Social Justice Programme
Report
The Social Justice programme helps the most marginalised and excluded young people in the UK to integrate into society.
Over the last three years we have funded organisations from a range of sectors, all with a shared commitment to involving young people to shape solutions to the problems they face. That might be long-term unemployment, homelessness, social isolation, exploitation, dealing with stigma, or coming to terms with arriving as a migrant. We have particularly welcomed approaches where organisations are seeking to address complex problems in innovative ways, informed by their previous practice and research about what works.
Trusts and foundations cannot replace withdrawn statutory funding, but we can help effective organisations to try new approaches that may, in time, achieve more sustainable funding. The themes underpinning our Open Grants scheme – youth participation, supporting those during difficult transitions, building understanding and empathy between groups in society – are arguably even more important today. As the economic context worsens, the sources of support for young people are threatened.
Innovation and scale
In 2010/11 we have continued to make awards that enable grassroots organisations to meet needs that are complex and difficult. For example, we made a second award to help Music and Change establish their pioneering approach to helping young people improve their wellbeing; Place2Be on the other hand is being supported by us to continue to scale up, making its service available in more schools in the UK, diversifying the funding support. Our award to Fight for Peace supports a programme to develop young leaders, in an organisation whose approach was shaped in the favelas of Rio.
At times of transition, young people often need a range of help – factual information, advice, support groups and so on. In anticipation of growing numbers of young people needing support, we were pleased to make a grant to YouthNet, to help it in its work to involve young people more directly in developing its online support services.
Support for sectors
In the current economic context, we are mindful of the wider health of the sectors in which we fund, and that is why some of our grants this year assist those bodies that can support other organisations. Our support for Clinks1 and the Law Centres Federation, both of which are concerned with developing other organisations in their sectors, reflects our view that this type of organisation will be increasingly important in the years ahead. They will also give their members a voice in influencing policy, and help them to prepare for the new funding environment they will face over the next few years.
We subscribed to the first Social Impact Bond – an innovative model which brings in external investors to fund preventative programmes, on the basis that the future savings in public expenditure are shared between the investors, the government and the voluntary and community sector organisations which deliver the programmes. The first Social Impact Bond aims to reduce re-offending among prisoners leaving HMP Peterborough. St Giles Trust and local voluntary sector organisations will provide intensive support to 3,000 short-term prisoners over a six-year period, both inside prison and after release to help them resettle into the community. The Social Impact Bond model has the potential to be applied to other preventative programmes in other areas of government-funded services, although this will be more complex where the parts of government (national and/or local) which incur the expenditure are different to those which benefit from the future cost-savings. Given our interest in preventative work we are keeping in close contact with this model and future developments.
We also continue to regard leadership as something that benefits entire sectors in the longer term. We are impressed by the many leaders we come across through our work and we often seek within grants to aid their development, for example with support for coaching and mentoring. Our grant to the Young Foundation’s Uprising programme for young leaders and our continued support for the Clore Social Leadership Programme are two formal programmes of development. This year, we hope to begin to bring together leaders from among our grantees, to enable exchange and support.
Help at the margins
The Social Justice programme currently operates two Special Initiatives – the Right Here mental health initiative, run jointly with the Mental Health Foundation, and a new initiative in support of young undocumented migrants (to be launched this year).
The ongoing work of Right Here is more relevant than ever. There is a strong likelihood of young people experiencing a greater level of emotional distress due to the additional hardships many are facing. New funding arrangements at local authority level make it even more necessary to explore new collaborative working practices to deliver more effective local support.
Following on from our research report ‘No Right to Dream’, which looked at the lives of young undocumented migrants in England, we have developed a new Special Initiative given over to this area. The young people our researchers met in compiling their report, and others like them, will experience many of the same problems and issues as their British peers. The critical difference is that the latter can access the help that is available to them without fear of getting into trouble. The undocumented are often unable to do this, and risk spiralling into destitution and hardship.
Our new Special Initiative is a partnership with US-based funder, Unbound Philanthropy. The Supported Options Fund will support innovative ways of ensuring that young people in this predicament are not abandoned without information and support. It will aim to allow organisations to provide trusted, independent and reliable advice that helps young people to address issues around their status, and access support to stabilise their precarious lives2.
