Kids Inspire awarded funding from Youth Endowment Fund
Media release:
Essex-based children’s mental health charity, Kids Inspire, has been awarded a grant of £47,400 from the Youth Endowment Fund to support young people at risk of being drawn into violence or crime, heightened by the impact of COVID-19.
With the funding Kids Inspire will support children and young people age 10-14 years, referred by Essex Police, schools and GPs because of their risk of being involved in youth violence or crime.
The new specialist therapeutic service will be a strength-based holistic approach that offers vulnerable young people – and in line with Kids Inspire’s ethos, their families – a safe space to understand and explore what lies beneath emotional behaviours that lead to crime or violence.
Sue Bell, CEO and Clinical Director at Kids Inspire, said:“We are so grateful to the Youth Endowment Fund for supporting this complex, bespoke service for children and young people Essex-wide. Each child we meet is assessed independently and our approach has long been to work holistically, meaning that alongside the child, we work with the child’s family if we think it will give the child the most sustainable outcome.”
The Youth Endowment Fund is an independent charitable trust set up by the Home Office. It funds, supports, and evaluates projects in England and Wales which work to prevent children and young people from being drawn into violent crime.
Kids Inspire is one of 130 organisations to share part of a £6.5m grant pot from the Youth Endowment Fund to help at-risk young people impacted by COVID-19.
Jon Yates, Executive Director at Youth Endowment Fund, said: “It has been too easy to forget vulnerable young people during this crisis. The pandemic has removed much of the critical support that many of them rely upon – from teachers to youth workers. This funding will help us find the best way to reach and support these young people when they most need it.”