Youth leadership scheme launches 1m third sector fund

Prime Minister Gordon Brown attended the body's launch in Wolverhampton today.

The £1m Leadership Fund will be managed by the Young Foundation, part of the consortium which is led by the National Youth Agency. The fund will invest in third sector organisations delivering leadership programmes for 13- to 19-year-olds across England over a two-year period.

The British Youth Council and UK Youth Parliament are enabling 480 young people to shadow ministers for a day, while a local leaders programme will enable 600 young people to engage with local councillors.

The Youth of Today will also identify 600 young people and provide them with training, mentoring, funding and networking opportunities, in a scheme led by Changemakers.

Young people were involved in branding The Youth of Today, and are also part of a scrutiny committee to ensure it remains youth-focused. The body, funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Communities and Local Government, was first announced in March 2008 as the National Body for Youth Leadership.

The organisations involved are: The National Youth Agency, British Youth Council, Changemakers, Citizenship Foundation, Prince's Trust, UK Youth Parliament and The Young Foundation.

Adam Nichols, chief executive of Changemakers, said: "Young people are doing amazing things every day, we need to make society more aware of that. We want to broaden this out from the youth sector, and look at young people who are running businesses, not just traditional areas for youth leadership."

Emily Beardsmore, a member of The Youth of Today's scrutiny panel, said: "It's about young people being given opportunities to develop leadership skills and also we want to change general perceptions of young people in our society."