Children, young people and charities
From youth clubs and in-school schemes, to access programmes and support services, charities and their funders play a vital role in improving educational, social and emotional outcomes for children and young people. This work is varied and often intersects with complex social issues like poverty and abuse.
We’re exploring how these efforts can be even more impactful. Our work on the Youth Investment Fund is the largest shared measurement project ever, we worked with the Building Connections Fund to understand how co-design and technology could be used by youth clubs to tackle loneliness, and through our My Best Life partnership we’re exploring digital solutions to the challenges young people face. Find out how you can get involved in this work.
Featured resources and commentary on children and young people
Youth Investment Fund Learning and Impact Programme
Working with providers, funders, commissioners, policymakers and young people to improve the impact of services and youth work as part of a learning partnership for the Youth Investment Fund.
My Best Life
My Best Life is an open and collaborative project seeking digital solutions to the challenges young people face.
Introducing a joint evaluation programme for the youth sector
NPC and the Centre for Youth Impact are leading the learning and impact strand of a £40m DCMS and the Big Lottery Fund programme that is funding around 86 open-access youth providers. This blog outlines five ways we are confronting the challenges of evaluation in open-access settings.
Funding a good start: Philanthropy and the early years sector
Funders can help reduce inequalities in life outcomes by supporting charities intervening in this early period of a child’s life. Here we outline the various ways in which philanthropists could make an impact in this area.
School report: How can charities work best in the school system?
This discussion paper explores the role of charities and philanthropists in England's education system.
Education: A forgotten issue?
Our data analysis has found that education charities lag far behind health charities in terms of voluntary income. Both these issues are key in our society. So what's going on?
Evidence and data collection for education start-ups
This guide is for people setting up new projects in the education sector. It offers step-by-step advice on what evidence and data to collect, and how to collect it. It is based on NPC’s experience of supporting around 40 organisations through the Young Foundation’s Young Academy education incubator programme.
Freeing-up education analysis: Using government data
Opening up government data to help improve educational outcomes for young people—making the case for the development of an Education Impact Data Lab (EIDL) to measure impact, based on the precedent of the Justice Data Lab.
Latest updates
Digital mental health services
The impact of Covid-19 on young people's mental health
YIF6: Lessons learnt from conducting a shared evaluation of open access youth provision
In our sixth Learning and Insight paper we reflect on what we have learnt from the experience of the YIF learning and evaluation project, with a view to informing future open access youth provision learning and evaluation initiatives.
YIF5: Findings from the YIF case study process evaluation
This qualitative strand of the YIF learning project explores how open access youth provision works, why youth organisations take the approaches they do; how provision is experienced by young people; the effect and relevance of contextual factors; and how this all relates to positive change.
Back to school for charities?
Schools across the UK recently reopened after a prolonged period of closure due to the pandemic. However, some charities remain shut out of schools and have seen opportunities to provide services reduced. What effect is this 'new normal' having on charities and, crucially, young people?
YIF4: Emerging findings from the Youth Investment Fund Learning Project
Early findings about the quality and impact of open access youth provision, with insights into the development of feasible and meaningful evaluation approaches for this field.
YIF3: A shared outcomes framework for open access youth provision
This paper describes the YIF shared outcomes measurement framework that has been developed for the YIF-funded organisations, and set out the rationale behind the outcomes framework design.
Creating safe online spaces for young people
In this guest blog, Kelly Bradshaw-Walsh from the Centre for Youth Impact explores how social distancing has led to a new focus on safe online spaces.
How knowledge works
How to encourage the adoption of How Knowledge Works in England’s education system
How philanthropists can help maternity services adapt
In this case study, our Systems Change Principal, Seth Reynolds, interviews (virtually) Vicky Fobel, Public Affairs and Campaigns Manager at NCT, to learn how they’re adapting and what philanthropists can do to help parenting charities.
How to engage young people in arts and culture
The artistic landscape is shifting. Across the country, budgetary pressures and the demands of career-focussed choices mean we may be facing a generation of young people who have never experienced art at school or anywhere else. Philanthropists have an opportunity to change this.
Transforming young people’s experience of Shakespeare
In this guest blog, Jacqui O’Hanlon from the Royal Shakespeare Company shares how to use place, partnerships and youth leadership to engage young people in arts and culture.
My Best Life
My Best Life is an open and collaborative project seeking digital solutions to the challenges young people face.
Get in touch
Got a question, comment, or want to work with us on youth and education? Get in touch with Charlotte Lamb NPC’s Children and Young People Lead.
Drop us a line