Youth in Focus

Youth in Focus is a new programme from BIG Lottery that will make available £30 million in funding for projects that support vulnerable young people through difficult changes in their lives.

The programme is targeting the following priority groups where it feels it could make a difference:

• Young carers - Helping young people between the ages of 10 and 25 to be heard and get better access to practical advice and services, which can support their day to day lives. 
• Young people leaving care - Supporting young people between the ages of 15 and 25, so they get better access to education, housing, healthcare and employment advice and services.
• Young people leaving youth offenders’ institutions - Helping young people between the ages of 15 and 25 to develop their life skills and get better access to services, particularly young men with learning difficulties and young women.

• improve confidence, skills and knowledge - so they can better deal with the life events that affect them
• provide more effective support that is joined up with other services - so they can tackle challenges better.
• Applicants for the funding will be expected to:
• target one or more of the groups that our Youth in Focus programme aims to support
• involve the young people who will benefit throughout, from the earliest stages
• form a partnership of voluntary, public or private sector organisations with relevant expertise, led by a voluntary sector organisation
• make sure that the benefits of the project carry on after our funding ends, and
• share what they have learnt with us and others.