Support innovative network wide projects

Our work doesn’t end once a Youth Zone opens, in fact it only just begins.

A Youth Zone is its own independent charity, each one is unique to their local community. They deliver amazing experiences for young people through excellent youth work, responding to their members’ needs.

OnSide is the glue across the Network. We facilitate the sharing of knowledge to ensure that each Youth Zones’ experience of youth work, leadership, safeguarding, fundraising…in fact any function within the centre, informs others. We run the Talent Academy, our flagship training programme designed and delivered with Youth Zone colleagues to ensure staff become the best that they can be.

We coordinate the delivery of new projects across multiple Youth Zones. These ‘Network Projects’ create value by trialling new ideas and scaling the excellence already seen across the Network for over 50,000 young people. Effective Network Projects maximise impact by bringing a shared sense of purpose and new opportunities to drive excellence in youth work and by putting young people first.

Current projects that need support

With the help of national funders, over the last five years many thousands of young people, staff and volunteers across Youth Zones have collaborated to enhance mental health and wellbeing, mentoring, digital skills, financial literacy, careers and enterprise, sport and activity, Youth Voice, and citizenship – to name a few.

One current project we are all really passionate about is Youth Participation and Inclusion. This is about giving all young people a greater voice in the matters important to them, both within their Youth Zone and in society at large. Other priorities for which we’re seeking support include:

• Commit to Fit: Embedding a strong culture and commitment to physical, mental and nutritional health for over 50,000 young people in 14 Youth Zones.
• Employability: Get a job, our flagship employability programme, which builds skills that enable each young person to make their best journey towards a happy and fulling life.
• Training and development: The Talent Academy provides training and development opportunities for colleagues from across the Network, recognising and developing outstanding performers.