Charity chosen to deliver £200m Youth Endowment Fund to tackle violence

The fund will support programmes and community partnerships working with children at risk of being drawn into crime and violence.

It will be run independently by charity Impetus, working in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation and the Social Investment Business across England and Wales.

This focus on long-term early intervention complements the government’s decisive action to support the police to tackle the immediate challenge of knife crime. Last week, a further £100m was committed to support forces with high levels of violent crime to take immediate action. This is on top of the additional funding of up to £970m that policing is already due to receive from April from the Government and Council Tax.

Prime Minister Theresa May said:

Tackling serious violence requires a cross-society approach, and early intervention is vital to protect young people from being groomed by gangs and drawn into crime.

We all need to work together to stop further tragedies. This fund will support important work in the community to prevent vulnerable children and young people from falling into a life of drugs, gang culture and violence.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Intervening early in the lives of vulnerable children and young people is a central part of our approach to tackling serious violence.

It’s vital we do everything we can to equip these youngsters with the skills and resilience they need to lead positive lives and prevent them from offending in the first place.

Our £200m Youth Endowment Fund is a key part of this approach and will help us tackle the root cause of this scourge.

It will work with local communities to ensure that support reaches those at most risk, diverting them away from crime and violence to lead fulfilling lives.

In addition to the £200m injection, Impetus will work with other funders to seek to grow the fund to a potential £300m through donations and investments.

Impetus is a charity focused on transforming the lives of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Delivered over ten years, the fund will support the public health approach to tackling serious violence and in which a statutory duty will shortly be open for consultation.

CEO of Impetus Andy Ratcliffe said:

This is a significant and sustained investment that puts prevention at the heart of efforts to tackle youth crime and violence.

We need to be ambitious if we’re to tackle this issue - that means early intervention to stop children and young people getting themselves into serious trouble.

The Youth Endowment Fund will be working with front line organisations to provide the support they need to put young people on the right track.

Impetus plans to launch the first funding round, a general open call round, with the aim of awarding the first round of grants in the autumn.

In addition, the fund will be used to evaluate the impact of interventions so that the most effective ones can be scaled up and delivered more widely.

Combining strong law enforcement with early intervention underpins the Serious Violence Strategy’s commitment. By investing in preventative initiatives young people will be provided with the tools, support and opportunity to live violence-free lives.

CEO of the Early Intervention Foundation Dr. Jo Casebourne said:

It is so important that the Youth Endowment Fund has been established with evidence and evaluation at its heart.

This long term, strategic approach will allow us to invest in more of the services and support that have already been shown to work in reducing the risk of young people becoming involved in antisocial and criminal behaviour, and to test a range of promising and innovative approaches.

CEO of Social Investment Business Nick Temple said:

The Youth Endowment Fund provides a generational opportunity to tackle the causes of violence amongst children and young people.

Our unique approach is one which combines robust evidence, dedicated and expert support to organisations and local areas, and a proven ability to manage high quality grants programmes.