The fund has been developed through dialogue with a wide range of national and local organisations across the UK, identifying what was needed and what was possible to achieve.
Grant-making priorities
As the two Special Initiatives exemplify, our programme priorities are to support young people at difficult times of transition. Transition can present particular problems for those with fewest material resources, social networks, skills and experience. Our view is that an effective intervention early on in a period of trouble for a young person can help prevent their problems becoming multiple and complex3.
We also seek to build understanding between groups, on the basis that prejudice and misunderstanding often blight the lives of the most vulnerable young people, and deny them the opportunities and support many others take for granted. We will continue to welcome applications with these aims.
In the coming year we will be developing a theme within our Open Grants scheme and a new Special Initiative relating to young people and criminal justice. Until these are launched, we are likely only to make a limited number of criminal justice awards, usually where there is the chance of a wider sector or national impact. Much of our attention over the last year has been on working as a member of the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition, which is concerned with women and girls in the criminal justice system. The Coalition has, over the last 18 months, overseen an unprecedented amount of funding (from charitable foundations and government) going to divert from custody all but the most serious female offenders.
We are fortunate in our work to benefit from the expertise of our committee of trustees and advisors. Tim Bunting has joined the Social Justice Committee this year and brings, through his background in venture capital, an expertise in funding talented entrepreneurs to scale up business.
Special Initiatives
Right Here
Mental Health Special Initiative in partnership with the Mental Health Foundation
£220,365 in 2010/11
Right Here is a £6m initiative run jointly with the Mental Health Foundation to radically change how we look after the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 16–25 across the UK. By intervening early – before mental health problems become deep-rooted – the aim is to reduce the risk of young people’s lives being damaged in the long term.
There are four projects – based in Brighton and Hove, Newham in East London, Sheffield and Fermanagh, Northern Ireland – each with a lead charity and targeting specific groups of young people. All the projects are also working universally with young people in their areas to promote good mental health.
n Right Here Brighton and Hove, led by Sussex Central YMCA, is aiming to work with young people who are isolated (including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender young people and those estranged from their families), insecure (homeless or insecurely housed), bullied (and those who bully), or traumatised (refugees and asylum seekers and those who have experienced domestic violence).
- Right Here Newham, led by New Choices for Youth Trust, is working with black, Asian and minority ethnic men and women.
- Right Here Sheffield, led by Sheffield YMCA, is targeting young people who are not in education, employment or training, long-term unemployed young adults, teenage/ young parents, and black, Asian and minority ethnic young people.
- Right Here Fermanagh, led by Youth Action Northern Ireland, has young people from disadvantaged communities, young parents, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender young people and young people from new ethnic communities amongst its target groups.
Each local partnership is developing new ways of providing support to those aged 16–25 and discovering what works, in the hope that approaches may influence policy and practice elsewhere.
The role of young people in shaping the work is an essential feature of the initiative. Through their membership of Right Here youth panels, young people are involved in raising mental health awareness locally and play a part in the governance and delivery of each project; they are involved at every stage and at every level of Right Here. This focus on participation has yielded some notable findings on the practice of participation. Lessons were shared with staff from across the Foundation’s programmes in a seminar at PHF’s offices in March 2011.
For further details see www.right-here.org.uk
“Right Here illustrates how different bodies can collaborate to help young people develop the resilience needed to lead fulfilling lives in the face of stress or other pressures which challenge their mental wellbeing. It is a timely initiative, building partnerships in the voluntary sector and with public services, notably in health, and using careful external evaluation to improve policy and practice. Above all, it is enabling young people themselves to express what they need to decision-makers and using their skills and understanding to help their own peers.”
– Tom Wylie, PHF trustee
Supported Options Fund
Support for children and young undocumented migrants
£11,790 in 2010/11 (including £4,390 under Young Undocumented Migrants)
This year PHF trustees agreed to establish a Supported Options Fund for young people who become ‘undocumented’. This Special Initiative is a partnership with Unbound Philanthropy, who have contributed towards the fund. During the coming year, we will launch the initiative, which will aim to help organisations find innovative ways of empowering young people who, for various reasons, find themselves undocumented and unable to access help, advice and support to address their problems.
The initiative will support work that assists children and young people (up to the age of 30) who do not have regular immigration status in the UK.
