Up to £300m is available through the YIF, which is funded by the UK government and delivered by Social Investment Business in partnership with the National Youth Agency, Key Fund and Resonance.
The YIF Refurbishment Grant programme provides small grants to youth services in need of minor investments to renovate their sites and facilities.
What is the grant for?
YIF's Refurbishment Grant programme offers grants for eligible youth organisations’ site renovations, which will either extend the service's reach to young people or preserve its youth service.
How much is available?
A total of £150,000 is available per applicant for capital, revenue and contingency costs of a refurbishment project. Applicants request funding for a capital project to refurbish their youth facilities and can apply for revenue funding to support the delivery of the capital project. Revenue funding should be no more than 20 per cent of the grant request, and contingency is expected to amount to 10 per cent of the planned work.
All grant requests must amount to a minimum of £10,000, to ensure the changes will do enough to sustain or expand service provision.
What projects are eligible?
Applicants must be able to demonstrate that the grant will either extend their reach to young people or preserve their youth service. Eligible capital refurbishment projects include roof works, accessibility adjustments, insulation, electrical works, asbestos removal, new bathroom fittings, and the fitting of new windows or doors.
Some refurbishments can only be included in the grant project as part of a wider refurbishment plan, such as redecoration, external landscaping, and solar panel and heat pump installation.
Who can apply?
Youth services can apply for the YIF Refurbishment Grants Programme if their planned building project is in a selected eligible area of the country, which potential applicants can check using the YIF's online postcode checker.
Applicants will be able to begin refurbishment work quickly after receiving the grant, and projects are expected to be completed within a year.
How to apply?
Organisations can submit their applications through the YIF's online portal and read the application questions on its website in advance of starting the application. There is also a webinar available for potential applicants to watch and learn more about the fund.
What is the process?
The current round is open for applications between 29 May and 9 June.
After the application window has closed, proposals will go through an initial eligibility check, and data analysis will be used to prioritise which applications will be assessed. Applications which do not make it through this prioritisation process will be put on hold and assessed in the next funding round.
Applications in the priority group will be reviewed, and a relationship manager will gather any additional information from the applicant to complete a final assessment, and approve the project.
High demand for YIF funding
The primary YIF grant programme, which offers grants for more complex projects in need of larger investment, has closed early due to high demand.
The fund was heavily oversubscribed, forcing YIF to shorten the application window. The deadline for applications was changed to 1 June, and YIF says it will only accept bids for smaller projects that can be realistically completed by 31 March 2025.
All planning for the project must reflect this timescale and provide clear plans which outline the refurbishment, including build times. Construction partners are also being consulted with during the review of applications, to determine whether project plans are feasible.
Funding roundup
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Children's charity NYAS Cymru (National Youth Advocacy Service) has been awarded £10,000 by The National Lottery Community Fund to support care-experienced young people in Wales. NYAS will distribute the grant, funding educational training courses, equipment purchases, activities, and emergency supplies needed by children and young people who have been impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.
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John Lyon's Charity has launched a new five-year strategy to make its reach more educational in focus, streamline programme areas and simplify its grant-making so that organisations can more easily apply for its funds. As one of London's largest grant-giving funders in the children and young people's sector, it has restructured its grant-making to help charities survive the cost-of-living crisis. By providing larger grants over a longer time period, organisations can have greater financial security and spend less time on funding applications, it said.
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What Works for Children's Social Care and Early Intervention has announced the recipients of the second round of its Sparks Grant Scheme, which aims to fund new research in children's social care, conducted by researchers who may struggle to secure funding through other routes, particularly early career researchers and/or researchers from underrepresented, minoritised groups. The three successful programmes are research projects led by academics from the University of Greenwich, University of Oxford and Children's Social Care Research and Development Centre at Cardiff University. The teams will report on their findings in February 2024.
