Extra £12 million to support opportunities for young people

An extra £12 million has been made available to support young people gain access to the best social action opportunities.

The support has been made available to the #iwill Fund, by The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Mutual collaboration

The group distributes its investments across England by working in partnership with other funding groups to create a ‘learning and mutual collaboration environment.’

It was launched to support the #iwill campaign’s goals in England, which is aiming to make social action the norm for young people aged 10-20.

Among the fund’s aims are:

• To create a natural pathway for social action engagement from 10-20 years-old, developing the character of young people and their capacity to contribute to their community.
• Create a learning environment, independent from Government, to share what works, as well as initiatives that haven’t been as successful.
• To ensure funders work collaboratively when investing in youth social action, ensuring less duplication and targeting investment where needed.
• To ensure more young people are taking part in high-quality youth social action opportunities across the country.

The original funding involved bringing together £40 million from the DCMS and NLCF to create a central investment pot, which was further boosted in 2020 with another £9.3 million.

The #iwill Fund distributes its investment through a collaborative group of 30 Match Funders.

How has the money been raised?

David Knott, Chief Executive at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “Thanks to National Lottery players and Government investment, this further funding will be invested into providing even more opportunities for young people, so they can help create prosperous and thriving communities and make a positive difference to their own and others’ lives.

“National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. In the last 12 months, we have given out nearly £600 million to 12,500 organisations reaching every local authority and constituency in the UK.”

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