The projects we fund
The projects we fund from the Empowering Young People fund
We fund projects that work with young people (between the ages of 8 and 25) to face and overcome challenges.
The projects we fund through Empowering Young People can last from 1 to 5 years.
We’re supporting projects that involve young people in their development, design, running and evaluation.
If you’re not sure how to do this read our blog ‘Can your community group empower young people?’
We're also supporting organisations to change and adapt to new and future challenges, including the current cost-of-living crisis.
We're funding projects that help young people:
1. Get the skills they need for their future
This could be practical skills for jobs they’d like to do. Or life skills, like helping young people deal with difficult situations.
2. Have better relationships with their support network and communities
Support networks are just people. These people can be family and friends. Or different groups that help people like doctors, the police, charities, youth groups and teachers.
When we say community, we mean:
- people living in the same area
- people who have similar interests or life experiences, but might not live in the same area
3. Have good health and wellbeing
When we talk about health, we usually mean physical health. And when we talk about wellbeing, we’re normally talking about how a person feels emotionally. So we look at how your project might help young people both physically and mentally.
Land and building projects
If your project will include land or buildings, you should read our Land and Buildings guidance (PDF 221KB).
Environmental Impact
We encourage and support all projects and communities to consider their environmental impact when designing their projects.
For example, if your project requires a vehicle to help support your community, we expect you to have considered whether an electric or hybrid option is a viable alternative to petrol or diesel. Electric or hybrid vehicles will help reduce your projects carbon footprint, but it can also save you money on fuel, tax, and servicing.
If your project involves a building we expect you to consider how you can reduce its environmental impact and therefore its running costs.
This could include:
- choosing to use more sustainable, environmentally friendly or recycled materials as much as possible
- conserving water by ‘harvesting’ rainwater (it is free after all) with water butts or reusing ‘grey’ water (the water from sinks, showers, washing machines, etc.) to flush toilets
- reducing the amount of energy your building needs by installing energy efficient lighting and low energy appliances. Or even consider generating your own energy by installing solar panels.
- reducing the amount of heat your building making sure your building is a well-insulated as possible or consider more efficient alternatives to oil or gas such as infra-red heating, heat pumps or biomass boilers
consider what will happen to all the waste that will be generated from your building project and commit to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible
We do checks on the information you give us
As an organisation that gives out public funds, we carry out some checks on the information you give to us. Learn more about our checks.