Good news for young people in Sheffield!

26 Nov 2007 / News

Football Unites has been awarded £285,143 funding by v, the youth volunteering charity, to get young people positively involved in their communities.

The funding will enable us to work with nearly 800 young people aged 16-25 over three years. We will provide sporting activities for the community through the utilisation of our multi sports arena, work with young offenders in prison to deliver a combined package of sport and education, provide a mentoring scheme for refugees to help them settle into the community, deliver arts and dance workshops to young people, work to bring different communities together through our conflict resolution programme, deliver healthy lifestyle workshops to BME communities and undertake advocacy and campaign work. Through the delivery of these volunteering opportunities we will contribute to the city’s aim of achieving communities that are cohesive, with active citizens displaying community pride with good health and well being.       

Football Unites Racism Divides Educational Trust is one of 152 projects across the country who will be funded by v as part of vinvolved, a new national youth volunteering programme backed by £75 million funding, which aims to inspire half a million more young people to volunteer in England.

FURD Project Co-ordinator Howard Holmes says: “We are very excited to be part of the vinvolved programme. The funding will enable us to harness the enthusiasm and talents of young people in Sheffield for the benefit of the community."

vinvolved has been designed by and for young people to make volunteering a compelling choice for all 16-25 year olds in England by tapping into their passions and concerns. The charity aims to change the image of volunteering and make it a ‘must-have’ part of young people’s lives.

Terry Ryall, v’s Chief Executive, says: “v is delighted to be able to fund this innovative and youth-led project, which will enable young people to get positively involved in Sharrow.  

“Young people are at the heart of this new programme which aims to put them at the centre of our communities. Instead of seeing them as a problem to be fixed, we are giving them the chance to become a positive force for change.”

  

The volunteering opportunities will be available from April 2008. For more information visit www.wearev.com or the young people’s portal www.vinspired.com

Ends

Media enquiries: contact Kate Peden on 020 7299 8740 or katie.peden@geronimocommunications.com 

More notes:

  • The vinvolved funding in the Sharrow will create 774 new volunteering opportunities for young people
  • v is the youth volunteering charity launched in May 2006 whose mission is to inspire a new generation of young volunteers in England aged 16-25. v is supported by the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office.
  • The charity was set up to implement the recommendations of the Russell Commission outlining a new national framework for youth action and engagement, following a nationwide consultation which included 6000 young people.
  • v is led by the cares, interests, passions and beliefs of young people. A Youth Advisory Board made up of twenty young people called v20 is involved in all aspects of the charity’s work. Four members of v20 sit on v’s Board of Trustees.
  • v works with and builds upon the current voluntary sector infrastructure, funds the creation of volunteering opportunities through grants rounds and implements programmes to create awareness and positive understanding of volunteering for young people. For more information on v, visit www.wearev.com
  • The new programme will fund 105 vinvolved teams of experts, at least 105 Youth Action Teams and 152 projects run by small and large organisations.
  • vinvolved builds on the previous government-funded Millennium Volunteers programme and v’s work to date with more than 200 voluntary sector organisations. It has commissioned 205,000 volunteering opportunities so far. The new programme gives voice to the 6,000 young people surveyed by the Russell Commission who said there needed to be a step change in the quantity, quality and diversity of volunteering opportunities to make it easier for young people to volunteer.