£10mn grant round opens for activities that help protect children from violence
Melanie May | 5 April 2023 | News
The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) has today opened a new £10 million grant round to test the impact of sports, arts and adventure and wilderness activities on preventing violence.
Through its new grant round, the YEF will fund projects that use positive activities as a means to protect children from violence and as a ‘hook’ to engage them in other support services. For example, talking therapies, mentoring or social skills training.
The grant round is aimed at projects that support children who are already involved in the youth justice system (for example, in either custodial or community-based settings) or are considered at high-risk of becoming involved in offending.
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The charity aims to invest between £9 million and £10 million to fund and evaluate five or six large-scale projects in England and Wales. Projects must deliver one of the following positive activities:
- Sports
- The arts (including music making, arts and craft, dancing, drama, creative writing and poetry, photography, painting, pottery, sculpture or new media/digital arts)
- Adventure activities
- Wilderness activities
Projects will be funded for a maximum of 24 months and will need to support a minimum of 350 children over this period.
Analysing research studies from across the world, the YEF estimates that sport programmes have a high impact on preventing crime and violence. The research also suggests that adventure and wilderness therapy programmes have an impact, although the charity estimates it’s lower. In both instances, the YEF states its confidence in its estimated impact ratings are ‘low’ due to a lack of high-quality impact studies – an issue it’s looking to directly address through its Positive activities grant round. The YEF will publish an analysis of the impact of art programmes on crime and violence later this year.
The YEF’s Positive activities grant round is open for applications until Friday 26 May.
Jon Yates, Executive Director at the Youth Endowment Fund, said:
“When children are facing challenges or going through difficult periods of their lives, structured sports, arts or outdoor activities can provide guidance and support.
“Our £10 million funding will help us know which positive activities prevent violence and why. With this information, we can push for better services and support to ensure that all children can live a life free from violence.”
The Youth Endowment Fund was established in 2019 with a ten-year £200mn endowment from the Home Office.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.