Blagrave is committed to fostering a culture of continual development, learning and challenge.

Young People in Policy-Making fFund launched in 2022 offering multi-year grants for charities and non-profit organisations in England that are supporting young people (aged 16-25) with experience of social injustice to be heard in Policy-Making processes.

Funding was provided to nine partner organisations, comprising of place-based youth work like MAP, The Warren, Reclaim, and Leicestershire Cares; issues-led campaigning such as WeBelong and 4 Front; and national service delivery and policy organisations like Become, the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, and POMOC.

Additionally, a learning partner was appointed to identify and share learning regarding effective models for change, the impact of their work, and necessary support for success.. Projects are funded for three years, and this report from the learning partner, Common Futures, focuses on the learning from Year 1.

The Opportunity Fund – giving young people resources to explore and experiment! The Opportunity Fund sought to support young people (18-25) who were passionately campaigning for social change or had ideas for a social purpose enterprise, but did not have the resource or capacity to fully explore their potential – they couldn’t live rent free, take a gap year or rely on connections. But it took more than money – it needed time, connections, permission, and encouragement as well. 

This report explores the insights and reflections from staff and partners involved in the second cohort of the opportunity fund and includes recommendations taking into account the learning across the whole lifetime of the fund.

History illuminates the capacity and courage of young people to drive positive change in the world, but for far too long their ideas have been restricted or constrained within the structures of the broader social sector. Power is often held by adult-led social purpose organisations - be they funders, charities, enterprises, or public bodies - that end up speaking on behalf of young people and controlling or containing their ideas about what change is needed and how to make it.

Challenge and Change set out to address this by moving decision-making power and resources to young people. It was intended as a youth-led fund dedicated to supporting the limitless energy of young campaigners who are affected by injustices and working tirelessly across England to create positive change. The fund’s charitable purpose is ‘advancement of citizenship’ .

Since the launch of Challenge and Change in 2020, many funders and social sector leads have reached out to Blagrave keen to understand the journey of the fund in its pilot year. This report has been produced by Blagrave and CfKE to share our learning with those working on, or interested in, supporting the development of youth-led funds.

This report seeks to capture both the deeper reflections that this fund has generated as well as some of the finer details of design, launch, implementation, and review. This includes honesty about what went well, what didn’t, and where there are further questions to reflect on.

This is the third in a series of internal Blagrave learning reports about Restart Youth. The first report covers the call out, applications received, and process of prioritisation. The second documents learning about intersectionality. This report summarises the learning from work that was funded, and tries to capture the impact of the funding.

It sits alongside an external report written by an independent evaluator, Mary Mulvey Oates, on the impact of work with young advisers.

This draft report was prepared for Blagrave Trust by Mary Mulvey-Oates. Interviews were conducted in June and July 2021, as part of an MSc Dissertation using a multiple case study approach to investigate factors that enable meaningful participation of young people in transformational grant making in England.

The report is labelled as draft as the full comparative analysis was not completed at the stage of writing.

We commissioned a review of our work collated by independent consultant Jenny Ross based on individual interviews as well as a group learning session with 12 young people, to provide an overview of Blagrave’s learning journey over the last three years. It focuses predominantly on areas where Blagrave has changed its approach and launched new initiatives. In addition in some key areas it reflects on where Blagrave can strengthen its approach and what has been learned.

As part of The Listening Fund, we commissioned Nusrat Faizullah to look at funders’ listening practices in England and Scotland – providing insight into who they engage with and how, and identifying where improvement is needed.

We commissioned a review of our work by Richard Hopgood and Ben Cairns, based on interviews and desk research carried out by the authors and by Houda Davis and Christopher Mills, to narrate our history, with a particular focus on our recent evolution, what has been learned and what we are achieving. It is intended as a written legacy for trustees and staff and as a report for sharing with other Trusts and voluntary organisations interested in the approaches taken and insights gained.

We collaborated with the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation to research the relationships between funders and social purpose organisations. The report asks fundamental questions about how funders and the voluntary sector needs to build relationships of trust and evolve the funding system for the benefit of all.

Blagrave’s Director, Jo Wells, is the subject of this insightful profile from American thought leader, the Leap of Reason. The profile gives some background into Jo’s professional career and how she developed her commitment to listening to young people.