Thousands of mini-grants worth £300 will be given out to directly to young people through a new initiative which aims to address the negative stereotypes around young people in the UK this week.

Think Big, an initiative launched on Wednesday by mobile phone company O2, will offer £5m worth of £300 grants to people aged between 13 and 25 to start their own community projects.

The programme, which was developed in collaboration with UK Youth and the National Youth Agency, will also offer the young people mentoring, support and training from the charities. The two charities will provide training and project management for the initiative (and will be remunerated by O2), with a further 35 youth organisations expected to partner with the scheme this year.

Helen Parker, community manager at O2, said that the company was eager to bypass charities in terms of giving the grants because it wanted to make sure youth were at the heart of change. “To be a real youth-led initiative you need to put the money in the hands of young people so they can be the change,” she said.

Image of Jamie Coley, a young entreprenuer at his bicycle recycling scheme.