Youth Endowment Fund Announces New Themed Rounds for 2021

Funding to support programmes that prevent children and young people in England and Wales from becoming involved in violence.

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is an independent charitable trust overseen by Impetus, in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation and Social Investment Business. It funds, supports and evaluates programmes and community partnerships to build an evidence base of what works to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence.

In 2021 YEF will be running two £20 million themed grant rounds:

• Another Chance: Diversion from the Criminal Justice System – the programme aims to find out how diversionary programmes can prevent children aged 10-17 years old in England and Wales from becoming violent and keep them out of the criminal justice system. Applications will be accepted from 19 April 2021 to 14 May 2021.
• A Supportive Home: Helping Families to Overcome Challenges – the programme will be run in partnership with Comic Relief and aims to find the most effective approaches to help families and carers create a supportive home environment for children aged 6-14 years old (including looked-after children), reducing the likelihood of them becoming involved in violence. Applications will open in September 2021.

For both funding rounds, YEF is looking to identify around 10-20 programmes that are ready for robust impact evaluation or could be supported to reach this point within two years.

Applications can be made by any organisation including charities, public services or the private sector, that:

• Receive referrals from a relevant statutory service (for example, the police, schools, local youth offending team or social care).
• Deliver their eligible programme to children in England and/or Wales.

In the current grant round, the funders expect to spend between £10 million and £20 million on funding 10 to 20 projects. The amount awarded to each project will depend on the type of programme and the kind of evaluation.

Organisations that are interested in becoming a YEF partner can find out more about the April funding round in the YEF online workshops that will be held on 8 March, 17 March and 25 March. There will be a dedicated workshop for Welsh organisations on 12 April.

‘Another Chance: Diversion from the Criminal Justice System’ will accept applications from 19 April to 14 May 2021.

Full details…