We are a registered charity and membership organisation based in the London Borough of Camden, supporting 130+ other local charities and CICs in the children and young people's
voluntary sector.
We were established in 2017 in response to
cuts in central funding to local governments, which resulted in a significant reduction in so-called “discretionary services”, which included
youth and play services that many economically and socially
vulnerable children, young people and families were so dependent on. As a result, the voluntary youth and play sector needed a new source of support to ensure its viability and survival.
Our members include organisations whose funding was either entirely or drastically reduced during the budget cuts, and range from very small to large in size, and from decades-old established
community institutions to new,
hyper-local start-ups responding to evolving needs, all of whom work either exclusively or substantially with children and young people in the borough.
We support our members through a variety of initiatives, such as applying for funding on their behalf and disbursing it through smaller grants, partnership brokerage, signposting to
opportunities and resources, sourcing and facilitating original opportunities, arranging
capacity-building training and workshops and advocating on behalf of the sector in our engagement with decision-makers. However, we are a flexible and responsive organisation and we support our members and the children and young people who they work with in any way that we can, based on where the need is greatest and as those different needs emerge.
Our most important and ultimate stakeholders are the children and young people who our members work with, and our aim is to support them in accessing all of the resources and opportunities that they are entitled to, but aren't being provided with in our current system, and our overarching goal is to achieve
lasting systemic change at the policy and legislative level, both locally and nationally, and we will continue to strive for this through our work with our members and through our continuous advocacy efforts.
To find out more about our work, visit our website at
youngcamdenfoundation.org.uk.
