Deadline: 24-Feb-23
The Sovereign is now accepting applications for its #iwill Fund to organisations delivering projects that offer new opportunities for young people to get involved in youth social action in the communities.
What is youth social action?
- Youth led activities that produce a benefit for communities as a result of the action, and for young people, as a result of taking part in the social action.
- Youth social action can be flexible in delivery and must involve at least one of three core mechanisms that improve the skills, well-being or increasing knowledge of others and sense of belonging of a young person. These are:
- Young people have a safe yet challenging space in which to develop practical, vocational and socio-emotional skills.
- Young people take self-directed action which gives them a sense of purpose that contributes to their well-being, self-concept and/or self-efficacy.
- Young people have the opportunity to engage with different communities, increasing their knowledge of others and their sense of belonging.
Is my project idea eligible for funding?
- Projects eligible for the second round of Sovereign #iwill Funding must involve young people aged 10-20-years-old and:
- Work within three miles of a Sovereign community.
- Cost a maximum of £10,000 (note that if you apply for the full £10,000, they will expect your project to engage a minimum of 45 young people in social action opportunities).
- Be delivered between 1 April 2023 and 31 December 2023.
- Be youth-led, for example by giving young people choices and the ability to decide what to do as part of the project.
- Offer new opportunities for young people to engage in youth social action.
- Give young people the opportunity to learn new skills and develop their potential and confidence.
- They are particularly interested in projects that:
- Are reaching out to young people in the under 14 age group. Through the Sovereign #iwill Fund, they anticipate that 50% of the young people taking part in youth social action projects will be in this age group.
- Reach out to young people from less affluent communities, and those new to youth social action.
- Build the appetite of young people to continue with social action and leave a legacy of behaviour/activity after the funding ends.
- Involve young people in consultation, planning, delivery and evaluation of the project.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible to apply for Sovereign #iwill Fund funding, your organisation needs to be one of the following:
- a registered charity
- a constituted community group
- a community interest company
- a charitable organisation
- a public body at local level
- another housing association, established in the UK (preferably smaller organisations with limited resources to capacity build).
- Please note, organisations applying for the Sovereign #iwill Fund must:
- Have capacity to recruit young people and deliver a youth social action project within the required time frames.
- Have capacity to deliver on reporting requirements.
- Have capacity to take part in the Sovereign #iwill Youth Network meetings and Innovation Labs which will involve training, support and networking – successful grantees will have to send at least one representative to all network meetings and labs.
- Comply with all due diligence checks from documentation sent through the application process.
- Organisations must not:
- Have been awarded a grant through the first round of the Sovereign #iwill Fund.
- Currently be in receipt of a current #iwill grant (unless the grant is due to be spent and monitoring submitted before the new grant would be awarded in April 2023).
- Have been awarded £332k or more of public funding in the last three years.
For more information, visit Sovereign.
