The Youth Opportunity fund (YOF) should:
- Give a voice to and influence young people, particularly disadvantaged young people, about things to do and places to go, and to give a powerful message to young people that they are important.
- Improve things to do and places to go in line with what young people want in their neighbourhood.
- Provide opportunities for young people to develop their confidence, knowledge skills and abilities and gain recognition and/or accreditation for them.
- Increase the well-being of young people by contributing to the achievement of the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes, which are:
- achieve economic well-being
- make a positive contribution
- be healthy
- stay safe
- enjoy and achieve
- Increase young people's involvement with services and decision making at local level.
- There are no restrictions on the range of initiatives and activities that the YOF can support, provided that they are supporting the outcomes from ECM.
- Young people should be encouraged to consider local needs and circumstances as a part of their role in shaping provision for young people beyond their immediate group, including with other young people from different cultural and social backgrounds.
- All young people aged 13 - 19 should be able to participate in this initiative in a meaningful way if they wish, especially young people from disadvantage and hard-to-reach groups.
- YOF/YCF should be accessible to as many young people as possible, ages 13-19, including those from disadvantaged or hard-to-reach groups (as both recipients and decision makers) and support projects which provide open access to young people as well as those designed to meet the needs of specific groups of young people from whom targeted provision is necessary. Disadvantaged/hard-to-reach groups might include the following groups which may experience barriers to participation:
- Looked after young people
- Young travellers
- Disabled young people
- Lesbian, gay and bi-sexual young people
- Young people at risk of involvement in crime
- Young parents
- Young people who are rurally isolated
- Young carers (or relatives who are disabled, have an illness, mental health issues or are misusing alcohol or substances)
- Black and minority ethnic young people
- Young people with mental health problems
- Young victims of domestic abuse
This is not an exhaustive list and you may be able to think of others and remember your project can be targeted at a specific group of young people or it can just be aimed at young people in the 13-19 age group, although you would have to show how you were going to make the project inclusive of disadvantaged/hard-to-reach groups.