County council gets £480,000 grant

LEICESTERSHIRE County Council has been awarded around £480,000 over two years in funding through the Home Office’s Youth Endowment Fund.

The grant was awarded from a share of £16.2m and will help support the Advanced Lifeskills programme in schools across Leicestershire.

Ivan Ould, cabinet member for children and families, said: “We welcome this funding from the Youth Endowment Fund and look forward to working with local schools to deliver this exciting and innovative project to support young people across the county.”

The Youth Endowment Fund is an independent organisation founded with an endowment of £200 million over ten years from the Home Office, as part of its Serious Violence Strategy.

It aims to prevent children and young people from getting caught up in crime and violence by making sure that those at most risk get the best possible support, as early as possible.

Focusing on 10-14 year olds across England and Wales, it is run by youth charity Impetus, in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) and Social Investment Business (SIB).

From intensive family therapy to street-based and school mentoring programmes, 30,000 young people between the ages of 10-14 will directly benefit from ground-breaking interventions that the Youth Endowment Fund will support, evaluate and where they are shown to have impact, grow.

Sir Kevan Collins, Chair of the Youth Endowment Fund said: “The safety and wellbeing of young people is our first priority. Our first round of grants is the start of a 10 year programme of work designed to build a better understanding of what works to prevent young people being drawn into crime and a violence.”

Andy Ratcliffe from the Youth Endowment Fund said: “Young people being drawn in to violent crime is an issue of huge concern for communities right across the country. The Youth Endowment Fund is a serious longterm commitment to tackling this problem.”