Comic Relief: Youth Social Action Fund
Overview
Co-produced with young people, and championing peer to peer engagement and the importance of trust building, this initiative will fund projects to seek out young people, and encourage those from disadvantaged backgrounds to participate in and lead youth social action.
Grants Available
Funding is available for grants of between £20,000 to £50,000 per year for up to three years (with a maximum of £150,000 in total). They would expect to see a range of applicant sizes, so projects are strongly encouraged to apply for funding proportionate to their size and structure. They expect to make 15 - 30 grants in total.
Of the total amount available, £400,000 is available for grants in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In exceptional circumstances and where there is clear broader strategic value, they may consider making a larger grant of up to a total of £250,000.
Requests to apply for this larger amount are welcome by invitation only and following a discussion with Comic Relief, though they must demonstrate a specific strategic need beyond the average project model. Discussions will be held by phone on 28th April, 9-5pm and can be arranged by emailing grantsinfo@comicrelief.com. They would make no more than two of these larger grants.
Eligibility
- Organisations applying to this initiative must meet Comic Relief’s general eligibility requirements. Please read our FAQs and Grant-making policies (links below). In addition they will prioritise organisations that:
- Have a strong track record of working with young people in areas of deprivation and poverty
- Can demonstrate the leadership of young people in their organisation, and how young people have helped develop their applications
- Have engaged with the types of young people that would benefit from this work and have demonstrable knowledge and experience of the communities they will be working with
- Have existing strong working partnerships with local business, enterprises, or other groups that may be able to help with the outreach and engagement of ’reluctant’ young people
- Grants are available for organisations based in the UK for work in the UK.
- There is no restriction on the annual income of the organisation or partnership applying for a grant.
- Only one proposal per organisation will be considered.
- There is no restriction on applying for this grant if you have another grant with Comic Relief
Criteria
The criteria for the grants will be:
- Ability to demonstrate effective ways to build relationships with ‘reluctant’ young people in their own community
- Ability to demonstrate how they will engage those young people in creative, innovative and meaningful social action
Activity funded under this programme will need to reflect the Step Up To Serve Six Shared Principles of quality social action:
- challenging
- youth-led
- socially impactful
- progressive
- embedded
- reflective
Youth social action can include any activities around campaigning, fundraising and volunteering, all of which can create a double benefit for communities and the young person themselves.
They are keen to fund projects that will work with young people in areas of high need and deprivation, and where there are minimal services or activities available for young people. They would expect applicants to demonstrate the need of the young people they will work with, based on indices of deprivation, unemployment and other measures as they see fit.
Types of youth social action
The young people who helped us co-develop this initiative expected youth social action to be developed, led, and managed by young people, and were most interested in activities focused on the following areas:
- Mental health
- Children in care, or those who have left care
- Homelessness
- LGBTQ+
Types of activities which could sit under these topics fell into three potential areas:
- Awareness and education
- Handling change
- Support at the right time
The following ideas were suggested:
- A local music festival with a focus on raising awareness of youth mental health or youth homelessness. Young people would be involved in fund raising for the event and securing sponsorship, organising the event, volunteering, researching the social issue.
- A range of creative activities providing peer support to young people in care. This could include one to one mentoring, film making projects, art or spoken word events.
- A bus travelling around schools and colleges educating young people on LGBTQ+ issues with information, signposting and positive stories.
Successful applications should reflect the innovative and exciting ideas young people think would attract and engage ‘reluctant’ young people, though they would not expect applications to show an exact replica of the ideas reference above.