Another £70 million in Youth Investment Fund grants announced

Another £70 million in Youth Investment Fund grants announced today will transform youth services in some of the country’s most disadvantaged areas, levelling-up the youth sector and creating life-changing opportunities for thousands of young people. Youth Investment Fund grants, from a fund worth over £300 million, will benefit another 44 youth projects and will increase the number of young people accessing them by over 12,000.

The Youth Investment Fund is funded by the UK Government, delivered by Social Investment Business in partnership with Key Fund, National Youth Agency, and Resonance.

Youth services large and small, from Blackpool to Bridlington and from Plymouth to Ipswich, will be celebrating their grant with local young people and the communities they serve. The Youth Investment Fund grants announced today include capital grants ranging from £350,000 to £8 million.

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports, Lucy Frazer marked the occasion at a ribbon cutting celebration in Merseyside to open the first renovated youth centre funded through the programme. The youth centre, run by Alt Valley Community Trust, provides vital support to young people via dedicated youth hubs across the region. Lucy Frazer joined young people at the Alt Valley Communiversity. The celebrations included a drumming workshop and musical performance of the White Stripe’s Seven Nation Army at the Communiversity’s new performance stage, funded by the scheme. The Youth Investment Fund is transforming Alt Valley’s youth services across six centres, enabling them to reach over 800 young people per week.

The Youth Investment Fund grants announced today, together with funding worth £90 million announced in March 2023, means that over £160 million has been invested so far in youth projects across the most underserved areas in England. More grants will be revealed later this year.

Nick Temple, CEO for Social Investment Business, that leads the delivery partnership said:

“The Youth Investment Fund is all about prioritising the needs of young people in England and creating a more equal society for future generations. It is wonderful to see how the fund is already transforming young people’s opportunities to experience the joy of local youth services designed for, and by, young people. Today’s announcement means another 12,000 young people can access quality, sustainable and accessible youth clubs.”

“It is so exciting to see the first Youth Investment Fund projects open their doors to young people, giving them every opportunity to make friends, have fun, discover their passions, and thrive. And it is just the start: thousands more young people will benefit from new or expanded local youth services, supporting their wellbeing and helping them gain vital skills for life and work.”

The funds announced today will create new activities and facilities including dance, theatre, sport, music, art, digital and gaming projects, outdoor adventures, BMX skills, catering, horticulture, and craft, as well as new opportunities to gain training and skills for life and to support their future employment. Alongside funding large multi-million projects, grants announced in this round include funding for smaller projects and uniformed groups, like the Scouts, Girl Guides and Air Scouts.

Young people are at the heart of every Youth Investment Fund project, designing youth services around their needs and ensuring that the services offered in the new and improved facilities are accessible to everyone in their community.

All the projects that apply for funding undergo a rigorous assessment to shape their individual development plan, which aims to identify where they can improve their youth work offer, whether that’s enhancing their level of youth participation or embedding the national youth work curriculum in their activities.

Leigh Middleton, Chief Executive, National Youth Agency said:

“We are delighted to see the breadth of the youth work sector which has benefited from the YIF grant programme, but this is very much the start of their journey with us, as we support them to achieve their development plan, building their systems as well as the skills and confidence of their workforce, to ensure that their youth work offer cuts the mustard. 

“Over the next 12 months we will be providing focussed support to around 200 of the grantees, for example through dedicated webinars, as well as through the direct support of our Youth Work Specialists to help them embed the NYA’s standards and frameworks that will ensure that they are delivering youth work which is responsive to need, high quality and safe.”

The 105th Sheffield (High Green) Scout Group, received a transformational grant of £1,826,492 today. When the Scouts got together to start planning their dream project, they said that making their building accessible and sustainable were most important. “It will be a Net Zero carbon building, we won’t be using gas, so we can stop burning fossil fuels. It will be better for the environment and cheaper to run.” Summing up what the funding meant to them, the Scouts said:

“We’ve been around for nearly 100 years; the funding will help us be around for another 100. The Youth Investment Fund will make our dream a reality. [It will] help us to grow, help us to flourish, help us deliver skills for life, help us to support the next generation, help us secure our future.”