COUNCIL SECURES £1.4M TO EXPAND YOUTH VOLUNTEERING

12.00.00am GMT Tue 15th Dec 2009

City of York Council has been named as 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.

The project will provide 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 funding will help the Council and its partners build on two existing schemes the city. Vinvolved, run by York Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) and v@yorkcares which both currently support post-16 volunteering.

2010 is the 'Year of the Volunteer' in York and the funding will help boost efforts to increase volunteering in the city.

Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Children and Young People's Services, Councillor Carol Runciman welcomed the announcement that the bid had been successful.

She said, "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."

"£1.m is clearly a large sum of money and the team that put together the bid deserve great credit for securing the funding. I am sure it will make a significant difference across the city."