Sovereign #iwill Fund grant recipients
The Sovereign #iwill Fund has now given over £185,000 in grants for youth social action over two rounds of funding.
Successful projects for both rounds of funding were chosen in partnership with our Youth Panel, made up of 18-25-year-old Sovereign residents.
Youth panel member, Emily said “The Sovereign #iWill Fund scoring day was a brilliant opportunity to get involved and support on awarding youth social projects funding. I felt empowered by having my own voice and opinion heard, which will go on to encourage youth to have their own say about other potential social youth action in Sovereign communities via #iWill funded projects."
#iwill Fund grants - second round
Nine more youth-focused organisations working in Sovereign Housing communities have received a share of more than £86,000 thanks to funding from the Sovereign #iwill Fund.
In February this year, we invited applications for the second round of the Sovereign #iwill Fund. We received 33 applications from organisations delivering projects which offer new opportunities for young people aged 10-20-years-old to get involved in youth social action.
Read more about each of the second round's winning projects
Intergenerational Music Making’s (IMM) Youth Social Action Project received £10,000 funding.
IMM aims to build bridges across generations, sectors and amongst professionals to create stronger, more cohesive communities. Their Youth Social Action Project supported 9 young people aged 10-18 years-old across Basingstoke and Plymouth who planned, delivered and evaluated 2 youth-led intergenerational social action projects and became IMM Youth Innovators.
As IMM Youth Innovators, young people completed a programme enhancing their creative, interpersonal and planning skills and went on to design and deliver creative workshops for the older generation in local care homes, positively impacting their local community through intergenerational practice. The young people taking part used music to explore how they could use this to express their emotions and help others, going on to perform for residents of local care homes.
Spotlight UK’s Youth Social Action Project received £3,773.70.
Spotlight UK used their grant to support 16 young people aged 10-18 years-old from schools across Reading, Southampton, Newbury, Andover and Basingstoke to get involved in fundraising, campaigning and volunteering through the project.
Spotlight UK believes it is important for young people to have a say in their future and that this project helped to boost confidence and self-esteem, build friendships, develop resilience and help develop team working and problem-solving skills.
Transition Chipping Norton’s Youth4Future Project received £10,000.
Transition Chipping Norton used their grant to support 87 young people aged 10-17 years-old in Chipping Norton to campaign to improve community facilities across the town, which was installed locally, while learning key skills such as cooking, communication and how to make a variety of creative media to get thoughts and feelings across.
The project has helped the town to achieve greater social cohesion by facilitating friendships across age and social groups, including establishing a communication pathway between the town council and young people so they can have a say in their community and be empowered to make changes.
Recreate Dorset's Social Action Programme for young people with learning differences received £10,000.
Recreate Dorset used their grant to support 41 young people aged 10-20 years-old with opportunities to develop their creative and communication skills. They did this through developing a collaborative creative project for the local annual arts festival.
The young people were able to design their project and lead on its delivery, learn new skills such as stop-motion animation, how to use design software and how to collect evaluation data as well as being able to volunteer at the festival and gather feedback from the public attending.
Didcot TRAIN’s Youth Empowerment Project received £9,960.85.
Didcot TRAIN used their grant to support 44 young people aged 10-20 years old in South Oxfordshire to run and develop their charity. The young people were involved in designing and running events at their premises The Base, as well as other community projects.
The project also enabled the launch of the Base Council, which is a youth council of 8 members who have influential decision-making capabilities at all organisational levels. Monthly meetings have been held since launch in June 2023, enabling young people to have an influence in the design and layout of their space and play a crucial role in supporting the recent recruitment of their CEO, contributing to both staff and youth panel interviews.
Youth Challenge Oxfordshire’s (YoCO) Abingdon Music Event Project received £10,000.
YoCO used their grant to support 31 young people aged 13-18 years-old from Oxfordshire to produce their own music, as well as plan and host a music event for their community.
