Heritage for teenagers

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Young people aged 13 to 20 are the targets of a Heritage Lottery programme being launched on 29 October, as part of the HLF’s new strategy. ‘Young Roots’ is the HLF’s first programme aimed at a specific beneficiary group, and expects to support 240 or so projects during its first year of operation. Grants of £5,000-to-£25,000 are available for groups working with young people to help them better understand, protect and enjoy aspects of their heritage. The first deadline for applications is April 2003. Eligible organisations include youth clubs, youth associations, community groups, charities, schools and colleges –though in the latter two cases the work to be supported must be, for instance, after-school clubs or societies, and not part of the main curriculum. The HLF describes programme priorities as follows:

‘Projects should promote active involvement by young people in the heritage and identify practical outcomes as a result of their effort. Involvement might take the form of providing work experience; engaging young people in environmental conservation, heritage crafts or exhibition planning or enabling them to act as volunteers. Projects might also support young people in exploring and presenting an aspect of their heritage via various forms of media and ICT (journalism, film-making, oral recording, the creation of digital resources).

‘Projects should be delivered through partnerships, especially those led by youth partnerships.’

The rollout of the scheme comes after a year-long pilot programme run in Yorkshire and Humber, involving 34 projects and more than £600,000. The HLF is particularly pleased with results from its external evaluation which show that 82% of applications were from groups new to HLF – higher, even, than Awards for All, it says.

The scheme will run in partnership with the National Youth Agency (England), Youthlink Scotland, Wales Youth Agency and the Youth Council for Northern Ireland. These agencies, with their links to local youth workers will operate as an outreach arm of the HLF, providing a Young Roots coordinator to be based in each regional/country HLF office. The aim is to be proactive in helping to generate bids and develop these. HLF will, however, control application and assessment procedures itself.

The application process is a single stage, with two deadlines a year. Turnaround times are three months. Match funding of at least 5% is needed, but this can be cash or in-kind.