Young People’s Fund 2: National Grants

Summary of the programme

Up to £38 million will fund projects of national significance that involve young people in developing, running and reviewing policies and services and help deliver the five ‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes.

Grants of up to £5 million are available (with an average grant size of £1 million) for projects that work with young people across England. We expect to fund approximately 20 projects.

Key aspects of the programme are as follows:

• Our focus is on changing the lives of young people by putting them in the lead
• We will only fund projects that involve young people from start to finish
• Grants will be available for up to five years
• All projects must have beneficiaries from two or more of the nine England regions
• Only voluntary and community sector organisations may apply.

For more information about YPF 2 National Grants please read the Guidance notes This guide is for organisations that want to apply for a grant from the National Grants programme of the Young Peoples Fund 2.549KB and the Questions and Answers.

Need guidance on how to involve young people?

Projects that involve young people during project development, project delivery and project evaluation have always been the focus of the Young People’s Fund (YPF). Our consultation with the youth sector suggests that YPF is making a positive change to the way the sector works with young people, and adds value to the other sources of funding that are currently available.

Our experience to date suggests that applicants have struggled with meaningful involvement of young people from start to finish, and this is especially true for projects trying to meet the needs of particularly vulnerable young people. As such for YPF 2 we are providing a package of support that will help embed youth involvement, enabling potential applicants to meet the level of young people’s participation that is required by the programme.

The Participation Works Consortium (PWs), led by National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and including British Youth Council, Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), National Youth Agency (NYA), National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) and Save the Children – England are leading this work.

PWs are tasked with building a centre of excellence on involving young people and any third sector organisation wanting to work with young people will be able to draw on this resource free of charge. For more information on the work of Participation Works go to: www.participationworks.org.uk.