Author: Edd Fry, The Listening Fund
As explained in our last blog – which you can read here – 10 young people are working as advisers to The Listening Fund. They have designed two funding rounds and made the decisions on which applicants would get grants.
The advisers’ first callout focused on youth leadership in organisations with turnovers in excess of £200,000 p.a. Their second callout was targeted at grassroots work, funding listening and accountability work which is rooted in communities. Grants of up to £10,000 per annum were made available for organisations with turnovers of under £200,000. After careful consideration of all the applications received, the advisers chose eight more partners for The Listening Fund in February 2023:
Debating Mental Health works with young people who have, or may be likely to have, mental health support needs. They collaborate with young people to enable them to define and articulate what matters to them in mental health. Debating Mental Health are using support from The Listening Fund to develop their existing youth leadership structures, paying young people to act as facilitators and Young Leaders.
Emotion Dysregulation in Autism works in Birmingham, supporting children and young people with autism and associated mental illness from “emotion-dysregulation”. They have a particular focus on peer support, training and youth-led social action. Funding from The Listening Fund is enabling the organisation to refine and deliver their peer support programme.
In Charley’s Memory provide early intervention mental health support to young people in Somerset. They work with many individuals who do not meet the threshold for CAHMS. Support from The Listening Fund will enable the organisation to relaunch their Student Ambassador Leadership Programme which trains young people to, amongst other activities, raise awareness of the importance of mental health with their peers.
JENGbA supports young people and their families who have been affected by joint enterprise policy and legislation. They provide emotional and practical support to individuals while also advocating for their rights. With funding from The Listening Fund, JENGbA will be growing their young ambassador programme. Their ambition is to co-create more platforms and opportunities for young people to advocate for change.
Little Green Pig works in East and West Sussex, supporting young people through the power of creative writing. They work in communities where the challenges facing young people have been exacerbated by poverty and will use the support of The Listening Fund to build on the success of their youth board, creating sustainable leadership opportunities for young writers.
In Lewisham, Sounds Like Chaos work with emerging creatives, co-establishing spaces where young people can uncover, challenge and disrupt social injustices through the arts. They are using funding from The Listening Fund to develop an open-to-all youth forum and consolidate their youth steering board.
The Birch Collective are based in Bristol and provide early intervention support to young people experiencing isolation and/or mental ill-health. Much of their work takes place and draws on the benefits of being outdoors. With support from The Listening Fund, they will establish a young people’s steering group, launch a peer mentorship programme, and bring young people onto the Collective’s board.
The UK Youth Climate Coalition work to mobilise and empower young people to take positive action for global climate justice. It is an organisation run by young people for young people. The support of The Listening Fund will enable UKYCC to bring young leaders together at tri-annual residential weekends, to hold more climate justice workshops in schools, and to continue to engage in more advocacy activities at COP28 and SB57.
We’re excited to be working with all 25 of our partners. As well as supporting them individually, we will be bringing them together to encourage and learn from one another. Everything we learn from these partnerships will be shared on The Listening Fund website and announced in our newsletter. Please sign up below!