The breakdown of activities [see right hand panel on priorities] reinforces the extent that youth organisations are aligned with CashBack for Communities priorities. For most, the germane fit results from having long-established relationships with local communities and families, from large urban housing estates to isolated rural and island communities and excluded groups.
The analysis and case studies reiterate that CashBack for Communities is a valued fund that recognises youth work’s contribution. Although annual grants form a relatively small proportion of overall income streams, success is partly attributed to the significant wider investments secured by youth organisations. Consequently outcomes achieved are not exclusive to the Youth Work Fund. Instead they benefit from a multiplier effect where organisations provide a pipeline of support before and after the funded interventions. Having knowledge of individual needs, youth workers draw from wider contact to feed the right young people into appropriate interventions at the right time. Follow-on activities extend the range of meaningful experiences such as accredited learning, peer education, issue based work and international youth exchanges.
Nevertheless, organisations report being under increasing pressure from local cutbacks and the churn that occurs when funders look to innovate rather than sustain established good practice. Without a statutory obligation to fund youth work activities, services are squeezed as budgets tighten. As this continues there is a risk that youth services dissipate until there is an insufficient core for CashBack for Communities to connect with. Recent rises in knife crime in England serve as reminders of the real and present dangers this can pose. Maintaining the success of CashBack for Communities investment in future might therefore rely on protecting the youth work sector from further erosion and demise.
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Video by Re:make Scotland of their learning garden