Campaign urges young people to drive social action

The Campaign for Youth Social Action and Youth Social Action Fund, launched by Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd, aim to help young people participate more in local activities such as restoring a community property or organising a charity event.

The Cabinet Office has invited youth organisation in Birmingham, Kent, Middlesborough and Lancashshire to apply for grants to provide social action opportunities for 10- to 20-year-olds.

The initiatives are backed by the Prince of Wales, who joined cross-party politicians and leaders from the youth, voluntary, business, education and faith sectors at the launch in London.

British Youth Council chair Rosina St James said young people would become “key drivers” of the campaign.

“Thousands of us are ready, willing and able to get involved,” she said.

“We want a better, fairer society and are prepared to take social action to achieve it – so this campaign to support more of us to get involved in the things that matter is good for us and good for society.”

BeatBullying deputy chief executive Tom McLaren, who is also a representative of social action coalition Generation Change, said social action hadn’t received the recognition it deserved in the past.

“While there are many organisations running fantastic social action programmes, these aren’t as joined up or as well known as they should be. This new campaign should help to address these issues,” he said.

“The specialist youth social action sector has a crucial role to play in creating the right conditions for all young people in the UK to be actively involved in high quality social action that builds the skills, confidence and character they need to address social problems."

The campaign follows a recommendation published in a government report by Dame Julia Cleverdon and Amanda Jordan in December 2012, which investigated how the government, business, the voluntary and education sectors can work together to support a decade of social action for young people.

It suggested an independent campaign with long-term vision would provide stimulus to encourage greater social activity.

Hurd said as well as testing new ways to encourage participation, the government wanted to “find out which existing programmes are of good quality”.