The Youth Fund will provide core funding to organisations within the youth sector and outside.
The Fund will be restricted to organisations which have the potential to grow their impact by:
- Replicating a programme or service
- Widening the reach of an idea or innovation
- Spreading a technology or skill
- Advancing policy or enhancing its implementation
They want to support those organisations which work with young people in a way that recognises and builds on their strengths and potential – what some call ‘asset based’, ‘strength based’ or ‘advantaged thinking’ approaches. So, they will only fund those already taking or embarking on this approach.
Finally, they will only fund organisations whose main purpose is about helping those in the most precarious positions, where making the transition to adult independence is most challenging, and those who are most vulnerable. The following list sets out some of the circumstances in which they think asset-based approaches might better enable young people to survive and thrive.
- Poverty and lack of income
- Unemployment and poor employment prospects or insecure attachment to the labour market
- Discrimination, for example on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, sexuality or religion
- Being stigmatised by others, including the media
- Experience of abuse, victimisation or exploitation
- Homelessness
- Trouble with the law and involvement in the criminal justice system
- Becoming a parent at a young age and lacking support
- Lacking support with mental health and wellbeing
- Lacking support to manage having a learning disability
- Experience of the care system or kinship care, family mental health or addiction problems
- Struggling with addiction or a stigmatising health condition
They have also announced a number of other funds which will be launched later in the year including a Growth Fund which will not be an open application process but which will invite applicants to apply.
For more information visit the foundations website Paul Hamlyn Foundation and visit the Working with Young People page.
Please note the Paul Hamlyn Foundation also supports Arts Participation projects so it is worth exploring their website.