Middlesbrough Youth Mutual Partners celebrate after receiving £420,001 of National Lottery funding to support the sustainability of high-quality youth provision across the town

 

The partners will use the money to increase the numbers and diversity of young people having their voices heard, listened to and acted upon; increase awareness of the local offer, maximising current and creating new opportunities; increase opportunities for people to volunteer, train and develop careers in youth work and increase the number of personal development opportunities for young people.

The Middlesbrough Youth Mutual (MYM) has been running since 2021 and was developed by the Lead Partners with support from the National Lottery funded North-East Youth Alliance which was established to support the development and sustainability of the people and organisations working to improve the lives of young people across the region in 2020.

 

The MYM is fundamentally about people coming together to share knowledge, resource experience in order to deliver better services together. We want to encourage collaboration for the mutual benefit of organisations and communities we serve and to improve outcomes for young people. People are at the heart of our work and positive relationships and honest communications are key to its success. The MYM strategic priorities have been identified by hearing from young people and the organisations that serve them.

 

This new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will support and enable partners to take the strategy forward with young people, encourage their involvement in delivering the strategy; including recruiting and training a skilled workforce, and ensuring all providers are delivering sufficient quality in youth provision.

 

Kevin Franks (CEO Youth Focus: North East), says: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way. The Youth Sector in the town has faced significant challenges over recent times through reductions in public sector funding, competitive funding environment, impact of COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis. At various points, organisations have looked to come together more effectively, but have been hampered by a lack of capacity, alongside finding ways to deliver in a more cohesive manner. Thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to press on with our plans to meet and address these challenges, we understand that we are stronger together, than working in competition and look forward to broadening the range of opportunities available to young people in Middleborough.”

Wayne Mason (CEO Linx Youth Project), says: “As founder members of Middlesbrough Youth Mutual, we at Linx Youth Project are absolutely delighted with this fantastic news. Too often the current funding climate puts organisations like ours in competition with each other and it’s often the young people we are here to support that tend to lose out as a result. This initiative recognises that the youth sector is stronger together and that by combining effort and coordinating our approach, many more young people will directly benefit. This is brilliant news for the youth sector and excellent news for the young people of Middleborough.”

Beth Major (CEO The Junction Foundation), says: “As a charity dedicated to supporting children, young people, and families across Tees Valley, The Junction is steadfast in its commitment to collaborative work across sectors and with partners, ensuring that young people receive the essential services they deserve. For too long, Youth Work has suffered from under-resourcing, creating unnecessary competition among organisations. However, Middlesbrough Youth Mutual has fostered genuine collaboration, building trust among organisations and empowering young people to lead the conversation. Thanks to funding from the National Lottery, we now have the necessary resources to amplify young people’s voices, enhance and communicate the youth services available, increase support to all organisations serving young people, and provide direct support to young people in Middlesbrough.”

 

Paul Wales (CEO Actes Employability), says: “It is great to see that the dedicated work and commitment by the founder members of Middlesbrough Youth Mutual, with support from partner organisations and agencies, has been rewarded through funding from The National Lottery Community Fund. This provides a great opportunity to continue and build upon the collaborative work to date, but most importantly the benefits it will bring to the youth sector and the young people of Middlesbrough. We are stronger together!”

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

 

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities.

To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk