Non-profit groups can now apply for grants to help young people bring about social change and overcome disadvantage.
Working in partnership with the #iwill Fund and the Hunter Foundation, BBC Children in Need is delivering its new Social Action Fund to promote youth empowerment across the UK, as part of its wider Sharing Power programme.
Not-for-profit organisations which are registered with an appropriate governing body can apply for grants of up to £50,000 over 18 months; while unregistered organisations can apply for up to £15,000 over 18 months, or £10,000 over one year.
Applicants do not need to have experience in youth-led social action projects, but must be able to demonstrate:
- Their well-established links with children and young people.
- Experience in child participation/sharing power with children and young people.
- How they work alongside other organisations in the local community.
- How and why they want to deliver youth-led social action projects.
Funded work must be:
- Led by children and young people.
- Genuinely developmental and reciprocal, providing children and young people with life enhancing experience and new skills and confidence.
- Prioritising the wellbeing of children and young people at all times.
- Inclusive of all age ranges.
- Harnessing the value of lived experience.
- Allowing time and space for project ideas to grow through an initial development phase. This period of time at the start of each grant will build the capacity of the children and young people to take part in youth social action.
Applicants are required to sign up to a one-hour information session before they can apply, with several dates in April available. A recording will be available to any groups who are unable to attend any of the sessions.
The deadline to register for an information session is 8 April 2022.
