We are so excited to announce the launch of the Listening Fund! The £900k fund is a collaboration between ourselves, the Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief, and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and means young people will shape their own support services. Together we hope it will mark a shift in the treatment of young people, who have often been treated as part of a problem to be solved rather than a solution.
The Fund is shared across 22 youth-focused organisations in England and will promote creative mechanisms – from new technology and research to board positions for young people – to make sure young people’s voices are heard.
Young people facing various disadvantages will be involved, including those leaving care or experiencing homelessness, school exclusion, poor mental health and sexual exploitation and abuse.
The 22 organisations sharing the Listening Fund range from New Forest-based It’s Your Choice and the Kent Refugee Action Network to London’s Black Women’s Project, the national Prison Reform Trust and Centre 63 in Liverpool.
For more information, contact Edd Fry, project manager for the Listening Fund on edd.fry@blagravetrust.org