A £3.6m match-fund scheme for care leavers is launching today (18 April). It is funded by the Local Authorities’ Mutual Investment Trust (LAMIT), a shareholder of CCLA.
The three-year Care Leavers Programme aims to improve the life chances of care leavers through decentralised funding into regions around the country.
The programme is being led and managed by UK Community Foundations (UKCF), the national membership organisation for accredited community foundations, and is supported by the Local Government Association (LGA).
Seventeen community foundations have been awarded funds which they will match with donations. They will work alongside their local authorities as delivery partners to manage programmes in support of care leavers.
The aim is to provide practical and holistic support to care leavers in the first instance, while enabling community foundations to identify funding gaps in each region and collaborate with local organisations and authorities to capitalise on their skills and knowledge.
Ultimately, the programme aims to facilitate a long-lasting, coherent plan of impact for care leavers that can be built on over time, according to the organisations involved.
Types of support include giving guidance for care leavers experiencing homelessness in the West Midlands; providing positive practical experiences for young care leavers in Cambridgeshire; offering one-to-one personal and professional work-based mentoring in Cumbria; helping parent care leavers and migrant care leavers in Essex; and direct financial support for individual care leavers to help with education, training or employment in Surrey.
Richard Kemp CBE, Deputy Lord Mayor of Liverpool and chair of LAMIT, said: “We are delighted with the response from local community foundations and their partner local authorities to this funding to provide good experiences and support to young people who too often have had too many bad experiences.
“Not only will we help a good number of young people with the £1.2m a year fund that we have created with UK Community Foundations, but we will also be taking the opportunity to try and engage new partners at both a national level.”
Shaun Davies, chair of the LGA, commented: “Councils support thousands of young people who become care leavers every year whether that is finding a home to live in or help into work.
“Alongside our communities, the LGA is delighted to be able to support this fantastic new initiative which can help to transform care leavers’ lives as they make the transition into adulthood.”
Rosemary Macdonald BEM, chief executive at UK Community Foundations, said: “Inequalities for care leavers differ from region to region, and it is key that we harness the knowledge of local organisations to not just fund fantastic projects for young people leaving the care system, but to nurture those relationships and keep the momentum going to make real change happen.
“We hope to use this programme as a way of uniting communities and authorities, to explore local solutions to local issues and use the learning to influence wider support for care leavers.”
The Care Leaver Programme is being officially launched today in London at an event hosted by CCLA and the UKCF.
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