The Scouts and Guides are among those who will benefit from the new £10m Uniformed Youth Social Action Fund, awarded from bank fines.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer today confirmed a list of uniformed youth groups who won funds through a competitive grant process that aims to increase by 150,000 the number of places available for young people to join uniformed youth groups across the UK.
The project is funded from Libor fines from banks for misdemeanours and attempted manipulation of the financial market. The latest allocation from the Libor fines pot builds on nearly £150m which has already gone to support the armed forces community, military charities and other good causes.
A second amount of funding which remains from the £10m fund will be announced in the autumn for other uniformed youth groups to pilot new and innovative approaches to reach deprived communities and hard to reach groups. The announcement will be made on the Youth United website and gov.co.uk.
Chancellor George Osborne said: “I am delighted that we are using Libor fines to improve the lives of thousands of young people, by supporting these good causes. It is right that money paid in fines by people who demonstrated the worst of the values in our society is now being used to support those who demonstrate the very best and bring about a positive change.”
A total of 14 organisations have been chosen and the fund will be used to encourage young people living in disadvantaged areas or hard to reach communities to get involved in social action by joining uniformed youth organisations.
The full list of winners is as follows:
- Catholic Guides of Ireland Northern Region
- Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade
- Combined Cadet Force Association
- Fire Cadets
- Girlguiding
- Jewish Lads' & Girls' Brigade
- Marine Society & Sea Cadets
- Reserve Forces and Cadets Association (RFCA)/Army Cadet Force (ACF)/Air Cadets
- St John Ambulance
- The Boys' Brigade
- The Girls’ Brigade England and Wales
- The Scout Association
- Volunteer Police Cadets
- Woodcraft Folk
The winners were announced by Brooks Newmark, minister for civil society, yesterday morning at St John Ambulance in Shadwell.
Newmark said: “The Uniformed Youth Social Action Fund is an excellent example of how the Cabinet Office is using money collected through Libor fines to increase social action across the UK. All recipients are well placed to provide young people with more opportunities to work on social action activities in their local area. This scheme will help to build a generation of young people with raised aspirations and greater prospects for their future.”
A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said that a youth organisation is defined as being uniformed if: “It has a long-term common programme offer for the young members and brings them together through a shared, required, uniform – creating a sense of unity and pride.”
