£70,000 for Borders' Young People
Wednesday, August 31 2005
Grants amounting to £70,000 from Youth Chex are to be released on 7 September to benefit young people in the Borders aged between 12 and 25 years.
Youth Chex, an exciting, new, youth-led, grant-giving organisation, aims to enable Border youth to fund its own projects. It is funded by the Scottish Borders Leader+ Programme, Children's Change Services Fund and Scottish Natural Heritage.
As a result of a residential and criteria voting day, the young people have set their own criteria for funding, and then put it to the vote by using state-of-the-art electronic voting pads provided by Borders Voluntary Youth Work Forum. Panel members, who come from all over the Borders and range in age from 12 to 18, have all thoroughly enjoyed the experience so far. "We hope this project is not only able to create successful initiatives, but will also allow a greater integration of the youth in the Borders," commented Sam Gallacher and Claire Sutherland from the Eildon Youth Panel, which is based at Gala Youth Project. "It's a great experience for young people," agreed Anna Robertson and Jemma Byrne.
Representing the five Border localities, youth panels are stationed in Jedburgh and Kelso, Hawick, Galashiels, Peebles and Eyemouth and Duns. Each panel of young people will decide how their portion of the £70,000 will be distributed within their communities. £3,000 of grants from each locality is specifically for environmental projects. Applications from all young people and youth groups aged between 12 and 25 will be welcomed. The deadlines for applications will be April 2006.
"Youth Chex is great. It gives young people the chance to open up opportunities for everyone in their community, so any ideas you've ever had, Youth Chex can help turn them into reality," said Jedburgh Panel member Tracy Wilson.
All applications will be judged on the criteria set by the Youth Panels, who are looking forward to hearing from prospective projects.
For further information, please contact Kirsty Burnham on 01896 755 110 or email kirsty@bvywf.org.uk.
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