Some of the stories of young people in this position were brought out by researchers at City University and the University of Oxford in ‘No Right to Dream’, research which we commissioned to deepen our understanding of these young people’s lives.
Many of these young people find themselves in this predicament through no fault of their own, and those who cannot readily return home face futures of uncertainty and anxiety, and vulnerability to problems such as destitution, criminal exploitation, poverty and poor physical and mental health. Critically, there are virtually no trusted and reliable means at present through which these young people are able to get information they need on their rights, entitlements and options, so they can reach sensible decisions for themselves about their futures, and be supported in implementing them.
This development will become increasingly significant. The number of young undocumented migrants in the UK is unlikely to diminish significantly, despite legislative and rule changes, since they have roots in global social and economic developments. The problems for those that are already here may also deepen.
Our hope is that, through the Fund, children and young people will be able to move their lives on – either by regularising their status, seeking advice, information and assistance to deal with immediate problems, or by gaining a clearer sense of the (limited) options they face, and how they might pursue them.
“You work 12 hours a day because you are undocumented and you have no voice. You cannot say anything. There a lot of unfairness but you cannot do anything about it. You cannot raise your voice against it. They crush you. I don’t get paid based on number of hours I work but I get wages. I work six days a week 12 hours per day and get £200 per week. That’s it… I feel like repressed. Then you say it will pass away. But it did not pass away for three years now. I feel like second-class citizen. Not even second, tenth maybe.”
– Firat, 30 (Kurdish, from Turkey)
“It impacts on my self-esteem as a person and my ability to participate… this issue of not having papers makes me feel as though I am not human.”
– Trish, 25 (Zimbabwean)
Open Grants Scheme
The Social Justice Open Grants scheme aims to help integrate marginalised individuals and communities. We see integration as a two-way process in which society at large and specific communities adapt, understand and benefit.
We want to support younger people up to the age of 30 who are at a time of transition because of their circumstances (such as leaving care or prison or settling into a new community) or changes to the cultural environment in which they live (such as established communities in refugee dispersal areas).
The Open Grants scheme focuses on arts and learning activities that enable marginalised young people to have their voices heard and ensure their fuller participation in society.
If possible, the outcomes of funded activities should also build strong relationships within and between communities, and foster respect for, and understanding of, the differences between communities.
Grants awarded in 2010/11
Clinks
£300,000 over three years
Clinks is a national membership organisation that supports voluntary and community groups working with offenders. Their members are currently experiencing fundamental changes not just in new criminal justice policies but in the way these policies are delivered. PHF’s grant for core funding and development work has come at an important time for director Clive Martin.
“There’s a seismic shift in the sector at the moment,” he says. “Having the stability of core funding is fantastically positive.” Clinks will be able to substantially increase its membership base and help more small organisations working in the fast-moving sector.
For example, with the proposed election of police chief constables and the transfer of some responsibility towards re-offending onto police forces, there will be a totally new set of relationships for members to negotiate. “Each constabulary will be different, and so our members’ needs will be different in each area,” says Clive. “We’ll need the capacity to understand these diverse needs before we can aim to support them.”
Developments in its marketing and IT infrastructures will further enhance Clinks’ support for the sector. This has been specifically supported by additional funding from PHF that will strengthen the way in which Clinks develops its internal business systems. “Resources that enable us to develop more effective and robust business processes are very hard to come by, particularly during tight financial times when the focus is on service delivery,” says Clive. “The Foundation has shown a real empathy and practical understanding of organisational needs by assisting us to do this. It’s a very progressive and much needed view.” More online services with greater interaction and discussion facilities will contribute to a better-informed voluntary sector primed to take full advantage of new opportunities. “We’ll also be taking a step back and formulating a sustainability plan, developing tailored packages of services that our members can buy from us,” says Clive. “Certainly the support from PHF is critical now but it will also help us build a foundation for the future.”
New Philanthropy
Capital £130,000 over two years
Measuring factors such as educational attainment or jobs created is relatively straightforward, but measuring how an intervention has changed the ‘softer’ concepts of self-esteem, satisfaction and resilience is more complex. Such outcomes are, however, often the first steps towards more tangible life changes.
