It’s been a year since I took over as CEO at Young Westminster Foundation and what a busy year it’s been.
As the network of Young People’s Foundations across the UK grows, so does our work in Westminster! We have committed to not only build upon our work to date but to continue to seek out funding and opportunities to support new projects and young people locally. This can be seen through the creation of a Young Carers project, the new Level Up Youth Work programme to strengthen youth work across North West London and an increase in the number of grants we have awarded.
Our commitment to listen and respond directly to the needs of those growing up in Westminster also continues with the publication of our third needs analysis report, Our City, Our Future 2023.
Working alongside the YWF community we will be embedding the calls to action from this research over the coming years. I look forward to collaborating with you in making Westminster an even better place to grow up in over the coming year.
Helen Mann
CEO, Young Westminster Foundation
Highlight of the Year 2022/23
In 2022/23 Cllr Hamza Taouzzale became the youngest Lord Mayor of Westminster, and made YWF his Charity of the Year for 2022/23. Having grown up in Church Street, he has been involved with the Foundation since its inception, following serving as the Youth MP for Westminster in 2016 and then undertaking an internship with YWF in 2017.
Throughout the year, we worked closely together to use the platform of the mayoralty to raise the voice of young people from diverse communities across the City of Westminster and champion the role of youth workers. Together we hosted fundraising events for our Brighter Futures Fund to increase investment for youth clubs and projects. We will continue to work with Hamza as our Patron in support of young people and youth workers across our city.
“The Young Westminster Foundation is in its 6th year of supporting Westminster’s great communities and young people; amplifying their potential and the contribution they can make. I am proud, as a Patron, to keep on representing the charity for many years to come.”
-Cllr Hamza Taouzzale
Members
Helping youth clubs and organisations to thrive through funding, training, partnerships, knowledge and research.
How we work with our members
As a membership organisation, we focus on supporting our members to be the best they can be through training, information sharing, advice, networks, research and advocacy.
Our members are local organisations who work passionately to enrich the lives of Westminster’s 54 000+ under 25s. From large youth clubs and local grassroots charities to specialist groups supporting young carers, young people facing homelessness and young people with disabilities. The types of provisions offered by our members include employability, personal development, youth voice, sports, wellbeing, creative arts and more.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT YWF MEMBERS
142
YWF MEMBERS
Amazing youth organisations passionate about supporting young people in Westminster
134
PRACTITIONERS
Have taken part in a training programme funded or part funded by YWF
78,000+
YOUNG PEOPLE AND FAMILIES
Have viewed Our City website to find out about Holiday Activities and Food Programme
Case Study
Member Survey
This spring, we undertook our third annual member survey, asking questions around membership experience and what our members consider to be YWF’s most important role. The survey helped to inform the focus of our work going forward.
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“YWF continues to be a vital source of support for youth sector providers, from grass roots training and development level through to networking and strategic development.”
YWF Member Survey, Youth Club Director
MEMBER SURVEY RESULTS 2023
Case Study
DREAM ARTS
YWF partnered with DreamArts and Westminster City Council to support young carers in Westminster, facilitating both short and long-term provision through our wider funding network.
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YWF identifies service gaps, fosters collaborations, and addresses community needs through commissioned projects. For example, in collaboration with DreamArts, YWF worked to address the needs of young carers within the Early Help System. YWF advocated for the extensive experience held by DreamArts in supporting young carers and partnered with Westminster City Council to fund a crucial “Young Carer Navigator” role to improve multi-agency cooperation and tailored support for young carers and their families.
YWF showcased DreamArts’ impact to wider funding partners, resulting in significant long-term financial support from John Lyon’s Charity, ensuring a sustained positive impact on young carers in Westminster.
“The young carers assessment is a useful and practical tool that draws out what the young person with a caring role really needs and wants. It also provides practitioners with an insight into their worries”
Senior Systemic Family Practitioner
Westminster Early Help Team
Partnerships
We bring together youth organisations, young people, businesses, Westminster City Council, government, schools, funders and the wider community.
How we work with our partners
Since 2017 we have built partnerships with over 200+ organisations in Westminster. We work in collaboration with partners to create opportunities (funding, space, advice, training, project delivery and in-kind donations ) for both members and young people.
Local organisations work together to design and deliver solutions to some of London’s greatest challenges including life plans, health and wellbeing, community and spaces, youth voice and social action through networking events and specialist commissioned programmes.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT YWF PARTNERSHIPS
65
YWF PARTNERS
Have worked with us to provide funding, space, advice, training, project delivery and in-kind donations to the YWF community
72%
OF MEMBERS
Surveyed reported working more collaboratively with members and partners due to YWF support
Case Study
National Gallery
YWF partnered with Westminster’s iconic National Gallery to host a free workshop of immersive art, creativity and community on Trafalgar Square before welcoming 200 members, partners and young people alongside special guest HRH Princess Beatrice to celebrate our fifth anniversary.
