£250,000 funding boost for youth groups

More young people from diverse backgrounds will be able to join national youth groups like the Scouts, Police Cadets and Guiding thanks to a £250,000 funding boost.

Youth United Foundation, a charity established to support a coalition of 11 uniformed youth volunteering organisations has already offered over 1.5 million young people the opportunity to develop teamwork, leadership, self-confidence and communication skills through a series of activities.

Government funding to date has helped train thousands of new volunteers with their member organisations including the Scout Association, Girlguiding, and St John’s Ambulance.

The new funding will be used build a national network of youth integration champions and roll out long-term approaches to developing lasting relationships between young people from different backgrounds.

This complements the government’s ongoing work to improve integration including the recent launch of the Integrated Communities Innovation Fund, announced by Communities Secretary the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP. Working in partnership with Sport England, the Innovation Fund will support projects that encourage integration including sport.

This announcement comes in the same week as the launch of new research from Youth United, 'Social Integration: the role of uniformed youth groups', which provides evidence that participation in uniformed youth groups increases integration.