New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), a consultancy and think tank dedicated to helping funders and charities achieve greater impact, has created a new tool to measure the wellbeing of children and young people. PHF has funded the marketing and roll-out of this online resource that will benefit not only hundreds of charities but also the grant-giving organisations that support them.
“Measuring wellbeing has been around for decades but it’s been researched by academic experts and languished in dusty journals,” says John Copps, NPC’s head of sector research. “We’ve built on what’s already been done and made it practical for everyone to use.”
NPC’s measure is specifically aimed at analysing the effectiveness of interventions directed at 11–16 year olds. Results from the 15-minute, adaptable survey are automatically collated into a downloadable report. No statistical skills are required. The survey can be used as a one-off wellbeing measure, a ‘before and after’ analysis, or an ongoing guide to the long-term effectiveness of a project.
“We’re through the development stage now, and have tested the measure on more than 2,000 young people,” says John. “We’ve reviewed and amended the survey and now have a product that we know works.”
Following a ‘soft launch’ with a small number of charities, users will be able to visit the site (well-beingmeasure.com), buy credits and start a survey immediately. One credit will pay for one survey of up to 200 participants that can be assessed against a national baseline, although two credits are necessary to undertake a comparative test to investigate a change in wellbeing.
In time, the wellbeing measure should be financially self-sufficient, and the data collected will have a wider benefit. “We will anonymously collect data to give us a massive sample of wellbeing across the UK,” says John. “It will help us all make links on a national level between wellbeing and hard outcomes.”
Ongoing grants
West of Scotland Regional Equality Council
£74,927 over 38 months
The West of Scotland Regional Equality Council (WSREC) is a voluntary organisation promoting positive community relations between increasingly diverse communities. Its research into the needs of Central and Eastern European immigrants identified that the European Roma people, historically persecuted wherever they settled, were particularly isolated and vulnerable in parts of Glasgow.
The subsequent PHF-funded Roma Youth Project aims to level the playing field for young people from this community and, as development officer Katarina Simonovicova explains, “help them realise they have many options in life”.
The project began in 2009 with the WSREC partnering Culture and Sport Glasgow (now Glasgow Life) to run what is now an over-subscribed youth club used almost exclusively by 11–16 year old Roma youth. “I don’t see it as a problem that the club is mostly Roma,” says Katarina. “It’s a safe base for these young people and once they feel confident then I encourage them on trips and activities to mix with their peers.”
Young people have promoted their own music group at diversity celebration events, made a video with the city’s youth service and contributed to a ‘myth-busting’ campaign challenging prejudice. Participants are also supported in accessing language and training courses, not always with positive results. “I had encouraged one enthusiastic young man to enrol on a business course,” says Katarina, “but on the first day, his father – who was supportive but unable to work himself – told me his son had to go out to work and support the family. It’s frustrating but understandable.”
Statutory service providers are encouraged by the development officer to engage more effectively with their Roma clients. After some ‘hand-holding’ many providers have found this a positive experience. A spin-off youth group for 5–12 year old Roma has now been established and has, in turn, led to a parent and toddler group, both run by the local authority.
“Part of my role is to support Roma parents to get involved in local decision-making,” says Katarina. “In the first year I wasn’t successful but since the adults have seen the progress we’ve made with their children, they are more willing. One man in particular might make a good local councillor but his English is not good and he says he is not interested in ‘more school’. Education plays a key role for all ages.”
“ I think PHF’s willingness to engage and share learning with devolved governments, the statutory and voluntary sectors in different parts of the UK is an important aspect of its approach to being an intelligent funder.”
– Maureen McGinn, advisor to the Social Justice programme
Project Art Works
£150,000 over three years
The film opens with a young man yelping, arms flailing, his head bouncing from side to side as flashing coloured lights bounce off his wheelchair. It’s unclear until a Beatles soundtrack kicks in and a smile appears across his face that 17 year old Josh is actually enjoying this sensory experience.
This 15-minute film, part of the In Transit project, is one of 36 personal profiles being produced by the visual arts organisation Project Art Works (PAW) to advocate for young people with complex needs at a time of transition between childhood and adult social care. Social workers make formal assessments about the future of these young people solely on the basis of dry, written reports, but Project Art Works recognises that there is more to say.
