Over the last five years, we have created the Young Westminster Foundation. We are part of the growing network of Young People’s Foundations providing a fresh approach to supporting young people locally.
We responded to the urgent needs of rebuilding the sector, forming partnerships, and bringing in funding. Since 2017, the YWF community has grown roots with over 200 organisations, from youth clubs to businesses, and we have distributed over £2 million to local projects. Our work continues to respond directly to the needs of those growing up in Westminster, and we have consulted with more than 1,000 local young people to find out which issues matter most.
To help young lives thrive, we believe in the value of high quality youth work and the need for long-term investment for youth clubs and children’s charities. We will continue to sustain and celebrate the wonderful offering of projects and services that allow young people to shine.
I am excited to be the new CEO for YWF, and to lead the Foundation and our fantastic team forward.
Helen Mann
CEO, Young Westminster Foundation
We believe that all young people in Westminster should grow up healthy, safe & happy with the best opportunities for brighter futures.
WATCH THE ‘ROOTS OF OUR COMMUNITY’ FILM
Our Commitment
Young Westminster Foundation pledges an ongoing commitment to all members, partners and young people, for the next five years and beyond:
- We are a consistent SUPPORTER, friend and funder for all YWF Members
- We are an ambitious and knowledgable COLLABORATOR for Westminster City Council, businesses and wider partners
- We are an active LISTENER for local young people and youth workers, responding to emerging needs
- We are an engaged AMPLIFIER who works with those in power to advocate for local issues
- We are a driven FUNDRAISER for investment in life-changing opportunities for young people and brighter futures
“Young Westminster Foundation has a crucial role in improving the lives of local young people.”
Councillor Hamza Taouzzale
Previous Lord Mayor of Westminster 2022/23 & YWF Patron
Members
Helping youth clubs and organisations to thrive
What have we achieved?
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.
YWF Members are local organisations who work passionately to enrich the lives of Westminster’s 70,000+ young people. These range from large youth clubs to local grassroots charities, to specialist groups supporting young carers, young people facing homelessness and young people with disabilities.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT YWF MEMBERS
142
YWF MEMBERS
who are amazing youth organisations passionate about supporting young people in Westminster.
600+
OPPORTUNITIES
for youth workers to participate in workforce development, training and networking events with YWF.
2,000+
YOUNG PEOPLE
have signed up to take part in free activities run by YWF Members via the Our City website.
View YWF Members Map in a full screen map
Mapping YWF Members
Here you can find a breakdown of current youth organisations in our membership, based on the categories of service they provide for children and young people. The interactive map also shows the locations of physical delivery taking place in Westminster (as of September 2022).
Case Study
Caxton Youth Organisation
Caxton Youth Organisation offers services and facilities for young people with disabilities, including running a fun, safe and educational club space in Pimlico.
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“We’ve been a member of YWF since 2017. Through their creation of a supportive network of youth organisations, we’ve been able to connect with other local charities and offer training to amplify our message and ensure Westminster is a more inclusive borough in which to grow up for young people with disabilities.
YWF has helped us build our capacity in terms of networking, comms, training and partnerships, but also in terms of our own resources. It’s great to have a relationship with a funder who understands our work, rather than just being words on a funding application, and supports us in developing new relationships with other funders, such as Westminster City Council, which resulted in additional funding for us.”
Rose Swainston
CEO, Caxton Youth Organisation
“It takes a village to raise a child.”
Partnerships
Fostering a community who care about Westminster’s young people
What have we achieved?
We bring together youth organisations, young people, businesses, Westminster City Council, government, schools, funders and the wider community.
We work in collaboration with partners to create opportunities for both members and young people. Local organisations working together to design and deliver solutions to some of London’s greatest challenges including serious youth violence, emotional health and wellbeing, employment and education through networking events and programmes such as Mastering My Future.
BUSINESS PARTNER CASE STUDIES
75+
PARTNERS
who work with us and our local community, including skill-sharing around themes including diversity & inclusion, workplace wellbeing and future green jobs.
600+
YOUNG PEOPLE
have participated in the Mastering My Future programme, created with 2-3 Degrees, Westminster Befriend A Family & Inspire!.
65%
OF YWF MEMBERS
reported that brokering partnerships and collaboration between members is our most valued service.
