Cabinet Office has launched £6m fund  to encourage more young people to take part in volunteering and social action.

The Youth Social Action Journey Fund aims to create more opportunities for ten-to-20 year olds to take part in social action projects over the next two years. The fund will focus on creating more opportunities for young people and to help increase the numbers involved in social action from 29 per cent in the UK, to nearer to the 50 per cent level of youth volunteering in Canada.

Minister for civil society, Nick Hurd, said: "We want to create a social action journey that every young person can easily get involved with and feel valued, hone their skills, make new friends and ultimately benefit their community.
 
"I’ve created this £6m fund to support organisations offer more young people places on their fantastic programmes benefiting the community as well as the young person themselves and make it easier for young people to progress onto the next challenging experience.”

Charities and social enterprises that provide youth social action opportunities can apply for grants of between £300,000 and £500,000. The fund opens today and closes on 17 November.

A spokesman from the Cabinet Office said that the fund was inspired by a review from Dame Julia Cleverdon, chair of Teach First, which has been backed by HRH The Prince of Wales. The review is due to be released next month. In December 2012 the Prime Minister approved the recommendations in their initial report.