Young People's Fund Offers Lessons for the Future

Young People's Fund Offers Lessons for the Future

Drawing on information from projects supported by its Young People's Fund programmes, the Big Lottery Fund has published good practice guides for organisations working with young people.

The new publications share learning and practical examples from projects supported by the Young People's Fund, which actively involves young people in planning and delivering youth services. The guides offer ideas, tips and case studies of youth projects from across the UK.

Big Lottery Fund UK Chair Peter Ainsworth said:

"One of the key findings from our wider evaluation shows that involving young people in our decision making and that of the projects we fund has led to a change in culture among youth organisations. It has allowed young people to shape services that affect them, and develop new skills that will benefit them in the future."

The seven good practice guides, which can be downloaded from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) website, are:

• Encouraging active citizenship - supporting young people to make a positive contribution and engage with their community.
• Actively involving young people - approaches to active involvement that have worked well for BIG funded projects.
• Reducing anti-social behaviour and working with young people who have offended or are at risk of offending - examples of tackling ASB to minimise the risk of young people continuing with offending behaviour.
• Improving behaviour in schools - how youth projects have the potential to positively influence the behaviour of young people who are at risk of disengagement or exclusion.
• Reducing cases of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) - key learning from youth projects that have helped keep young people actively engaged with education and identifying the triggers and early warning signs of disengagement.
• Working with young carers - lessons from organisations working with this hidden group of young people.

Working with care leavers - practical examples of ways to engage care leavers within youth projects and helping to address issues such as instability faced by individuals.

Source: Big Lottery Fund, 23/01/2012