Youth Justice Sport Fund
The Youth Justice Sports Fund provides funding to local sport schemes, to support young people at risk of entering the criminal justice system.
Applies to England and Wales
The Youth Justice Sport Fund is an early intervention grant fund led by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), delivered across England and Wales.
The £5 million programme is funding voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations to carry out targeted work supporting children considered to be vulnerable to involvement in crime and violence, using sport as a vehicle to address problem behaviour.
The 2 key goals for the funding are to:
- support vulnerable young people, aged 10-17, at-risk of involvement in crime, anti-social behaviour and serious violence through involvement in local sporting activities
- through capacity building, increase the capability of sport sector delivery organisations to work effectively with their local criminal justice partners, including Youth Offending Teams, Police and Police Crime Commissioners (PCC)/Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) structures.
‘Sport for crime prevention’ activities typically focus on this cohort as they are perceived as being ‘at-risk’ of offending, based on certain factors such as school exclusion, prior involvement with the police, or other challenging circumstances or additional vulnerabilities.
This investment builds on growing evidence indicating that sport and physical activities can act as a ‘hook’ to effectively engage young people in targeted crime prevention support (e.g. mentoring or volunteering). Sport can be used as a route within projects to provide a wider package of interventions, such as those focussed on life skills and employment.
The Fund was announced in November 2022, with bidding closing on 9 December and successful organisations notified on 12 December. 220 grants were awarded to those who could demonstrate a track record of delivering targeted sport for crime prevention activity with vulnerable or at-risk young people. All projects are now in delivery, working with young people in most regions of the country until 31 March 2023. A list of these projects can be found below as an attachment.
The MOJ is working with a consortium of leading national organisations to deliver the programme. These are:
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StreetGames is a UK-wide sports charity with a significant track record of developing sport and physical activity in the prevention and early intervention of crime, serious violence and anti-social behaviour across a network of over 1,400 local partner organisations. Since 2015 they have worked with over 30 Police & Crime Commissioners and a number of Violence Reduction Units. StreetGames provides the secretariat to the National PCC Sport and Youth Violence Board.
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Alliance of Sports in Criminal Justice is a charitable incorporated organisation that seeks to act as a change agent for the impact of sport in the Criminal Justice System. The 2nd Chance project, which was the forerunner to the Alliance, was predominantly focused upon the use of sport and physical activity within the youth and adult secure estates. The Alliance is the secretariat to the APPG on Sport and Physical Activity in the Criminal Justice System and leads the Taskforce on Physical Activity and Sport in the Criminal Justice System which is looking at a national plan for physical activity and sport across the justice system and for children, young people and adults.
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The Sport for Development Coalition brings together over 250 organisations that use sport and physical activity to tackle key health and societal inequalities across the UK. The membership of the Coalition includes network organisations such as StreetGames, Sported and the Youth Sport Trust who each come with considerable membership bases of their own. The Coalition has a priority to focus on the benefit of sport to community safety outcomes as part of its #OpenGoal shared advocacy framework which showcases the contribution of sport to building a fairer, more equitable and sustainable future. The Coalition is primarily funded by Sport England (an Arm’s Length Body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) and is one of Sport England’s system partners
These partners are working in close partnership with the MOJ to deliver capacity-building activity, working with successful organisations to build and improve links between the sport for crime prevention sector and youth justice agencies. Improving partnerships across these sectors will further highlight the role that sport can play in early intervention activity. Successful organisations are also in receipt of training, upskilling and regional connectivity to enhance their capability and capacity to continue to work with youth justice partners into the future.
In January 2023 the Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab, visited one of these projects to announce the award of grants from the Fund. These projects will be funded until 31 March 2023 whilst all are being offered resources and support to enable their future development.
An evaluation report for the programme will be published in spring 2023.