The Latest Youth News

NCS UPDATE 92% of the 8500 young people who took part in last summer's National Citizen Service enjoyed and benefitted from it, says the first of a series of evaluations.  Also, a trial of a week long NCS scheme will commence in Autumn 2012, it was announced in this C&YPNow article (Posted 18/05/12)

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk has announced the next stage of the Government's new £10 million ‘Start-up Loans' for young people pilot scheme. The initiative aims to provide budding entrepreneurs with support and a small amount of capital to help them get started as well as access to training and business mentors. The Government is now inviting organisations and consortiums who can offer the right level of support to deliver the programme to bring forward their proposals (Posted 04/05/12)

CUTS TO CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHARITIES The National Children's Bureau has published Beyond the Cuts: Children's charities adapting to austerity. The report says that the 34,000 charities in England that work primarily with children and young people will lose £405 million in statutory funding in the five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16. It notes that children and young people's charities are particularly vulnerable to cuts, as they receive more of their income from statutory sources and are four times less likely to receive corporate support. It shows that charities are taking various actions to manage the impact of the cuts, including reducing the number of staff they employ and cutting back on the range of services they offer, as well as developing consortia and mergers. A small but significant minority of charities said that it was ‘likely' or ‘very likely' that they would be forced to close in the next 12 months (Posted 04/05/12).


LAUNCH OF BIG SOCIETY CAPITAL – the world’s first ever social investment market builder Big Society Capital – a groundbreaking £600 million institution –was launched by the Prime Minister on 12/04/12 . Its mission is to grow a new market – social investment – and so make it easier for charities, social enterprises and community groups to access affordable finance. In turn, this will help them innovate, expand their services and develop better solutions to social problems. Big Society Capital will grow the social investment market which blends financial return with positive social impact. .For more information please click here (Posted 12/04/12)  

POSITIVE FOR YOUTH The long awaited Positive for Youth strategy has now been published and sets out the Government's aspirations for young people, their families and communities.  It's worth taking some time to see how your work fits into this thinking - the Regional Youth Work Unit will be making a response so please let us have your views if you would like to be included in the response. Also, click here to read Community Matters's analysis of what this means for the VCSE sector.(Updated 20/02/12)

FUNDING NEWS

CREDIT UNIONS  VCSE organisations are now able to join a credit union and benefit from its services. This follows changes that have been made by a Legislative Reform Order to the Credit Unions Act 1979 which was passed by Parliament in November 2011.More information here. (Posted 11/01/12)

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR OLDER NEWS.