11 YORK GROUPS AWARDED FUNDING TO BOOST YOUTH VOLUNTEERING (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

11 YORK GROUPS AWARDED FUNDING TO BOOST YOUTH VOLUNTEERING

April 20, 2010 12:00 AM

11 local groups looking to recruit young volunteers have been handed a boost this week after they were awarded funding as part of a £1.4m volunteering project being run in York.

Successful bidders for the first of three rounds of funding being made available as part of the project were approved by Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Children and Young People's Services, Councillor Carol Runciman at a meeting last week.

The £276,000 allocated in the first round of funding will help to provide more than 3,300 volunteering opportunities for young people in the city.

City of York Council is one of only 5 local authorities in the country to secure funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families for a volunteering programme for 14 to 16 year olds.

The project, which will run from January 2010 to March 2011, aims to expand the already large number of young people volunteering in the city by providing more volunteering opportunities for more than 4000 young people in a wide range of areas including sports, conservation and environmental programmes; local community improvement projects; theatre, music and museums activities.

The bids to the fund were examined by a multi-agency assessment team who recommended the 11 bidders for approval. The recommended bidders were approved by Councillor Runciman at the Children and Young People's Services Executive Member Decision Session last week.

Councillor Runciman said she was pleased by the quality of the bids submitted. She said, "I am delighted that the first round of bids has been of such a high quality, the timescale was fairly tight for the first round so I am delighted that we have received so many high quality and innovative bids."

"I am especially pleased that many of the projects that have been awarded funding are aiming to attract some of our most vulnerable young people to these volunteering opportunities, including those with disabilities."

Councillor Runciman added, "Already a huge number of young people in York volunteer with Scouts, Guides, St John's Ambulance, local churches and community group and many more."

"The funding will help us to increase the range of volunteering opportunities available and will help us to increase the number of young people volunteering even further."