BBC Children in Need, in partnership with the #iwill Fund and The Hunter Foundation, has announced they are delivering a £3million fund to support organisations to embed youth social action across the UK.
The BBC Children in Need Youth Social Action Fund will help to build children and young people’s confidence and skills and will empower them to take an active and leading role in developing solutions to issues which affect their lives and their communities. Social action involves activities such as influencing, fundraising and volunteering, all of which enable young people to make a positive difference in their communities as well as develop their own skills and knowledge.
The partnership has been made possible with thanks to £1,290,300 from the #iwill Fund (a £54 million joint investment between The National Lottery Community Fund and The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), £490,000 from The Hunter Foundation and £2,239,000 from BBC Children in Need.*
The fund is open to not-for-profit organisations who currently work with children and young people aged 18 and under and will help prevent or overcome the effects of the disadvantages that they face. Grants will be funded for up to 18 months, with an initial development phase of up to six months so that projects can design and develop their work with the help of the children and young people that they are working with.
The fund especially aims to reach:
organisations who focus on addressing issues of disadvantage affecting children and young people
children and young people who have some experience of social action and want to develop their skills and experience to do more.
children and young people who have no experience of social action work at all but want to find out what it is all about.
Fozia Irfan, Director of Impact at BBC Children in Need said: “We are launching the Youth Social Action Fund alongside the #iwill Fund and The Hunter Foundation so that we can give children and young people the opportunity to make a positive difference and drive change in their communities and the world around them.
“Through youth social action, children and young people are able to use their voice and their lived experience to tackle subjects that affect them and matter to them. We encourage organisations who are interested to apply and find out more information through our website.”
Helen Whyman, Head of the #iwill Fund, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players and government funding, we are able to support the Youth Social Action Fund, ensuring young people have the opportunities to use their voice to make a real difference to the communities they live in, to their peers, and to the young people of the future.
“The work of the #iwill Fund has had an incredible impact on young people across England and this new funding will ensure that even more young people feel empowered to take an active role in driving positive change and ensuring their communities prosper and thrive.”
Sir Tom Hunter, founder of The Hunter Foundation said: “Putting the voice of young people at the heart of change is precisely right – too often policies and practices adopted to support young people are not tailored to their needs, this will empower their voices in impacting on delivering the right interventions to support them. As ever – ask the customer!”
The Youth Social Action Fund is one of two programmes being launched by BBC Children in Need focused on sharing power with children and young people.
The second fund – the We Move Fund - will be especially aimed at Black-led organisations and organisations that work with Black children and young people and will open for applications in the coming weeks.
The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £54 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities. BBC Children in need is acting as a match funder and awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund.
For more information on the Youth Social Action Fund and how to apply, please visit www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey.
*This breakdown includes £1million for the We Move Fund.
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