Youth community work gets a cash injection
Neil Puffett
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Young people graduating from the government's National Citizen Service (NCS) will be able to continue helping the community once the scheme has finished, after the National Youth Agency received £900,000 from the government's Social Action Fund.
The money, match funded with £500,000 from O2, will pay for a programme to provide NCS graduates in four English regions - the North West, North East, Yorkshire and South East, with cash awards, training and support from a team of specially employed youth workers.
The project will last for 18 months, during which time young people will build social action projects to benefit their local communities, at the same time as creating volunteering opportunities for their peers.
The concept intends to build on the existing social action element of the NCS, which sees young people create an idea that will have a beneficial impact on their local community and spend 30 hours of their time carrying it out.
Young people taking part in the new project will be provided with money to develop ideas, and will also receive guidance and advice from O2’s Think Big team.
Nick Hurd, civil society minister, said: “This is a great example of government, business and the voluntary sector working together to provide opportunities for young people so that they can improve their skills and take on new challenges.”
Fiona Blacke, chief executive of the National Youth Agency, said the new project will build “progression routes” for young people who have been on the NCS.
“We are going to use teams of paid interns and apprentices led by a youth worker to reach out to and engage young people and signpost them to programmes and funders that can support their next steps.
“Key to this is O2 Think Big which is providing funding and support for more than 850 young people's projects, which will drive the creation of volunteering opportunities for many young people.”
In delivering the project, the NYA and O2 Think Big will work with local delivery partners – Envision, Youth Action and Keyfund - in each of the regions.
It will also work with Durham University to evaluate the impact of the programme on young people, and communities.
It has also been announced that £303,800 from the Social Action Fund has been awarded to a programme to raise awareness of philanthropy among young people.
The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) currently works with 10,000 young people in England.
Young people work in teams to identify the social needs of their local community and select a local charity that best addresses their chosen issue.
They interview staff and beneficiaries before preparing a presentation for a judging panel with the best team winning a £3,000 donation for their charity.
The new funding means the London-based project can expand to the Midlands and North West, allowing 8,000 more young people to take part.
