Totley Scouts receive Youth Investment Fund Refurbishment Grant

Wonderful news for young people in Totley this month! Our Scout group has been awarded a Youth Investment Fund Refurbishment Grant to renovate our Scout Hut, supporting our youth service. You can follow our refurbishment progress on https://www.215thtotleyscouts.co.uk/hutrenovations

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Social Investment Business have announced that our service is one of 140 youth projects across England to be awarded a Youth Investment Fund grant to create new opportunities for young people.

The funding will enable youth services like ours to transform health, wellbeing, skills, and opportunities for young people. It is a ground-breaking opportunity to prioritise the needs of young people and for youth services to develop and deliver the life-changing services they need and to create a more equal society for future generations. Our Youth Investment Fund Refurbishment Grant of nearly £100k will give us the funds to do a number of the bigger tasks that really need to be done - including fitting a complete new kitchen, re-roofing the whole building and fitting a new heating system.

Our local councillors have in addition supported us hugely by granting us £4k CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) funding to make much needed improvements to our drainage to support the refurbishment work.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: “I want to see every young person have someone to talk to, something to do, and somewhere to go outside of the classroom, no matter where they are from, to help maximise their potential in life. This next round of funding from the Youth Investment Fund will help nearly 20,000 more young people achieve this goal.”

Nick Temple, CEO for Social Investment Business, that leads the delivery partnership said:

“The Youth Investment Fund is transforming the youth service landscape right across the country, enabling youth centres of all shapes and sizes to enhance their services and reach more young people.”

“The Youth Investment Fund is truly unlocking potential and creating a legacy for future generations of young people in communities like this across the country.” 

Welcoming the Youth Investment Fund Refurbishment Grant, Sue Bridgens, Group Scout Leader, said “This is amazing news for our group, and will make such a huge impact on the group and young people. A huge thank you to the amazing members of our Group Executive Committee who have worked so hard to secure this grant for us. We can’t wait for the work to begin.”

The Youth Investment Fund forms part of the Government’s ‘National Youth Guarantee’ to ensure every young person across England will have access to regular out of school activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. The Youth Investment Fund, of over £300 million, is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and delivered by Social Investment Business in partnership with National Youth Agency, Resonance, and the Key Fund.

The Youth Investment Fund has been developed to create, expand, and improve local youth facilities and their services in the out of school youth sector, to drive positive outcomes for young people, including improved mental and physical wellbeing, and skills for life and work.

Once completed the Youth Investment Fund will fund the building or renovation of 300 youth services and will increase the number of regular positive activities undertaken by young people in the targeted areas by 45,000 per year, by 2026/27. You can learn more about the fund by visiting: www.youthinvestmentfund.org.uk

Our Scout Group would like to thank everyone who has supported us in getting to this stage by helping with fundraising and renovating our hut so far. Many thanks go to Sheffield Councillor Smith who supported us with a vital amendment to our lease. We look forward to everyone’s continued support as we get this work done for the future of the hut and the Group. Finally, we’d like to say a huge thank you to Helen Armstrong, who was our Chair when we put in the bid, and who has remained on the committee to project manage the work being done with this grant.