The Youth Endowment
Fund has today announced that it will
commit up to £6.5m in new grants to find the best ways to reach
“increasingly invisible” vulnerable young people during the
current COVID-19 restrictions.
With access to schools restricted and the provision of
youth services severely reduced, young people at risk of youth
violence have become increasingly ‘invisible’. At the same time,
they have lost much of the help and guidance they rely
on.
The Youth Endowment Fund was set up to find the best ways
to protect young people from being drawn into violent crime. The
new money has two aims. It will fund activities that support
vulnerable children at risk of youth violence. It will also find
the very best ways to reach and support these vulnerable children
under the current social distancing and stay-at-home
guidelines.
Organisations working with young people (aged 10-14) at
risk of youth violence in England and Wales will be able to apply
for funding of £25,000 and over. Activities that will be funded
include the delivery of digital and virtual programmes;
face-to-face work in schools, including activities to help
vulnerable young people return to school; and detached youth
work.
Half of the total funding available will be reserved for
charities and social enterprises to help bolster the voluntary
sector as it deals with the financial strains of the
pandemic.
, Executive Director of the Youth
Endowment Fund, said: “Large numbers of
young people in England and Wales are vulnerable and need regular
support and protection. These children have not gone away while
we fight COVID-19, but they have become increasingly invisible.
This money will help find the very best ways to reach and protect
these children, be that online, in their community or back in the
classroom.”
Applications for the Youth Endowment Fund’s COVID-19 grant
round will be open for four weeks from today [Wednesday
6th May 2020] and will close at 12pm
Wednesday 3rd June 2020. For more
information and to apply, please click HERE.
The Youth Endowment Fund was established last year with a
ten-year, £200m endowment from the Home Office. To date, the
independent charitable trust has awarded a total of £17.1m to 23
projects, working with 36,000 children across England and
Wales.
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