The project idea was developed by the young people in the YoCO Abingdon group, who learned a variety of skills in event management and communication, as well as creative skills when producing their own music, while continuously growing their confidence.
Revive Newport’s Newport Youth Café, Impact Group and Detached Youth Work received £10,000.
Revive Newport used their grant to run a drop-in youth café two nights a week for 168 young people aged 13-19 years-old on the Isle of Wight, where they were able to enhance their social skills, improved their sense of self-worth and understanding, and improved their educational standards and employability.
Revive Newport also engaged 6 young people in their Impact group, which was a social action focused group giving young people the opportunity to discuss issues in their community and what steps they can take to resolve them, before going on to lead on planning and taking part in community projects of their choice.
Revive Newport also completed local detached work at least twice a week where they worked closely with the local police to target anti-social behaviour ‘hotspots’ and start discussions in these areas while providing support and direction for those they encountered.
Plymouth Sports Charity’s A Sporting Chance Project received £9,880.
Plymouth Sports Charity used their grant to provide 63 young people aged 12-14 years-old in Plymouth the opportunity to create, manage and develop a free sports programme and sports festival delivered to primary school children.
The young people were taught about a variety of topics they put into practice such as teamwork, cooking nutritious meals and mentoring others. Some young people were also able to achieve a recognised sports coaching qualification themselves.
Imayla’s Nature Well and Wildly Different Project received £8,319.13.
Imayla used their grant to deliver a programme to 26 young people aged 12-16 years-old in Bristol which consisted of ‘Nature Well’ ecotherapy sessions followed by youth-led social action planning and delivery sessions.
Imayla facilitated the space for young people to cultivate a deeper connection to nature, develop their skills around emotional literacy and help them find ways to relax.
#iwill Fund grants - first round
A total of 34 youth-focused community groups and charities applied for the first round of Sovereign #iwill Fund grants. In September 2022, 12 projects were awarded a share of just under £100,000.
Panel member Emily, said: “I'm proud to be part of the #iwill Fund allocation process. This funding will make such an impactful difference that truly counts towards improving lives of young people all over south England and empower people to get involved with youth social action opportunities”.
Find out about the funded projects
Watch the video below to find out how the grant awarded to Koala Community Group will help young people to have new experiences and challenge themselves by getting out of their comfort zone, increasing their confidence, skills, and friendships.
Download a copy of the Koala Community Hub video transcript 
Watch the video below to find out how Solent Youth Action will use the grant to support young people to develop an outdoor kitchen at their new skills centre, The Routes.
Download a copy of the Solent Youth Action video transcript
Read more about each of the first round's winning projects
Solent Youth Action’s Skills Centre Development project received £8,412.
Solent Youth Action used their grant to support young people develop an outdoor kitchen at their new skills centre, The Routes. 35 young volunteers aged between 10-20-years-old designed, planned, fundraised and built the space, which will benefit hundreds of people over the coming years.
The centre is entirely run by young people, who volunteer their time whilst gaining practical skills in carpentry and using power tools, as well as horticulture, planning, teamwork, admin, youth work and landscape design.
Mayfield Nurseries’ Change Champions project received £9,144.49.
Mayfield Nurseries used the grant to engage around 22 young people aged 10-20 in their Change Champions project, particularly those who were struggling to engage in formal education or were facing life barriers in relation to mental health, poverty and housing.
The young people learnt about horticulture, sustainability, environmental issues and mental health and were able to plan and lead a series of events to engage others in the community in understanding more about nature, the environment and sustainability.
Shine Pinehurst’s Wonky Pizza Project received £10,000.
Shine Pinehurst used their grant to support 46 young people aged 11-15 set up and run a pizza oven in the heart of communities across Swindon. The young people led the project and were in charge of choosing locations, days, times, the menu, advertising and making and delivering the pizzas.
The young people completed training in food hygiene, health and safety, food preparation, allergen training and in how to use the pizza oven to equip them with transferable skills for life.
