A new chapter for the youth sector: Youth Investment Fund phase 2 launches

The £368 million fund aims to deliver grants for up to 300 facilities across 45 local authorities and more than 600 district wards across England by 2025.

The partners are thrilled to have this opportunity, working in partnership with central government, the sector, and young people themselves. Together we have the potential to inspire hundreds of thousands of young people to dream big, providing inspiring role models, along with the practical support, resources, information, and the positive relationships with trusted adults, that are essential to help young people fulfil their potential.  

As a sector we face huge challenges to deliver face-to-face provision safely and where it is needed, huge increases in demand for services from vulnerable young people, and many organisations have been challenged by reductions in income. With so many young people desperately needing additional support, help and guidance, NYA has continued to advocate for youth work as the best way to help all young people fulfil their potential. The youth work sector has faced unprecedented challenges during the last few years with the Covid-19 pandemic exposing the sector’s vulnerabilities.

Phase 2 of the YIF will begin to address some of those vulnerabilities, providing high quality, and custom-built premises, to offer much needed support where young people need it most. We want youth workers to be able to meet young people where they are, in their own communities and the YIF will enable us to work with youth groups throughout the country to create and support safe places for young people to thrive.

SIB will oversee and co-ordinate the fund as a whole, working alongside Resonance and Key Fund across the country to deliver YIF projects, supporting organisations with developing their proposals and on organisational resilience.

NYA is coordinating three key aspects of the fund insight and delivery: the involvement of young people, embedding high quality youth work, and the effective engagement of the wider sector.  Embedding high quality, universal youth provision supports all young people to have somewhere safe to go, to socialise and learn new skills, with a trusted adult who is skilled and trained to support them.

The partnership’s vision for how YIF works is the balance of three pillars: 

• Youth Offer - funded projects must expand access to youth services for local young people

• Construction - projects need to be viable and deliverable within the lifetime of the fund

• Resilience - funded organisations must have capacity to deliver build projects, and sufficient resilience to manage them effectively afterwards

These three pillars are at the core of the assessment process.

With NYA’s expert support, young people have been involved at every stage of development and are formally involved in the assessment process via a youth panel. Our partnership has placed young people at the heart of YIF.  

Leigh Middleton, NYA CEO

“Young people are our future, ensuring they are actively involved in every stage of YIF will allow their voices are heard, helping them to shape the youth provision in their locality.  Youth participation facilitates a feeling of ownership that increases the likelihood of an initiative’s success. The Youth Investment Fund will expand current youth provision in England, giving young people access to highly skilled and trained youth workers who will provide the support they desperately need, and from which we will all benefit as a society.”

Nick Temple, SIB CEO

“All young people deserve access to high-quality youth services and great youth facilities to thrive in life, but youth provision across the country is sadly unequal. That’s why we’re proud at Social Investment Business to be able to apply our 20+ years’ knowledge and experience of grant programmes and capital projects to design, manage and deliver the Youth Investment Fund. It is a wonderful opportunity to prioritise the needs of young people in England and create a more equal society for future generations.”

There will be a large diversity of projects that will apply to the Fund – from volunteer-led groups to local authorities; from small-scale refurbishments and extensions to large-scale purpose-built centres; from inner cities to rural wards; from those that are ‘shovel-ready’ to those at an earlier stage of development.  YIF encourages a full diversity of projects to apply for the Fund as early as practically possible to enable the partnership to best assess and support a wide range of applications.

To find out more, visit: www.youthinvestmentfund.org.uk