UK Youth and NYA in running for £1.8m grant

Funding charity Spirit of 2012 and the government-backed #iwill campaign have agreed to provide funding of £10,000 to each organisation to develop respective projects intended to empower girls and young women to change their communities for the benefit of other girls. 

Either the NYA project called Fire and Wire, which will work with girls and young women in former mining communities, or a UK Youth project to offer volunteering opportunities for girls with the British Red Cross, will be awarded the full £1.8m.

The Fire and Wire project is being run jointly by the NYA and social action company Platform Thirty1. It focuses on helping girls and young women in former mining communities better understand their potential through neuroscience, psychology and physiology training.

Girls involved will also learn leadership and creativity skills to help them develop social action projects in their local area.

"Every girl should know they are valued for their individuality," said Katy Fielding, assistant director of operations at the National Youth Agency.

"Our Fire and Wire project will support practitioners to enable young women to belong, develop and thrive in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the UK and we are extremely excited to get started."

The UK Youth-led project will see the organisation work with the British Red Cross and Young Women's Trust to deliver classes to girls and young women on resilience and their rights. They will also be offered volunteering opportunities with the British Red Cross.

Patrick Shaw-Brown, UK Youth's director of national programmes, said: "Young women and girls are most vulnerable to feeling low self-worth and self-esteem in their early and final years of secondary school.

"We hope to unlock new opportunities, aspirational role models and crucial support to enable these young girls and women to build bright futures, while providing a double benefit to their local community through social action projects."