New £40m Fund for Youth Social Action in England to Launch in November
The Government and Big Lottery Fund are contributing a total of £40 million to support the new iwill Fund which will create new opportunities for young people to take part in social action in England.
Prime Minister Theresa May and the Big Lottery Fund announced yesterday that they are each committing £20 million to act as seed investment and form the central part of this new independent fund that is aiming to attract other investors.
The #iwill fund is a new national independent fund supporting the charity Step Up to Serve’s #iwill campaign of increasing by 50% the number of young people (10 to 20 year olds) participating in meaningful youth social action by 2020.
The #iwill campaign is a cross sector initiative which aims to improve the quality, quantity and frequency of youth social action. It is also seeking to enable all young people, wherever they live and whatever their background, to have access to social action opportunities. Social action is defined as ‘practical action is the service of others to create positive change’.
The funding priorities are currently being worked on, and the first of the priority areas will be released when the #iwill fund launches during #iwill week during the week of 21 November. Broadly the fund will support activities that create opportunities for 10-20 year-olds to take part in social action, in line with the ambitions of the #iwill campaign.
Although the funding is currently available only for England, the fund hopes to grow the investment over time so that it becomes UK wide.
The fund is expected to launch during #iwillWeek 2016 (21-25 November 2016).
Full details about the full launch of the programme will be reported when the information becomes available
The link is: www.iwill.org.uk/about-us/the-iwill-fund-frequently-asked-questions/