What are the latest grants?
The YEF’s latest £10mn investment will focus on expanding targeted mentorship across England and Wales to prevent young people from becoming involved in crime, violence and exploitation.
Young people referred to the programme will be paired with trained mentors, who have had similar backgrounds, and will help young people engage in education, training and employment opportunities through a long-term approach.
Who has received them?
Media Academy Cymru, Spark2Life, St Giles and UpskillU are the organsiations which the YEF will fund and evaluate.
Media Academy Cymru will receive £2mn for its Cerridwen project in Wales, and St Giles will receive £2.1mn for SOS+ across England.
UpskillU has been awarded £2.8mn for its EXODUS programme in the south of the country, and Spark2Life will receive £3.1mn for its Meaningful Mentoring initiative in London.
All investments include evaluation costs.
What will they deliver?
- UpskillU’s EXODUS is a 12-month mentoring programme which begins with 12 weeks of intensive one-to-one mentoring from mentors trained in restorative practice. This will be followed by work focused on long-term goals and personal development, before young people meet their local community volunteers who will provide ongoing support.
- Media Academy Cymru’s Cerridwen scheme will deliver weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions with trained youth workers to address the underlying factors contributing to violent behaviour. This includes support to understand emotions and develop positive self-identities with healthy self-expression methods. Media Academy Cymru chief executive Nick Corrigan says: “With the investment from the YEF we will be able to evaluate the largest youth violence intervention programme ever seen in Wales.”
- St Giles’ SOS+ programmeplaces 10 mentors across 20 schools in five regions for two years. Young people who are vulnerable to violence and exploitation will receive six months of weekly one-to-one mentoring sessions, which will build a safe space for young people to develop their self-esteem and ambitions. St Giles Trust chief executive Tracey Burley says: “It is an initiative we believe should be in every school if we want to reduce victims of violence across the country.”
- Spark2Life’s Meaningful Mentoring programme will provide young people with up to 12 months of trauma-informed mentoring and casework support through weekly face-to-face sessions. It aims to enhance young people’s support networks with prosocial lifestyles.
Why were they successful?
Mollie Bourne, assistant director of impact, programme and partnerships at the YEF, says: “Our selected projects have a proven track record of providing high-quality mentoring support to young people who are at risk of violence, offending or exploitation. While each project’s model is unique, all demonstrated the capacity and capability to reach and support a large enough number of children to allow for a randomised controlled trial.”
How will impact be assessed?
The £10mn investment comes after the YEF’s research showed that mentoring programmes cut violence by 21%, offending by 14% and reoffending by 19%.
Impact will be evaluated through set evaluation teams. These are: Cordis Bright for Cerridwen, National Centre for Social Research for SOS+, Coram for EXODUS and ICF Consulting Services Ltd for Spark2Life.
Bourne adds: “Each project will participate in a trial to assess its impact on reducing violent and non-violent offending, as well as addressing behavioural and emotional difficulties. Throughout the study, our evaluators will collaborate closely with the project teams to explore how the intervention works, who it works for and the circumstances which deliver the best results.”
Evaluators will also ensure that funding reaches children from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
More from: youthendowmentfund.org.uk
Funding roundup
The Berkeley Foundation has partnered with five youth homelessness charities to grant £300,000 over two years. The five charities selected to each receive a £60,000 grant are; Settle, Esteem, The Foyer Federation, Youth Concern, CARAS. Each charity addresses the root causes of youth homelessness, providing vital services for young people who face additional challenges and discrimination. This includes offering opportunities to progress into work, education or training.
Peckham Studios, the free music studio for young people in south east London, is looking for £60,000 of funding to enable it to remain operational two days a week for the next 12 months. Since its opening in 2004, the project run by the social and environmental charity Groundwork London has supported more than 600 young people from London’s disadvantaged communities through its studio facilities. A contribution of £6,000 from the Rio Ferdinand Foundation will support young people in building skills and developing careers in the music industry over the summer.
Projects in six areas of England will receive funding to help those most in need of employability support through UK Youth’s Building Connections scheme, backed by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. Organisations to receive support include Brentford FC Community Sports Trust in West London, Young Somerset, Wigan Youth Zone, SMASH Youth Project in Swindon, Sculpt in Bermondsey, South-East London, and Brighter Futures for Children in Reading. The overall budget for the project is £430,000, and each delivery partner will receive £23,000.
