Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) - Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership

We know that by investing in our young people, by giving them engaging, positive, fun opportunities, we can prevent them from going down the wrong path, keep them safe and help them to reach their full potential.

Working with the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside, Emily Spurrell, we announced a new £500,000 fund focused on unlocking the potential of thousands of young people across the region by giving them the chance to gain valuable skills and qualifications, build their confidence and make positive decisions for the future.

As the school summer holidays got underway, we were thrilled to announce the 30 brilliant grassroots organisations across Merseyside who would share this super youth fund to deliver diversionary activity for nearly 12,000 young people, focused on helping to ensure violence keeps falling in our region.

Serious violence has already fallen by 23% across Merseyside in the past three years and in the past year alone there has been a decrease of 47.9% in hotspot areas.

This funding is focused on driving those figures down even further by providing funding to organisations which are working with vulnerable young people and in the areas hardest hit by cuts.

The YES brings together two successful funding pots – the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Youth Diversion Fund and the MVRP’s Arts | Culture | Sports Fund – to create one new super youth fund designed to provide bigger grants to reach more young people through even more ambitious and engaging projects.

The YES was announced in May, offering community and voluntary groups the chance to bid for up to £25,000. A total of 183 organisations submitted bids making a total request for funding of £3.5m.

Of the 30 successful organisations, 10 are based in Liverpool, eight in Sefton and four in Knowsley, St Helens and Wirral.

The successful projects

Knowsley – four successful projects sharing a total £77,422 to offer activities for 3,871 beneficiaries

Prescot North – Evolving Mindset – £24,997 – 50 beneficiaries – to provide a variety of regular sessions for local young people aged 11-18 including arts, sports, and employability.
Page Moss – L14 Community House – £25,000 – 3,600 beneficiaries – to provide a variety of training sessions, prevention courses, and activity workshops to at risk youth in Page Moss aged under 25.
Stockbridge Village – Stockbridge Village Galaxy FC – £5,000 – 160 beneficiaries – to deliver football-related activities in Stockbridge, purchase new equipment and kits and pay for FA coaching badges and DBS checks for new coaches.
Whitefield – First Step – £22,425 – 61 beneficiaries – to deliver direct support to children who have experienced or witnessed domestic abuse including drama and art workshops, sessions exclusively for teenagers, and excursions they may not otherwise be able to experience.

Liverpool – 10 successful projects sharing a total of £173,078 to offer activities for 4,095 beneficiaries.

Speke/Garston – Autism Adventures – £14,980 – 75 beneficiaries – to provide autism friendly boxing sessions and homestead activities.
Princes Park – Capoeira for all – £22,891 – 50 beneficiaries – to provide sessions focussed on art and podcasts to divert young people away from violence.
Yew Tree – Dovecot and Princes Drive Community Association – £20,000 – 250 beneficiaries – to provide a variety of activities to young people aged up to 25 including women’s empowerment, neurodiversity engagement, art therapy, and employability development.
Norris Green – Norris Green Community Alliance – £18,450 – 180 beneficiaries – to provide regular activities and support for 8–13-year-olds along with holiday activities and residential trips.
Everton – Positive Pathways Northwest – £24,800 – 250 beneficiaries – to send youth workers out to hotspot areas in Liverpool to develop trust and connections amongst the young people to signpost them to additional support.
St Michael’s – St Michael’s Lark Lane – £8,992 – 40 beneficiaries – to support staff costs and overheads to deliver family mediation and counselling support to those with trauma, additional needs, and vulnerabilities.
Yew Tree – The Lodge Holistic, Beauty Spa and Wellness Centre – £9,000 – 400 beneficiaries – to deliver a wellness programme for children, young people and families to support those dealing with trauma or living with difficult circumstances such as domestic abuse or addiction. Provision will increase during school holiday periods.
Princes Park – Tiber Community- £20,655 – 200 beneficiaries – to deliver football, fitness sessions and mental health support to vulnerable young people or those at risk of crime and ASB during the summer, October, and February holidays.
County – Walton Youth Project – £20,115 – 120 beneficiaries – to offer twice weekly diversionary activities to children and young people aged 8-18 who don’t engage with traditional youth club settings.
Riverside – Yellow House – £13,195 – 2530 beneficiaries – to provide art sessions for at risk and SEN children during key periods.

Sefton – eight successful projects sharing a total of £106,435 to offer activities for 1,447 beneficiaries

Linacre – Community by Nature – £23,834 – 100 beneficiaries – to provide a forest school for at risk young people.
Linacre – Conquer Life – £10,101 – 512 beneficiaries – to implement a Youth Engagement Initiative including six summer events, 30 spin classes, 20 chill zone sessions, two Halloween/bonfire events, and two art and craft projects.
Ford – Litherland Youth and Community Centre – £10,200 – 90 beneficiaries – to employ one lead worker and one youth support worker to provide educational intervention groups around antisocial behaviour over 4-6 weeks.
St Oswald – Netherton Feelgood Factory – £10,000 – 30 beneficiaries – to provide afterschool activities for young children aged 8-16 with age specific activities provided. Weekly activities will continue through school holidays.
Netherton and Orell – Netherton Park Community Association – £10,000 – 40 beneficiaries – to provide a variety of sport and art sessions alongside wellbeing sessions to support at risk youth.
Dukes – Parenting 2000 – £8,500 – 35 beneficiaries – to provide two sport sessions a week featuring boxing and football.
Linacre – The Inclusive Hub – £23,800 – 40 beneficiaries – to work with 16-18-year-olds who are at risk by providing physical activity and 1-2-1 sessions for goal setting and support.
Waterloo and Linacre – Waterloo Hotshots – £10,000 – 600 beneficiaries – to deliver regular tennis and boxing sessions, including a summer holiday club and tournaments in the October half-term.

St Helens – four successful projects sharing a total of £54,675 to offer activities for 730 beneficiaries

Parr – People Empowered CIC – £22,282 – 350 beneficiaries – to deliver weekly diversionary activities for 10-25-year-olds including art, dance, and drama.
Blackbrook – Powered by Hip Hop – £7,393 – 100 beneficiaries – to provide graffiti, DJing and parkour activities regularly and through summer and October half term.
Town Centre – St Helens YMCA – £12,500 – 130 beneficiaries – to deliver creative and active sessions to young people beginning in July, as well as offering leadership training to a small number of participants.
Parr – Vibe – £12,500 – 150 beneficiaries – to engage and divert young people away from antisocial behaviour through a range of activities, sessions exploring themes such as relationships and choices/consequences and potential accreditation through the Lord Derby award.

Wirral – four successful projects sharing a total of £88,390 to offer activities for 1,490 beneficiaries

Birkenhead/Tranmere – Comics Youth CIC – £19,000 – 150 beneficiaries – to support at risk SEND young people with art based and holistic support.
Birkenhead/Tranmere – Future Yard CIC – £20,000 – 930 beneficiaries – to establish an early intervention scheme for at risk young people over 36 weeks using music and unique and diverse cultural events to engage with them.
Rock Ferry – Utopia Project – £24,640 – 110 beneficiaries – to deliver mentoring, sports and arts sessions to neurodiverse young people during the school holidays and term-time for the duration of the funding period.
Seacombe – Youth Federation – £24,750 – 300 beneficiaries – To relaunch the boxing club in Seacombe to deliver sessions to young people to improve. physical and mental wellbeing and reduce the risk of engaging in crime and ASB.

Merseyside – 30 projects totalling £500,000 for 11,633 beneficiaries