doing sports, teambuilding, and volunteer work, allowing people who’ve frequently been told they are rubbish and a failure to learn that they, personally, can make a difference. And then it sends them out into the world with a mentor to help keep them on track.

If, by now, you feel this column may be a subtle advert for the Prince’s Trust you’d be wrong. It’s a giant great advert for it; because it works. Their motto is this: some young people feel they don’t have a future; we think they’re wrong. If you agree then sign up; the Trust needs mentors, fundraisers and folk to advise young business people. Apart from a bit of simple training, all you need is some experience of life and a willingness to help. Oh yes, and a place to put that Christmas card, so all the neighbours will see it.

  • princes-trust.org