£50,000 Youth Social Action funding awarded to Cornish youth projects

Youth Social Action, administered in Cornwall by CCF, awarded more than £50,000 in the first funding round to Cornish youth projectsA piece of work that delivers an output..  The Youth Social Action programme supports projects that engage young people through community involvement to develop additional skills, ranging from cooking, communications, and drama to english and maths.

The funding is part of the national ‘#iwill Fund’ that is a £40 million joint commitment by the UK Government and Big Lottery FundA sum of money made available for grant making, often with specific criteria/conditions., boosted by £9.6 million matched funding from Comic Relief, Pears Foundation and Community Foundations across the UK, including CCF contributing £30,000 match fundingAn amount of money that might need raising by another funder. from fund-holders and supporters.

Projects awarded grants included 4Elementz, a community project using music and media to inspire positive life change in young people at risk of offending.  Working with children aged 13-18 and young adults ages 18-30 at risk of offending, the funding will enable 4Elementz to deliver workshops making and producing music and media. The workshops, run for example, in a rehabilitation centre for teenagers and schools, teaches media, music, creative hobbies, business and social media skills.  Project Manager, Kelly Thorne, says, 'This funding will greatly help sustain our 4Elementz project and enable us to continue our workshops in the community. The young people we work with are often disengaged from society and are developing negative lifestyles from a young age. Our project has successfully changed the direction of many young people. Our work experience programme has successfully moved people into employment and our careers in music programme has enabled a collection of young men to earn money from their music and perform at festivals. We are also busy mentoring some to set up their own companies”

Other projects successful in their funding applications were Wild Young Parents, (Redruth), Growing Links (Penzance), Word Voyages CIC, (Mousehole), TRELYA, (Penzance), Active8, (Victoria/Truro), The Draecena Centre, (Falmouth), Kidz R Us, Dance Confidence Cornwall, (Helston), Drama Express (Hayle) and Citizenship4Life CIC, (Truro).

Chief Executive Tamas Haydu says, “We were delighted with the quality of the projects supporting young people that applied for funding.  Using a range of support mechanisms, all the projects empower disadvantaged young people in their local communities, to develop skills that are life-changing.  We are very grateful to the funders that make this possible.”