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“As a gallery for all, giving young people an opportunity to have their voices heard, both about art and through art, is central to the National Gallery’s mission. I was delighted that we were able to work in partnership with young people from the Young Westminster Foundation as part of our summer festival, Summer on the Square, encouraging other young people to engage with art.”
Karen Eslea
Head of Learning and National Programmes, National Gallery
Case Study
Unfold
YWF have worked with specialist member Unfold to strengthen the specialist partnerships in the borough in support of young refugees and asylum seekers and their families.
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“Unfold had been providing support to young asylum seekers and their families for around a year, and we were aware of the challenges in drawing in support from other organisations with valuable services to offer. With support from Westminster City Council, we were able to partially fund the role of an Outreach and Coordination Officer with a specific responsibility for people seeking asylum in hotels providing temporary accommodation. As part of this, we set up regular monthly coordination meetings, co-developing Terms of Reference with participants from across the YWF membership. This is a space where all organisations with an interest in supporting young asylum seekers and their families can share information about their services and develop a deeper understanding of the context and how to engage. We now have regular participation of around eight organisations, and it’s proved to be a great space for learning and collaboration. As a result, we’ve seen young asylum seekers supported to access sports activities and social and emotional services, with a good number of organisations setting up new strands of services. We’ve had specialists providing briefings on modern slavery, the hostile environment and rights and entitlements of asylum seekers, which has strengthened the capacity of all participants.”
Catherine Mahony,
Unfold, CEO
“We enjoy an excellent relationship with YWF, and we highly value their efforts to support our work. It’s great to have a body looking out for our sector, bridging the gap between us and the council and the borough’s businesses.”
– YWF Member
Funding
Generating long term investment for brighter futures in Westminster
How we distribute funding
In 2022/23 we have given out a total of £1,470,770 in funding to our members. This was through Westminster Brighter Futures grants, Helping Hands grants, the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, Westminster City Council’s Half Term Activity Fund and through commissioned projects to support young carers, young people’s mental health, their employability and transitions into secondary school.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE WESTMINSTER BRIGHTER FUTURES FUND
£1.2m
GRANTS
Given out through the Brighter Futures Fund, Helping Hands and the Holiday Activities and Food Programme
185
PROJECTS
Funded for children and young people across the borough, including arts, sports, employability, health and wellbeing activities
26%
INCREASE
In corporate funds raised for the Brighter Futures Fund from 121k to £157k
Case Study
Lord Mayors Cup
Lord Mayor of Westminster brings local businesses and youth organisations together through football tournament during the World Cup season to raise money for Westminster’s young people.
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The Lord Mayor of Westminster, Cllr Hamza Taouzzale, Young Westminster Foundation (YWF) and ProTouch SA brought together 12 local businesses and 4 community organisations through a football tournament to raise £6,500 for Westminster’s young people. The tournament led to new relationships being made between YWF corporate partners and local youth clubs. YWF is committed to supporting partnerships for sustainability within the youth sector in Westminster.
“We were privileged to be involved and raise money for such a great cause. Something like this that brings businesses closer to the community that we work in is really positive and if we can have fun and get active whilst doing so then that is even better.
Jason Ives
Veolia
“I think football sport is one of the very few areas in life that is able to bring people together… a common ground that we all enjoy and open to all. The tournament has given young people a chance to network with businesses in Westminster.”
Cllr Hamza Taouzalle
Lord Mayor of Westminster 2022-2023
“I am a working single mum and due to cost of living crisis can’t afford to go out with my family to places (seaside, zoo and themeparks). But with this club [YWF Member] we have been able to access daytrips and cultural/learning experiences for the children.“
– Parent, HAF
Top 5 Brighter Futures Funders
In 2022/23, the biggest funders for YWF’s grant-giving have been Westminster City Council, St Giles and St George, Shaftesbury Capital, Eyre Estate, and John Lyon’s Charity.
With thanks to all our partners & funders:
Knowledge
Listening, learning and sharing
How we share knowledge
We work hard to sustain ourselves as a resilient, informed, go-to organisation for local expertise and knowledge. The YWF community seeks to advance borough-wide, and hyper local knowledge of the needs of young people in Westminster through conducting regular research and commissioned projects.
