Commissioner launches youth fund

Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has launched a youth fund aimed at engaging young people in positive activities.

The aim of the Youth Fund, which totals £40,000, is to engage young people in positive activities in their community in line with the Commissioner’s pledge to ‘support work with young people to divert them away from a life of crime’.   Charities and community groups are invited to bid for grants of up to £2,000 through the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation. The projects must be related to activities that have the potential to reduce youth crime, linked to the Commissioner’s pledge to continue to tackle crime and disorder.

Sir Graham said: “When I visited the Inspirations Studio in Peterborough last year I said that I’d like to see similar projects that concentrate on providing young people with positive activities and help keep them on the right track. The squeeze on public service finances means that community groups can be left without the financial means to deliver preventative youth activities. My fund is all about freeing up some money that can be used to support these kinds of activities.”

Cambridgeshire Community Foundation (CCF), which will administer the fund on behalf of the Commissioner, is a local grant making charity that administers grants on behalf of other organisations, companies, families and individuals.  CCF raises awareness about the grant funding on offer and manages all the administration over the grant applications, supporting applicants where required. CCF assesses applications to ensure they are consistent with their charitable purpose, before a Grant Panel makes the final decision on awards. The application process is simple and online. Successful grant recipients will need to track the impact of their work, but help and advice on how to do that is available.

The Commissioner’s Fund is paid for by Police Property Act monies.

To find out more about applying for a grant visit the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation website