The scheme, called the Big Society Blueprint Programme, is designed to shape the government’s agenda in this area.

All six chosen organisations will receive infrastructure support from NCVYS and will be provided with networking opportunities and the chance to have their work peer-reviewed.

NCVYS hopes the project will generate evidence of the extent to which infrastructure support can boost the capacity of small, volunteer-led community organisations.

The project will also feed into NCVYS’s development of a low-cost model for the big society, which will be presented to government.

Organisations hoping to take part in the initiative are likely to be reliant on volunteers, have limited or precarious funding and find it difficult to access existing local support. They must also work with one or more of the following groups:

• Young people from black and minority ethnic or refugee backgrounds
• Young carers
• Young people who have been the victims of violent crime
• Young women facing gender inequalities
• Young people at risk of falling into the criminal justice system
• Young people in rural communities

For further information on the Blueprint programme, contact NCVYS’s development manager for networks and learning Jarina Choudhury at jarina@ncvys.org.uk.