Local MP Kevin Foster today (Monday 27th March 2023) welcomed news Torbay will receive £625,995 of new funding from the Youth Investment Fund.
The Youth Investment Fund was launched in August 2022, with a call for youth services in the country’s most underserved areas to apply for a slice of a £337m fund to improve the health, wellbeing, skills, and opportunities for young people.
The Youth Investment Fund has been established by the UK government, through the Department for Culture, Media and Sports, and is being delivered by Social Investment Business, in partnership with the National Youth Agency, Key Fund, and Resonance. It has been developed to create, expand, and improve local youth facilities and their services in the out of school youth sector, to drive positive outcomes for young people, including improved mental and physical wellbeing, and skills for life and work. It aims to transform and level up the out-of-school youth sector.
The first two rounds of the Youth Investment Fund have awarded grants to 46 youth services across England, with the grants awarded ranging from £300,000 to £8m plus. This investment, including the £625,995 awarded to Torbay, will support the out of school youth sector, providing up to 300 youth facilities – which could include community youth spaces, youth centres of different sizes, and activity centres – in some of the less advantaged areas of England.
The Youth Investment Fund will increase the number of new young people engaging in regular positive activities in the targeted areas by 45,000 per year, by 2026/27 and aims to:
• Improve the health and wellbeing of young people.
• Equip young people with skills for work and life.
• Empower young people to be active members of their community and society.
• Level up provision in selected eligible areas of England.
Successful applicants to the Youth Investment Fund have demonstrated their capital project:
• represents positive value for money,
• is environmentally sustainable,
• and enables positive activities for young people aged 11 to 18 (up to 25 for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).
The funding awarded to Torbay will be provided to Torbay Council for delivery of the project.
Kevin Foster MP said: 'This investment from the Government into our youth services is very welcome. I now look forward to Torbay Council rapidly moving forward to deliver this project as it is vital when we receive such national funding support, residents and the Government promptly see it making a difference for the next generation.'
