Youth Endowment Fund
Background
The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is an independent charitable trust run by Impetus, in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) and Social Investment Business (SIB). It aims to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice. It was created in 2019, with funding of £200 million over ten years from the Home Office as part of its long-term plan to tackle serious violence, after EIF and SIB won a competitive tender to run the Fund.
Objectives of Fund
The aim of this open call is to fund and evaluate projects that will help YEF build strong evidence for practices and approaches in areas where clear gaps exist.
The funding is available to organisations across England and Wales that are working to reduce children’s involvement in violence and have the potential for rigorous impact evaluation.
Projects need to primarily support children and young people (aged 10 to 18 years) who are either:
- At risk of crime or violence (‘secondary prevention’), or
- Already affected by violence, offending or exploitation (‘tertiary prevention’).
Projects also need to be working in one of the following sectors:
- Youth sector
- Children’s services
- Youth Justice
- Policing
- Neighbourhoods
- Health
- Education
Value Notes
Grants are at the discretion of the funders.
Match Funding Restrictions
Match funding is required. Applicants need to provide 20% of delivery costs themselves either through supplementary funding or in-kind provision.
Note, if the organisation is led by representatives of Black and/or racially minoritised communities and are unable to meet the 20% supplementary and in-kind target, they should apply as their application will be assessed separately.
Who Can Apply
YEF is interested in proposals from both:
- Delivery organisations currently delivering an evaluable project, service or intervention.
- Partnerships between delivery organisations and YEF Evaluator panel members.
Applications will be considered from registered charities, companies, statutory bodies and community interest companies (CICs) supporting children and young people in England and/or Wales.
Organisations need to fit one of the following:
- Delivering an intervention or service which should be evaluated.
- A partnership between an organisation delivering an evaluable intervention or service, and an independent evaluator.
- Leading a consortium or partnership which delivers an intervention or service which should be evaluated.
- A lead organisation proposing a multi site trial of an intervention or service which should be evaluated.
To be eligible, applicant organisations must:
- Have experience of being involved in a large-scale evaluation.
- Have experience of delivering at scale to the children and young people they are intending to work with.
- Have demonstrable experience of delivering in a culturally sensitive and equitable way.
- Be prepared to work with an independent evaluator.
- Understand they will be asked to randomise allocation of children and young people between a control group and those who take part in the activity, meaning that some children and young people will not receive the intervention.
Location
England and/or Wales
Restrictions
Funding is not available for:
- Individuals or unregistered groups.
- Projects delivered outside England or Wales
- Projects aimed at universal provision for all children and young people (ie, ‘primary prevention’).
- Interventions with no previous history of delivery.
Eligible Expenditure
The funding is for projects which are ready for an impact evaluation with an experimental design (ie, randomised control trial) or a quasi-experimental design (full details in the guidance notes).
The funding can be for both the delivery of the intervention and the evaluation itself.
Projects must recruit a minimum number of children and young people for evaluation. The exact number will depend on the intervention type, but as a guide:
- Secondary prevention projects should deliver the intervention to at least 200 participants and recruit 200 more for a control group (400 total).
- Tertiary prevention projects should deliver the intervention to at least 400 participants and recruit 400 for a control group (800 total).
YEF expect the maximum project delivery time required to reach the necessary number of children and young people for an impact evaluation to be 24 months.
The impact of projects will be measured against one of YEF’s primary outcomes:
- Reducing violent offending
- Reducing non-violent offending
- Reducing victimisation by crime
- Reducing behavioural difficulties
- Reducing drug and alcohol use
- Reducing sexually violent offending
- Reducing bullying perpetration
- Reducing influence of criminal peers.
How To Apply
There are no deadlines for this open call. Applications are ongoing.
The guidance notes and online application form are available on the YEF website.
Contact the Youth Endowment Fund for further information.
