‘Young people taking practical action in the service of others in order to create positive social change that is of benefit to the wider community as well as to the young person themselves.’ - Young Foundation
What is the #iWill Fund?
#iwill is a UK-wide campaign that aims to make social action part of life for as many 10 to 20 year-olds as possible by the year 2020. Through collaboration and partnership it is spreading the word about the benefits of youth social action.
Areas covered
Aims
The programme aims to increase overall participation of young people in meaningful social action from 40% to 60% by 2020, with a particular focus on deprived areas.
Social action involves activities such as campaigning, fundraising and volunteering and has huge potential to create enjoyable opportunities and skills development for young people, and in turn benefit the local people and places.
Step Up To Serve, Big Lottery Fund and the Government Office for Civil Society have invested £2million this year to fund groups delivering youth social action opportunities. Community Foundations will match this investment.
The #iwillFund looks to support activities that create opportunities for young people aged 10-20 to develop their character and their capacity to significantly contribute to their community.
An example of a project that meets the #iWill criteria well:
Burnley Youth Theatre
Aiming to challenge and develop the skills of local children and young people, Burnley Youth Theatre received funding to deliver their “50/50” social action project. The theatre sought to support 50 young people (25 of which with disabilities) to volunteers 50 hours of their time over 12 months. In turn, this led to the creation of a 50 strong Youth Volunteer Team; consisting of creative, digital media, technical, production and fundraising volunteers.
Under the guidance of trained staff, each young person will gain transferable skills which will improve their future opportunities in education and employment. Each young person will volunteer on a weekly or event basis, dependent on their team. Being as youth led project, all volunteers will work towards running one large scale event for the local community in August 2018. Once complete, a recruitment process will start over again the following year to recruit a further 50 volunteers to further enhance the lives and skills of young people across Burnley.
Closing Date: 7th February at 5pm
