The Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund provide discrete revenue and capital budgets for young people, aged 13 to 19, to control and decide how money should be spent on positive activities and youth facilities in their area. Funded activities must support the five Every Child Matters outcomes, benefit the local community and offer good value for money.
The involvement of young people, especially disadvantaged young people, is central to the funds. Giving young people genuine influence over local services is recognised as the most effective way of ensuring better access and increasing participation in positive activities.
We administer the delivery of both funds through releasing payments to local authorities on a quarterly basis, following the receipt of satisfactory end of year progress reports.
We have supported networks of local authority and third sector Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Fund lead officers.
A regional network of young people’s panels which assess local bids for the funds is being set-up to meet on a quarterly basis, starting in September 2008. This will enable young people to celebrate achievement, network and share ideas and solutions on what works best in delivering the funds. We are working in partnership with the Regional Youth Work Unit to support this work.
In the North East, during the first two years of the funds that began in 2006-07:
- 439 young people have acted as decision makers to disseminate the funds
- 21,833 young people have acted as project leaders
- 71,243 young people have benefited from the funds.