Case Study
Local Strategic Collaboration
We have worked closely with Westminster City Council to develop a cross-borough strategy for youth services, bringing together five key youth clubs, three council-run Family Hubs, additional statutory children’s services and specialist providers for knowledge-sharing and local leadership.
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The Westminster Youth Hubs comprise five key youth clubs located across the borough. These are: The Avenues Youth Project, The Feathers Association, and St Andrew’s Club, alongside Churchill Gardens Youth Club and Amberley Youth Project (run by Future Men).
In addition to this, there are three Family Hubs: Bessborough Family Hub, Church Street Children’s Centre and Queen’s Park Children’s Centre.
“In Westminster, the Young Westminster Foundation has become an integral part of the local Early Help system and created the framework for youth provision in Youth and Family Hubs. We believe this is a model that can be replicated across the country. YWF, Early Help and Family Hubs place emphasis on collaboration through partnerships and a shared aim of improving the life outcomes of children and young people.
Through this model, young people and families will have access to a varied range of appropriate support/opportunities in the community, have better transitions to adulthood, understand better what is on offer by organisations in the borough and lead healthy lifestyles. ”
Jayne Vertkin
Former Head of Early Help, Westminster City Council & YWF Trustee
“Facilitating a whole systems approach to supporting children, young people and families”
Case Study
Total Media
Total Media are a global behavioural planning and media buying agency. Through their commitment to working with the Westminster community, they have impacted all areas of our work, and our partnership won Best Charitable Social Responsibility Initiative at the UK Company Culture Awards 2022.
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YWF has been the chosen charity partner for Total Media’s Outreach programme since 2018. Alongside regular fundraising initiatives and training opportunities for YWF Members, our award-winning partnership has directly influenced our work and its impact in the borough.
In February 2020, we worked with them to run an art auction under the Westminster Art Collective, raising £19,000 for the YWF community, which helped establish a new local outreach programme to introduce young people to youth clubs and services.
Total Media were a key partner for our We Are Together Campaign, which collaborated with street artist STIK on work for the Piccadilly Lights. This won Best Collaborative Campaign During Covid-19 at the Drum Out Of Home Awards.
Their Behave team co-created our consultation process using a behavioural science approach to asses the impact of serious youth violence. This culminated in a report which has shaped our ongoing Helping Hands Programme.
Total Media also secured £10,000 of free advertising space on Sky’s On Demand platform to promote the Our City website and help connect families with free projects in summer 2021.
“Our partnership with YWF continues to grow stronger and I can’t wait to see where the next few months and years take us. I’m proud to work for a company with such strong values and a sense of community.”
Lemeece Page-Shepherd
Business Director, Total Media
Case Study
Mastering My Future
The Mastering My Future youth employability programme is led by 2-3 Degrees, in partnership with Inspire! and Westminster Befriend A Family. It works with businesses to offer insight days, work experience and mentors for young people in Westminster.
READ MORE
“When Mastering My Future started, we realised that we needed to give young people tangible outcomes as part of this programme. YWF connected us to partners with distinct expertise to deliver the programme. Westminster Befriend a Family and Inspire! who offer mentoring and work experience respectively.
Without these partners, Mastering My Future would not be able to offer young people as many life-changing opportunities. Partnership working is a core strength of the programme, enabling young people to benefit from holistic support for their personal and professional development and gain access to a range of specialist employment opportunities and work experiences.”
Oyin Olaoshun
Programme Manager, 2-3 Degrees
With thanks to all our partners & funders:
Funding
Generating long term investment for brighter futures
What have we achieved?
Over five years, we’ve made over £2 million available to YWF Members, through our annual Brighter Futures Fund in partnership with Westminster City Council and local business partners, and through targeted programmes and wider giving.
Continued investment is required to keep youth clubs open, and programmes thriving, in particular around our three key themes of youth employability, serious youth violence and mental health & wellbeing.
£2.1 million
GIVEN OUT SINCE 2017
including through our Brighter Futures Fund and project grants for holidays, supplementary schools and other locality-focused programmes.
214
GRANTS
have been given out in total over the past five years to YWF Members and their projects.
115
HOLIDAY PROJECTS
have been supported by the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme alongside wider funding from Westminster City Council.
