Comic Relief and Youth Endowment Fund join forces to keep children safe from violence

17th March 2020

Comic Relief and Youth Endowment Fund have launched a new £6m joint funding programme to support organisations working to prevent youth offending.

As more and more young people call for urgent action to address rising knife crime, together with Comic Relief, the Youth Endowment Fund aims to help tackle the problem.

The two charities will co-design the new funding programme, with input from young people affected by youth violence and those individuals and organisations with experience of preventing it. Further details of the programme will be announced later in the year.

Comic Relief becomes the Youth Endowment Fund’s first official partner since it was established last year with a ten-year, £200m endowment from the Home Office. To date, the independent charitable trust has awarded 23 projects, working with 36,000 children across England and Wales, a total of £17.1m.

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Jon Yates, Executive Director of the Youth Endowment Fund, said: “No child or young person should grow up in fear of violence. Fortunately, there are many brilliant organisations working to prevent youth offending and make their communities a safer place. We are committed to building great partnerships that can make a lasting difference to young people’s lives and I am delighted that this will be the first partnership of many.”

Ruth Davison, Interim Chief Executive at Comic Relief, said: “I am so excited to announce this fantastic £6m partnership with the Youth Endowment Fund.  Together we will fund programmes that steer young people away from crime and help build key information on youth crime prevention.”