Funding w/Youth

Putting Power Where It Belongs

For too long, funding decisions about children and young people’s lives have been made for them, not with them. We all know that means programmes that miss real need, certain voices left unheard, opportunities missed, and an erosion of trust that’s hard to rebuild.

Funding w/Youth offers a practical, scalable way to change that, because young people are experts in their own lives, and funding works better when power is shared with them.

What is Funding w/Youth?

Funding w/Youth is a flexible grant making and commissioning support model that helps organisations anywhere in the UK involve young people directly and confidently in funding processes.

Whether you are a local authority/public body with participatory ambitions, a businesses with a foundation who want to be at the frontline of giving, a small-team trust or foundations looking to maximise capacity and impact, or a philanthropist ready to do things a little differently, we can support you with:

Advice:

• Training for you/your team on involving young people in fund design and delivery
• Advice on a specific fund or idea you have and how to involve young people in its delivery

Co-Delivery:

• Co-design with young people
• Youth recruitment, training & facilitation in collaboration with local partners across England
• Youth-led decision-making (going beyond youth panels)

Partnerships:

• Fund administration and due diligence
• Monitoring, evaluation & young evaluators
• Fiscal hosting
• Communications, case studies & impact reporting

Whether you’re looking for one-off advice or full end‑to‑end delivery, we help you shift from consultation to shared power in a way that’s credible, safe, inclusive and place‑sensitive.

Proven in Practice

Young Manchester has a strong history of meaningfully involving young people in fund design and delivery. Across 20+ funds and £14 million distributed, young people have shaped priorities, reviewed applications, cast votes, evaluated impact, and led whole programmes that reflect what matters most in their communities. Our work has been recognised in GMCA's Participation Playbook, and you can read our report on a selection of our more recent youth-led funds.

We have seen this approach enable and embed real change across communities, but also through the organisations and funders bold enough to try it out, including:

• Youth-owned projects to emerge that respond to real, local need
• Participatory budgeting approaches where young people vote on community priorities
• Safety, wellbeing and inclusion programmes shaped directly by those most affected
• Disabled, Deaf and neurodivergent young people designing accessible, relevant funding criteria

These are lessons we’ve learned in Manchester, but they’re applicable to any place, any partnership, and any funder that wants to build trust, legitimacy and impact.

The Second Best Time is Now

Whilst the best time to meaningfully involve young people in the funding decisions that affect their lives was many moons ago, the second best time is now. With the new National Youth Strategy, Schools White Paper and the government’s Pride in Place mission - community partnerships, investment in local needs, and ensuring people feel connected to where they live, study and work are all present - it’s about enabling local voices to shape local futures.

Youth-led funding is a direct, practical route to making this real.

Wherever you are, involving young people in funding decisions:

• Builds local pride by resourcing the ideas and leadership of young residents
• Strengthens trust between institutions and communities
• Ensures investment reflects what really matters in a place
• Helps young people feel ownership, belonging and agency

Funding w/Youth offers a structured, evidence‑based way to deliver community empowerment - with young people as civic leaders in their own communities.

An Invitation to Any Place-Based Funder

If you’re exploring participatory approaches, want your investments to genuinely reflect local voices and if you’re ready to do things a little differently but want support that’s safe, robust and grounded in lived experience - we’d love to work with you.

You can get in touch with Megan, our Grants Manager, at m.powell@youngmanchester.org or visit www.youngmanchester.org.

Here’s to a future where young people don’t just shape their communities - they lead them.