Minister for civil society Nick Hurd has today announced new funding opportunities for youth organisations that run programmes which engage young people in social action.
The Youth Social Action Fund is offering financial support to such schemes, and opens today in parallel with the launch of a new independent campaign to boost the involvement of young people in social action projects.
The Youth Social Action campaign was introduced by HRH the Prince of Wales at a meeting with cross-sector leaders this morning (pictured) – where Hurd made his announcement.
The Cabinet Office is orchestrating two separate calls for ideas for the Fund: the first in Birmingham and Kent, with up to £3m available; the second for programmes that will be delivered in Middlesbrough, Redcar, and Lancashire, with up to £2m on offer.
For Birmingham and Kent, the Cabinet Office is looking for programmes that either focus on social action opportunities for ten to 14-year-olds, or demonstrate how they will fill a gap in existing provision for other age groups within the ten-to-20 age bracket.
Programmes in the other region should provide social action opportunities for ten to 14-year-olds to create positive outcomes for young people, including improved attainment and engagement at school.
Details on how to bid for each fund are available on the government’s Youth Social Action website here. Interested parties can also email [email protected] to request a form.
Applications must be received by 29 July 2013, and grant recipients will be notified in September.
Prince of Wales discusses youth action with leaders
As well as the minister for civil society, the Prince of Wales hosted leaders from across the youth, voluntary, business, education and faith sectors to galvanise their support for the campaign for Youth Social Action at his Clarence House roundtable discussion this morning.
The Prince called on his guests to pledge their long-term commitment to the campaign, the goal of which is to double the number of young people engaged in social action to over 50 per cent by 2020 – an additional 1.7 million young people.
Leaders from the main political parties were all present to give their support; David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband expressed that they were “delighted”, “proud” and “very pleased”, respectively.