“The reports give no idea of the real person: what they enjoy, what they’re able to communicate. There’s nothing about their aspirations,” explains PAW’s deputy director, Alison Digance. “Our films, produced by established film-makers, give a more personal view and become a powerful advocacy tool for each individual to use at this critical time in their lives.”
As the film progresses, the viewer learns more about Josh’s love for music – from nursery rhymes to contemporary dance anthems – and much about his personality. “He knows when he wants contact and when he doesn’t,” says one of his teachers. “He’s very good at communicating that: that’s when his fingers go in his ears.”
Assessments at the transition stage affect every aspect of the young person’s future and it was important to ensure PAW’s films had maximum impact. “The Foundation encouraged us to examine more closely how we might embed our film-making into the assessment process,” recalls Alison.
“We’re now working much more closely with the statutory services in East Sussex and by inviting social workers to nominate young people onto the project we’ve built in a mechanism for a significant commitment from the professionals we’re trying to influence.”
At first sceptical, Josh’s social worker now concedes that his film has given her a ‘completely different perspective’ on Josh, whose behaviour she had once thought ‘quite extreme’. She has since become a champion for In Transit, promoting the project amongst her colleagues.
Completed grants
User Voice
£62,983 over six months
Do criminals have the right to be heard? The national charity, User Voice, has been founded on the belief that only by listening to ex-offenders can rehabilitation service providers develop effective policies to break the cycle of re-offending.
During 2010, User Voice’s Excluded Youth Project received a PHF grant to conduct a nationwide consultation of marginalised young people, culminating in a policy discussion at Westminster timed to coincide with a Criminal Justice Green Paper.
“The fundamental difference to our approach to consultation is that all our frontline staff have first-hand experience of the criminal justice system,” explains Daniel Hutt, head of policy at User Voice. “By disclosing personal, and sometimes intimate details, they build trust and motivate young people to participate.”
Nearly 600 detailed questionnaires fed into 25 focus groups across the country from which 30 young ‘reps’ were peer-selected and subsequently trained in preparation for debate with practitioners and politicians.
After a full day’s discussion ranging from education to employment and from probation to the police, John Drew, chief executive of the Youth Justice Board said: “You’re constantly blown way with their insight, intelligence and sensitivity, which is at odds with how we tend to stereotype them.” Heather Munro, who heads the London Probation Trust said: “It’s not just moaning and groaning, they are really coming up with ideas for change.” Ideas like an employment agency exclusively for ex-offenders; more support for families with a parent in prison; and criminal record slate-cleaning after three years.
“Clearly the young people expect quick fixes, so we’ve had to manage their expectations carefully,” says Daniel. “We’ve since taken those reps on a bit of a journey, contributing to other discussions around the Green Paper.” The idea is that some will take their involvement further, volunteer with User Voice and ultimately become paid staff. Others will take the skills they have learnt and head off in other directions.
User Voice has since been commissioned to facilitate more dialogue with different groups of young people but, as Daniel says: “We’ve shown service providers that this sort of participation is not only possible but highly effective. Although we are happy to be involved, they can be, and should be, routinely doing it for themselves.”
Criminal justice
This year we will develop a new Special Initiative on criminal justice.
This follows a recent review of our Open Grants funding in criminal justice, the evidence base for arts interventions in this area, and the changing policy landscape. We are considering options for supporting work that engages with vulnerable young people caught up in the criminal justice system.
During the review, we made a small number of grants which we see as of strategic value to the sector, developing practice and giving young people a voice. Two of these, Clinks and User Voice, feature as case studies on these pages.
To maximise our impact on practice and policy in relation to vulnerable women in contact with the criminal justice system, we have continued our collaboration with other trusts and foundations through membership of the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition. The Coalition’s joint initiative with the Ministry of Justice, the Women’s Diversionary Fund, has in the last year increased specialist, holistic community-based services (Women’s Centres), built infrastructure to help develop these services, begun work on an evidence base for the value of this way of working with vulnerable young women, and secured commitment from the Ministry of Justice for specialist approaches to working with women.
While much has been achieved through the work of the Corston Coalition there remain areas where we feel our support can add real value. We also want to consider how the changing social and economic context requires organisations to think and work in different ways. With constrained resources and in the face of working with vulnerable young people who have multiple and complex problems, there is a real need for agencies to come together, collaborate and work more effectively in partnership with each other.