Big Lottery Fund

The Young People’s Fund (YPF) is a collection of programmes that ran across the UK from 2004. A list of the programmes appears on the right of this page.

Arrangements and approaches for the programmes varied, but all highlighted the importance of actively involving young people in planning and running projects that set out to – among other aims – improve young people’s confidence, well-being and engagement in the economy and wider society. Across the UK, about 700,000 young people took part in YPF projects.

GEN Consulting and Wavehill Consulting carried out a five-year evaluation of YPF from 2006. As well as considering the overall success of projects and programmes in achieving what they set out to, the evaluation had a strong focus on considering approaches to effective involvement by young people – so the publications available here include good practice guides on that and related subjects, as well as annual reports.

The main findings from the evaluation include the following:

• Taking part in YPF projects helped young people to develop their skills for future employment and to change their outlook and so make more positive choices, in particular regarding attitudes towards school.
• BIG's requirement for projects to actively involve young people in how they were planned and run has led to a change in culture among youth organisations. It has allowed young people to shape services that affect them, and in doing so it has further developed valuable skills among participants.
• YPF has helped young people to make a positive contribution to their local community. It has helped to reduce the likelihood of anti-social behaviour and has promoted active citizenship.

Read the final report This reviews the achievements of and learning from the programme as a whole. - 1,207KB, which is accompanied by a set of case studies Case studies from across the UK, illustrating findings from the final report of the Young People's Fund evaluation - 624KB.

Read the good practice guides from this evaluation and from our wider work with young people.

Annual reports

Each annual report contains findings from across the UK and specific findings from each country programme.

• The first report The evaluation will assess the impact of each of the four country programmes in meeting their aims and outcomes, and will examine the impact of involving young people in all a...
  - 1,251KB focuses on what we had funded and how projects were developing.
• The second report This report covers the second phase of the YPF evaluation highlighting the impact of activities on young people, projects and communities. - 977KB looks more closely at how activities were affecting young people and the community. Our summary This summary focuses on the key evaluation findings from the YPF Scotland programme. - 439KB of that report is also available.
• The third report This third year evaluation report covers how projects are addressing disadvantage, involving young people and the legacy of the programme. - 1,130KB considers how projects were dealing with disadvantage and involving young people. It also addresses the potential legacy of the programme. You can also read a summary of our learning from YPF in Scotland at this stage This summary focuses on the key evaluation findings from the YPF Scotland programme. - 439KB and the chapter from the third report reviewing the involvement of young people This short chapter provides detailed findings on the pattern of young people's involvement and how this impacts on the projects and on the young people themselves. - 192KB.
• The fourth report This fourth year report covers the more longer-term impacts of the programme on young people and communities - 1,194KB takes a close look at what young people think about YPF and what difference being involved has made to their lives.

Please contact us to find out more.