About the Youth Opportunity Fund

Policy and Aims

One of the key challenges in Youth Matters was to improve the provision of positive activities for young people, particularly those who are disadvantaged, and to provide more places to go and things to do.

Young people should be able to benefit from:

• a range of safe and enjoyable places to go;
• a wide range of sporting, cultural and recreational activities and experiences; and
• opportunities for volunteering.

Youth Matters proposed a quantity of resources (money) for young people to decide how to spend in their area – the Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF).

Youth Matters also proposed the Youth Capital Fund (YCF) aimed at helping develop new approaches to improve youth facilities, particularly in deprived neighbourhoods. The involvement of young people, especially disadvantaged young people, is central to this initiative as well.

The plan suggests that the YOF and YCF should be used together to allow young people to develop projects and initiatives which can contain both a capital (facilities) and revenue (projects) element.

The purpose of the funds

The main purpose of the funds is to:

• Give a voice and influence to young people, particularly disadvantaged young people, in relation to things to do and places to go and to convey a powerful message to young people that their needs and aspirations are important;
• Change the way local authorities and their partners provide activities and facilities for young people, especially in deprived neighbourhoods, and to increase the responsiveness of providers to what young people want;
• Improve things to do and places to go in line with what young people want in their neighbourhood;
• Provide opportunities for young people to develop their confidence, knowledge, skills and abilities and gain recognition and/or accreditation for them;
• Increase the well-being of young people by contributing to the achievement of the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes.
• Increase young people’s engagement with services and with the democratic process at local level.

The aim of the YOF is to involve young people, especially hard to reach young people, in identifying positive activities and things to do; and to support their role as decision makers, grant givers and project leaders. There are no restrictions on the range of initiatives and activities that the YOF can support provided that they are supporting the outcomes from Every Child Matters.

The aim of the YCF is to provide a discrete capital budget for a two year period to be spent on what young people want and it is designed to work in tandem with the Youth Opportunity Fund. Arrangements for implementing YCF should allow for the active involvement of young people, with particular emphasis on those who are disadvantaged, in all aspects of planning, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of the YCF.

Young people should be supported as they grow into the role of decision makers, grant givers and project leaders. They should also be encouraged to consider local needs and circumstances as a part of their role in shaping provision for young people beyond their immediate group.

Partnerships and joint-funding with other statutory, voluntary, community and private partner organisations are all to be encouraged as is collaboration with other young people from different cultural and social backgrounds.

YOF/YCF and the Neighbourhood Context

The YOF and the YCF provide the opportunity for young people to shape provision and facilities in their neighbourhood which fits in with wider community development through initiatives such as The Neighbourhoods agenda.

We encourage LAs and their partners to look at how the youth opportunity and youth capital funds can work alongside neighbourhood-based initiatives effectively supporting and empowering young people.

The conditions for spending the funds

The conditions attached to the payment of the funds are:

• Their use is to be determined by young people to provide activities and facilities;
• That appropriate support is given to young people, particularly those who are disadvantaged, involved in all levels of participation in YOF /YCF, including setting up and running panels, training young people, completing paperwork and leading projects;
• That evidence is collected of how the funds are being used by young people and the impact of the funds in providing facilities and activities for young people.
• That information on expenditure, activities and capital projects financed by the funds and the impact on provision is provided to the Government Office.

You can read the full Youth Opportunity Fund & Youth Capital Fund Guidance Notes on the Every Child Matters website.