Fuente : UK Government
http://www.open.gov.uk/

UK: BIG LOTTERY BOOST TO YOUNG SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

/noticias.info/
Big Lottery Fund is announcing the start of a new partnership with UnLtd that will help thousands of young people in England to make their community improvement ideas a reality with £10 million of lottery cash.

Following a tendering process, the Fund has appointed UnLtd as an award partner to deliver The Big Boost under the Grants to Individuals strand of its new Young People's Fund programme in England.

The Big Boost programme will award grants of between £250 and £5,000 to help individuals and small groups of young people, aged between 11 and 25 years old, deliver projects in their local areas. It will encourage social entrepreneurship among young people from all backgrounds, helping individuals develop projects, which will make a lasting difference to them and to their communities.

The programme will support a wide range of youth ideas from school-based enterprises through to larger scale, community projects (examples may range from a counselling helpline for young people, to a youth magazine, which raises awareness of racism). The programme will use strict assessment and monitoring criteria, including face-to-face interviews and follow-up procedures, to ensure that it reaches its target audience, including young people from deprived communities.

UnLtd - the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, is a charitable organisation that wants to support and develop the role of social entrepreneurs as a force for positive change in the United Kingdom. It will lead delivery of the Big Boost programme in partnership with The Prince's Trust, Scarman Trust and Changemakers.

By working closely with the Big Lottery Fund over the past few months, UnLtd has been able to develop new tools and approaches which will ensure young people are the ones responsible for planning and carrying out projects. This new approach acknowledges the key principle at the heart of the Young People's Fund - that young people should be involved at every stage of the programme.

The programme will be launched in September 2005 with applications forms available immediately after that and it will be promoted through existing and new, youth focussed networks of UnLtd and its delivery partners.

John Rafferty, UnLtd Chief Executive Officer said: "UnLtd and our partner agencies have extensive experience of reaching and supporting young people who want to make a positive impact in their communities. Through the Big Boost, we aim to continue engaging with and creating more opportunities for young people - particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds - to help them put their ideas into reality."

Stephen Dunmore, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund, said: "The Young People's Fund is about offering more opportunities for young people to make a direct contribution to their communities. There are plenty of active, smart and dynamic youngsters in this country,, full of plans and ideas, who just need some encouragement and support to make their dreams a reality. That's precisely what we will offer with this funding programme. UnLtd is known for its experience in supporting young social entrepreneurs and will use its expertise to deliver the Big Boost programme to benefit hundreds of youngsters and their communities."

Further Information:

Big Lottery Fund
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone: 845 6021 659
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available at: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Big Boost awards programme supports young people who want make a difference in their communities by providing financial and practical support to help make young people's ideas a reality. The programme is led by UnLtd - The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs - on behalf of the Big Lottery Fund's Young People's Fund programme (Grants to Individuals) and delivered with partners Changemakers, The Scarman Trust and Princes Trust.

Grants of between £250 and £5,000 will be awarded to help individuals and small groups of young people aged between 11 and 25 years old run projects in their areas.

UnLtd is a charity, which supports social entrepreneurs - people who have the ideas and the commitment to make a difference in their communities. They do this by providing a complete package of funding and support, to help these individuals start up and run projects that deliver social benefit. In doing so, they aim to foster a positive environment for social entrepreneurship in the UK.

The Young People's Fund in England was launched in September 2004. Funding from the Young People's Fund open grants programme in England can be accessed through three specific strands: £10 million for applications from individuals, £40 million in grants to voluntary organisations/partnerships, £27.6 million to national organisations for large projects.

The Young People's Fund aims to put young people at the centre of creating, planning and delivering projects to achieve the following:
* Being healthy: enjoying good physical and mental health and living a healthy lifestyle
* Staying safe: being protected from harm and neglect and growing up able to look after themselves
* Enjoying and achieving getting the most out of life and developing the skills for adulthood
* Making a positive contribution: to the community and to society and not offending or behaving anti-socially
* Economic well being: overcoming disadvantages to achieve their full potential in life

The success criteria for this programme include demonstrating that projects are youth-led from start to finish, and are delivering on one or more of the five Young People's Fund programme outcomes.

Big Lottery Fund is the joint operating name of the New Opportunities Fund and the National Lottery Charities Board (which made grants under the name of the Community Fund). The Big Lottery Fund, launched on 1 June 2004, is distributing half of all National Lottery good cause funding across the UK.

The Big Lottery Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money. To date, the two merged Funds have committed more than £5 billion to initiatives with national, regional and local partners from the public, voluntary, charity and private sectors, with a particular focus on disadvantage.

The Prince's Trust exists to help young people to overcome their barriers and get their lives on track. Through practical support including training, mentoring and financial assistance, it helps 14-30 year-olds to realise their potential and transform their lives. The Trust focuses its efforts on people who have struggled at school, have been in care, are long-term unemployed or have been in trouble with the law. Since the charity was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 1976 it has helped more than half a million young people. Further information about The Prince's Trust is available at http://www.princes-trust.org.uk or on 0800 842842.

Established in 1994, Changemakers is a major player in the education world. With a growing network of young people, schools, youth organisations, policymakers and employers, they are well placed to reach even more young people in the future. Changemakers is an educational charity and company limited by guarantee. They manage their activities from three offices in London, Newcastle and Wells.

The Scarman Trust is a national charity committed to helping citizens bring about change in their community, in the way that they want. They fund and give practical assistance to hundreds of remarkable people with a 'can do' attitude. These 'can do-ers' in their turn mobilise many thousands of others, within their own communities and across the major institutions of society - working to make fundamental life chances available to all.


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