The government has commissioned a report to identify how the voluntary sector, government and business can create ‘decade of social action’ for young people.
It wants to establish how it might link the National Citizen Service (NCS) programme more closely to existing programmes.
The Prime Minister has asked Dame Julia Cleverdon, vice president of Business in the Community, and Amanda Jordan OBE, joint chair of Corporate Citizenship, to write a report outlining what a social action journey would look like for young people aged between ten and 20. The report will also include an implementation plan and is set to be presented to David Cameron in the autumn.
At a Downing Street reception last night the report authors met with leaders from youth groups including the Scouts, Girlguiding UK and Duke of Edinburgh's Award, and are seeking feedback from the sector.
Minister for civil society Nick Hurd said: “This is part of our drive to create a generation of ‘work ready’, well-rounded young people with raised aspirations about their future. We want young people to care about where they live and work and feel empowered to make a difference.”
This summer up to 30,000 16 and 17-year-olds will take part in National Citizen Service. An independent evaluation published recently found that most participants had a positive experience and would like the opportunity to continue to take part in voluntary work.
Anyone wishing to respond to the consultation should email [email protected] or [email protected].
£1.4m for National Youth Agency social action project
The government has also awarded £900,000 to the National Youth Agency, and O2 will provide £500,000 to the National Youth Agency to expand its Think Big programme.
Think Big aims to give up to 5,000 young people the opportunity to set up and run social action projects between August 2012 and September 2013.
Fiona Blacke, NYA chief executive, said: “We hope this will show the positive contribution young people can make if they are just given a chance.”
Cabinet Office will commission survey of trends in social action
The Cabinet Office also today announced that it is in the process of commissioning a survey to track social action developments for 2012/13.
It expects the contract for ‘Community Life’ to be in place by early July with more details available then.
To start with it is being commissioned for one year and will report quarterly, tracking volunteering, charitable giving, local action and networks and wellbeing. The government expects it to be cheaper than previous surveys.