249
YOUNG PEOPLE
Shared their views, experiences and ideas via interviews, focus groups and surveys as part of the Needs Analysis
149+
COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Shared insight locally around Serious Youth Violence as part of Helping Hands community network
80%
OF MEMBERS
Surveyed strongly agree that Westminster’s diverse communities are represented in YWF’s organisation and structures
Case Study
Our City, Our Future 2023
Our City, Our Future 2023/24 is Young Westminster Foundation’s third peer-led needs analysis, covering the issues and experiences of young people growing up in Westminster today. To produce this report, we worked with a trained group of 15 young people as peer researchers, in addition to hearing from youth workers, practitioners and parents/carers through a series of focus groups and surveys, conducted in partnership with Rocket Science with support from the University of Westminster.
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“In Westminster, finding out what challenges and obstacles young people face is as important as understanding which programmes and practices work. The skilful interweaving of diverse voices into the report highlights the foundations from which organisations like ours can build, including the role of families, peer relationships and high-quality but affordable services.
The rigorous approach to engaging seldom-heard voices encourages others in the sector to do the same by showing good practice examples from which we can all draw. For early intervention to work, we all need to hear young people, understand their needs and ensure our decisions remain informed by their lived experiences.”
Dr Brendan King
Impact and Learning Manager, Westminster Foundation
(co-funder of the research)
Case Study
Helping Hands
The Helping Hands Programme is bringing the community together to tackle youth violence in North West Westminster. Following a consultation process in 2021, YWF is working with members and partners to create a community-led initiative built on local insight.
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In 2021, the Young Westminster Foundation undertook a community consultation to assess the impact of youth violence in North West Westminster. This led to the inception of the Helping Hands Programme, focusing on the Mozart, Amberley, and Warwick/Brindley estates, employing a community-led approach through Young People Steering Groups.
The second year will expand to cover the North East, including the Church Street ward. Through a Community Network, the programme develops interventions proposed by community members affected by serious youth violence. A Core Community of 11 practitioners and community members (residents) guides its development.
Youth voice is central, with steering groups and a Youth Leadership Board leading Impact Mapping exercises to identify who is primarily affected by serious violence incidents (e.g., youth clubs, local businesses, schools) and the associated thoughts and feelings about this.
The Helping Hands Community Network and Fund serve as platforms for discussions and grant-making respectively, targeting initiatives addressing food insecurity, sports and physical health, and empowerment for young women. The Windrush Event celebrated the Windrush Generation’s contributions to the community, fostering connections and a sense of safety for attendees.
Marium Uddin
Programme Manager, Serious Youth Violence
What’s Next?
Through continued listening, learning and collaboration with our YWF community we will continue to secure resources, build relationships and maintain quality delivery of programmes for the benefit of young people in Westminster.
WHAT CAN THE YWF COMMUNITY EXPECT FROM US IN THE YEARS AHEAD?
- Facilitate and advocate for the time and space for young people to express and explore their views in meaningful ways and the YWF community to respond with action.
- Ensure service design, funding, training and information sharing responds to specific needs of different communities of young people. Advocate for more person-centred, targeted approaches to reflect the diversity of experience amongst Westminster’s young people.
- Better engage with and support the wider networks around young people including parents/carers and schools and continue to sustain the collaborations and joined up system between voluntary and statutory services in Westminster, to enable us to best address the needs of young people.
- Ensure access to opportunities and services is affordable and accessible for all communities throughout the year.
- Strengthen the fantastic grassroots youth organisations we have in Northwest London to better address the issues young people are facing, through investment towards a workforce of skilled, appreciated and supported staff and volunteers.
- Continue to promote and advocate for the life changing power of youth services.
Financial Summary
Summarised Income & Expenditure
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | |
| Income (£) | 321,029 | 657,234 | 1,446,949 | 1,572,103 | 2,139,530 |
| Expenditure (£) | 341,903 | 706,274 | 1,362,610 | 1,415,310 | 1,996,377 |
| TOTAL FUNDS (£) | 161,071 | 112,031 | 196,370 | 353,163 | 143,153 |
Thank You from Brian
All that we do, and the positive impact we aim to bring to the lives of Westminster’s young people, is made possible by a unique collaboration of individuals and organisations from across the Young Westminster community.
Thank you to our members, partners and funders who help grow and sustain the fantastic offer of projects and programmes for under 25’s in the borough. And most importantly this year, thank you to our peer researchers and all the young people who shared their views to help shape the future of services in our city.
BRIAN BICKELL
CHAIR OF TRUSTEES, YOUNG WESTMINSTER FOUNDATION
