Welcome To Wirral

Wirral Youth Opportunity Fund /Youth Capital Fund 2009/2010

What are the Youth Opportunity Fund & Youth Capital Fund?
They are two pots of money that have been given to Wirral young people by the Government to pay for places to go and things to do in young people’s leisure time. Young people themselves will decide how the money is to be spent.

The two funds:

• Are for young people aged 13-19 years
• Will give young people a voice in making decisions
• Will help involve disadvantaged and harder to reach young people
• Will improve things to do and places to go for young people in their neighbourhoods
• Will be invested in youth facilities, particularly in deprived areas
• Should contribute to Every Child Matters (ECM) outcome areas – see below

What is ECM (Every Child Matters)?
Every Child Matters is the Government’s vision for improving services for children and young people in the following five outcome areas: Be Healthy, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution or Achieve Social and Economic Well-being (for details: http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/aims/outcomes/)

Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF)
The money in this fund is for young people to bid for new activities. Any activity is ok as long as it supports the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcome areas, so it could be for projects, trips, residentials, etc.

Youth Capital Fund (YCF)
This money is to be spent on things like doing up buildings, buying youth shelters etc. The money in this fund can be used along side the Youth Opportunity Fund.

The two funds will be managed by a group of Wirral young people, who will be linked to Wirral’s four Area Youth Forums. These young people will meet and discuss each application and make decisions on how the money will be given out. The group will work to ‘Grant Criteria’ to help them make their decisions.

How much money is there?

Wirral young people have been given:

Youth Opportunity Fund - £424,000
Following extensive consultation with young people, the Grant Panel have decided to split the fund this year as follows:

• £293,220 - for strategic commissioning purposes. This money will be used borough wide to improve young people’s access to transport and young people’s access to leisure facilities.
• £100,000 – General Fund with emphasis on projects that meet priority areas

This money is for general projects. Applications which specifically address some of the most important issues for young people in Wirral will be given priority, namely:

• Reducing teenage pregnancy
• Substance and alcohol misuse
• Homelessness
• Music, Arts and Media projects for young people
• Environmental projects which benefit the community

Youth Capital Fund - £182,100

Who can apply?
Groups of young people, young people who are members of organisations, not-for-profit organisations whose applications are led by a groups of young people.

How do young people get involved?
Applying for money – call the Youth Service office on 0151 637 6370 and ask for an application pack – this pack will tell you exactly what to do. The opportunity to apply will be publicised throughout Wirral.

Serving on the Grant Panel – Young people who want to serve on the Grant Panel have to attend training sessions before they are allowed to decide which applications will be successful. Young people can be involved in both the Grant Panel and an application, however, in these cases the young person cannot be on the same Grant Panel which considers an application they have been part of writing. If you are aged between 13 and 19 and are interested in becoming a member of the grant panel, please call the Youth Service office on 637 6370.

Criteria and Terms & Conditions of Funding

Applications must:

• Be written by 3 or more young people from Wirral aged 13-19
• Provide value for money and are realistic, achievable and well thought out
• Improve things to do and/or places to go for young people in Wirral
• Youth Opportunity/Youth Capital Fund grants MUST BE spent by 31 March 2009
• Fit into two or more of the 5 Every Child Matters outcome areas:

- Be Healthy
- Stay Safe
- Enjoy and Achieve
- Make a Positive Contribution
- Achieve Economic Well-being
(for details see: http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/aims/outcomes/)

• Benefit young people from Wirral, aged 13-19
• Show how the project is led by and involves young people in all stages, i.e. application, management, monitoring and evaluation
• Show how equal opportunities are being considered. Applications which can involve or benefit groups of vulnerable young people are particularly encouraged
• Have the support of a “not for profit” organisation with its own constitution, bank account and child protection/health & safety procedures etc (this supporting organisation could be a youth club, school, or a young people’s group etc)
• Provide details of how the project will be managed, monitored and evaluated

Any application that does not demonstrate ALL of the essential criteria listed above will not be successful.

Additional criteria for 2009/2010:

• Successful projects must take place between 1st April 2009 and 31st March 2010
• If your application meets the essential criteria, you will be asked to give a short presentation to the grant panel
• If your application is successful, you must attend a briefing session, where the Grant Panel and support staff will explain the process of evaluation to you
• Youth Capital Fund applications must be for a minimum of £6,000
• In the majority of cases, the Grant Panel will only consider applications for minibuses where applicants have already started fundraising for a minibus. The Grant Panel will fund a maximum of 50% of the costs towards a minibus, but there must be evidence that applicants have already fundraised the other 50%.
• Applications for Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund must be made on separate application forms
• There is no upper limit for applications, however the grant panel ask that you consider how the funds are split

YOF/YCF cannot fund:

• An individual young person
• Religious or party political activities
• Activities or projects for young people under 13 or over 19 years
• Youth work projects that are already funded – the YOF & YCF are an extra resource
• Equipment/activities etc that have already been paid for (NB Funding will not be given for projects that have already taken place, so please WAIT for confirmation that your application has been successful)
• Administrative or management costs to a support organisation