Warwickshire News Mine

Young people are to benefit from £500,000 in funding to improve facilities and activities in Warwickshire - and they will get to choose where the money should go.

Warwickshire County Council has been given the money to increase the opportunities available for young people and encourage their involvement and participation in local communities. The fund is a DfES initiative operated through Warwickshire County Council’s Children, Young People and Families Directorate.

Individuals and groups are invited to bid for grants for youth projects, schemes or facilities they would like to develop. Last year the fund was used to help projects ranging from setting up a mobile hq giving advice and support to care leavers, to providing computer equipment and improving sports facilities. But there are many more possibilities for young people who want to put forward their ideas and make them a reality.

With support from youth workers, a panel of fifty young people in Warwickshire are involved as decision makers, grant givers and project leaders for the fund. Earlier this year, the Government Office for the West Midlands gave the Warwickshire panel of young people an ‘Outstanding Contribution’ award in recognition of their ability to make a difference through the fund.

Shinderpaul Bhangal, Youth Officer for Warwickshire County Council, said: “The success of the fund shows what can be achieved by young people for young people. Since the introduction of the fund in 2006 Warwickshire has spent more than £700,000 on 150 projects. We want voluntary organisations and youth clubs to encourage the young people that they work with, especially the hardest to reach, to come forward with their ideas.”

Application packs are available by calling Warwickshire County Council on 01926 742498.

Youth projects which benefited from funding last year included:

Countywide – Paul Sweeney, a member of the care leavers’ FORUM, came up with the idea of taking the association to the young people. He successfully put together a bid of £36,000 to buy a mobile headquarters that the forum could use to hold meetings around the county, giving young people who are in or about to leave care the chance to get together.

North Warwickshire – A group of 13-19 year olds from Polesworth decided they wanted to help reduce bullying in schools by producing and distributing a short film with the grant they received for £3,360.

Nuneaton and Bedworth – Students from Exhall Grange put in a bid for £4,000 to purchase sports equipment and run an after-school club at the special school in Ash Green.

- A grant of £600 gave a group of Asian girls the opportunity to start a youth club in Nuneaton giving them somewhere to go one evening a week.

Warwick District – A group of 13-14 year-olds put in a bid to kit out a new sports pavilion in Napton-on-the-Hill.  They received £52,000 to spend on furnishing the facility, installing electricity and plumbing including new showers.

Rugby – Sixteen-year-old Latoya Hamilton was successful in her bid for studio equipment and the cost of vocal and sound engineers to train young people at Rugby’s Roots and Culture Club. A grant of £8,500 was awarded to the music-making project.

Stratford – A group of 64 young people with disabilities set up multi sports session. A grant award of £6,044 was given to the ILEAP (Inclusive Leisure Educational Activities) project.

Link to WCC