Supporting Voluntary and Community Action
The Youth Sector Support Fund (YSSF) supports Bristol-based organisations that work with children and young people aged 8-19. It is run by Quartet Community Foundation and Bristol City Council, with support from Voscur.
Please note that this fund is currently closed for applications.
The fund's purpose is to build the capacity of the youth and play sector so it's more sustainable and fill gaps in services across the city. While the fund originally offered grants to individual organisations and partnerships, the new focus from April 2021 is on partnership working only.
Quartet Community Foundation redesigned and reopened the Youth Sector Support Fund in April 2021 for partnership grant applications in three areas of Bristol: East Central, North, and South.
Voscur is working with Quartet Community Foundation to offer individual and group support to applicants and grant winners, making sure applications and funding plans are as sustainable and realistic as possible. Voscur delivers this support through telephone calls, surgeries, workshops and a conference.
The most recent goal was to fund partnership activities for children and young people in Bristol aged 8-19, who may be at risk of 'adverse outcomes':
Funded work was based on early intervention and preventative work in partnerships that helps children and young people achieve better prospects or outcomes. There may be other community-specific challenges in your area that need addressing as well. Applications had to demonstrate the local need for funding, and how this money could help stop problems or behaviour escalating.
Priorities for funders were:
Just over 10% of funding was due to be allocated to projects that serve children aged 8-10 years.
Funding can be spent on core costs, project costs, capital costs, or organised development costs. All organisations in the partnership are youth and play organisations based and working in Bristol.
If you need support on partnership working or preparing to submit your EOI for a YSSF bid, please get in touch with the Voscur development team by filling out our webform or emailing jenny@voscur.org.
Previous activities to help funding applicants with the Youth Sector Support Fund are outlined below.
Sustaining the CYP Sector - online conference:
Our online conference was split into a series of four sessions, making it easier for you to work around other commitments. The conference was free to attend if you're part of a VCSE organisation working with children and young people, whether you're a staff member, volunteer or trustee:
Voscur held its first YSSF conference, Sustaining the CYP Sector, in March 2019; click here to see photos from the day.
Receive one-to-one support before, during, and after applying for the YSSF, and ask us your questions. Once an application is submitted, it can show issues about an organisation’s structure, aims or budgeting that need to be addressed. Some organisations may need extra support to rethink the way they work day-to-day, or to ensure a grant would directly benefit service users.
If you are unable to make support surgery dates when the fund reopens, please call Jenny on 07904 099136, or email training@voscur.org. During the pandemic, to meet social distancing measures, we are offering surgeries via Zoom rather than face-to-face meetings.
Future workshops will be listed here as and when they are available.
If you need help reaching the standards set by the YSSF (such as equalities, health and safety or information sharing) or recommended by Bristol City Council (such as complaints, monitoring and service user participation), please get in touch with Voscur or book onto a support surgery for one-to-one advice.
For more information on applying for the Youth Sector Support Fund, please see the grant guidelines when it reopens, or call Voscur for support on 0117 909 9949. If you'd prefer, you can complete our webform online.