Youthline’s Young Ambassador Scheme received £2,300.
Youthline used their grant to set up their ‘Young Ambassador Scheme’ for 9 young people aged 14-18 from across Bracknell Forest.
The project gave the Young Ambassadors the skills, knowledge and confidence to act as peer mentors through training sessions and increase awareness of healthy lifestyles, present in educational settings, fundraise and promote good health across the community.
Clean our Patch’s Litter Picking in Schools Project received £10,000.
Clean our Patch used the grant to extend their schools programmes to 12 new schools across Plymouth, engaging 1272 young people aged 10-20 in litter picking training and activities.
Clean our Patch delivered workshops in schools to upskill young people to then lead on developing litter picking initiatives across the city, with the aim for young people to learn how to plan and run events, work together as a team, interact with members of the public and instil a passion for caring about communities and the environment.
Berkshire Youth’s Social Action Project received £9,815.86.
Berkshire Youth used their grant to give 39 young people aged 10-15 new opportunities to be involved in and lead social action activities.
With three entry levels of the project, young people were able to decide what level of involvement suits them best and were supported to develop skills and competencies, as well as given opportunities to complete accredited training including Youth Achievement Awards and Level 1 Youth Leadership Qualifications.
Koala Community Hub’s Neurodivergent Youth Social Action Project received £9,752.32.
Koala Community Hub used their grant to give 45 young people aged 10-20 empowering opportunities to lead, have a voice in their community and feel safe, by encouraging them into a variety of youth-led social action projects.
Young people were able to have new experiences and challenge themselves by getting out of their comfort zone while increasing their confidence, skills and friendships.
Cianna’s Smile’s Youth Advocacy Programme received £7,950.
Cianna’s Smile used their grant to engage 34 young people aged 10-18 in a variety of training opportunities to educate, empower and support them to make a positive difference for themselves and/or their peers that face life challenges because of Sickle Cell disease. The young people made choices on how to develop campaigns for Sickle Cell, learnt transferable skills and received real-life experience in campaigning and thinking about social change.
Reverse The Trend Foundation’s Youth Mental Health Project received £10,000.
Reverse The Trend used their grant to engage 110 young people aged 10-14 to campaign for schools in Bristol to add mental health learning and resources to the curriculum. The young people received training on youth social action, confidence-building, presentation skills, media skills and how to get their voices heard.
Reverse The Trend targeted young people from less affluent areas to increase community awareness about mental health, create dialogue about how feelings happen and equip them with the skills to improve their mental health.
JIGSAW Thornbury’s Young Volunteer Scheme received £10,000.
JIGSAW Thornbury used their grant to set up two groups for young people: a young volunteers scheme for 20 young people aged 10-14 and a youth club for 10 young people aged 10-25. The young volunteers scheme enabled young people to build their skills and confidence while giving something back to their community through leading six campaigns and fundraising events.
The youth club, was run in partnership with Krunch South West as an informal service to help young people develop a different set of social skills and independence and members were supported to become youth leaders and get involved with the young volunteers scheme in different ways.
Abingdon DAMASCUS Youth Project’s Intergenerational Youth Social Action Project received £10,000.
Abingdon DAMASCUS Youth Project used their grant to support 55 young people aged 10-20 into leading intergenerational community events. Young people aged 10-13 led on the events with older young leaders aged 14-20 supporting them. Young people were given opportunities to achieve accredited AQA courses and were supported to develop their skills and confidence.
Find out more information on Abingdon DAMASCUS Youth Project .
YES! Brixham’s Christmas Grotto project received £1,835.
YES! Brixham used their grant to support five young people aged 14-20 to lead on their annual, youth-run Christmas Grotto in December 2022, which was available to anyone and offered children the chance to see Santa and receive a present.
The young people led on organisation, building and delivering the event, helped with fundraising and actively engaged with the community.
Find out where the funded projects are located