Top Brighter Futures Funders
In our first five years, the biggest funders for YWF’s grant-giving have been Westminster City Council (£430k), The Mercers’ Company (£110k), Shaftesbury Capital (£75k), St Giles & St George (£55k), and Landsec (£54k).
Case Study
Westbourne Park Family Centre
Westbourne Park Family Centre run activities that support and strengthen local families in North Westminster. Their Skills For Life project has been supported by the Westminster Brighter Futures Fund.
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“The Westminster Brighter Futures Fund has provided a stable base of funding over the last two years for our Skills For Life project to grow. In September, we now have plans to split into two age groups as numbers have doubled.
The Brighter Futures Fund gives a much needed boost to youth provision in Westminster at a critical time for young people post-pandemic. The fund has given us the financial confidence and support to employe a new youth worker and manager to build capacity for growth to meet the increased needs for young people in North Westminster.”
Geoff Biggs
Director, Westbourne Park Family Centre
“Young Westminster Foundation is the vehicle I had been looking for to support young people locally.”
Brian Bickell
CEO, Shaftesbury PLC & YWF Chair of Trustees
Knowledge
Listening, learning and sharing
What have we achieved?
Young people inform our work, through peer research: A City Within A City (2018) and Our City, Our Future (2021) which highlighted the huge worries that exist for Westminster’s young people around their mental health, body image, housing, staying safe, exam pressure and future employability. Westminster’s neighbourhoods have some of the highest child poverty rates in London, with one in three growing up in poverty.
We have enhanced specialist knowledge of our team around youth work, youth voice and digital engagement, environmental and cultural competency.
60
YOUNG AMBASSADORS
have been informing our work since 2017, learning new skills, amplifying the voices of local young people.
1,000+
YOUNG PEOPLE
participated in peer research and consultation to shape the future of their community.
73%
OF YWF MEMBERS
reported that encouraging youth voice is our most important role.
Case Study
Our City, Our Future
To produce this report, we worked with a trained group of 10 young people as peer researchers, in addition to hearing from youth workers and practitioners through a series of online focus groups, conducted in partnership with Rocket Science, Partnership for Young London and King’s College London’s MSC in Public Policy & Management Programme.
READ MORE
“We must properly understand young people’s needs if communities are to thrive again after the pandemic. That requires listening, learning and in some instances changing the approach to youth services.
This excellent report by the Young Westminster Foundation not only highlights the topics where support is most needed but proves that young people actively want to be part of the decision-making and solutions. They have powerful opinions formed through personal experiences. It’s important we listen to them.”
The Duke of Westminster
Chair, 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.
READ MORE
“Serious youth violence is often defined as violence relating to incidents involving weapons and/or incidents causing serious injury. For us, we look at violence as an issue which impacts our young people, our community and wider society. As our new film brings to life, it is also an issue which can be prevented through community cohesions and targeted youth work.
That is why we are developing the Helping Hands Programme. Our ethos revolves around creating interventions that are led by the voices of young people and community members who have been directly and indirectly affected by youth violence.
Working in collaboration with local youth clubs and key partners, the programme will give communities ownership over creating innovative opportunities for the borough, building on the valuable work already being done to keep young people safe.”
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?
- Annual Brighter Futures Fund – ambition for this fund to exceed £500,000 in 2023
- Annual HAF & Supplementary School funding
- Annual needs analysis & ongoing consultation with young people and youth workers
- Quarterly Youth Worker Forum, cluster calls and needs-led training
- Quarterly networking event/webinar for business partners
- Monthly workshop and opportunities for our Young Ambassadors
- Monthly newsletter with funding, insight and partnership opportunities
- Regular engagement with Westminster City Council and our wider partners
- Regularly identify & respond to emerging needs such as cost of living
- Ongoing commitment to developing a culturally competent approach across our network
Thank You from Brian
Our work is made possible by a unique collaboration of partners. Our young ambassadors help us design programmes that represent the needs of our diverse communities. Our member organisations deliver a wonderful range of projects. This is all supported by our partners including Westminster City Council and business partners.
Thank you to all who have worked with us over the past five years, as well as to our team and trustees. The Foundation will sustain our existing collaborations as a consistent and reliable partner over the years to come.
Brian Bickell
Chair of Trustees, Young Westminster Foundation
