THE Wiltshire Community Foundation is working in partnership with #iwill, a government initiative funded by The Big Lottery and the Office for Civil Action, which aims to increase youth volunteering and social action in the UK by 50 per cent by 2020.

WCF development and marketing director Fiona Oliver said: “Through the #iwill fund we are excited to be able to give grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 for projects that last a year, although they can be one-off events. We may also fund projects more than once in a year if the need can be demonstrated.

“We can fund projects that inspire young people (aged between ten and 20 or up to 25 for disabled children) in a variety of ways. They could be online, extracurricular, within clubs or groups or as part of a more formal, structured programme.”

The new fund is aimed at projects that inspire young people who would not otherwise take part in social action, particularly, but not exclusively, those from lower social economic backgrounds.

Mrs Oliver said: “Our goal is to help provide skills for young people and benefits for their community. These skills could be cooking, listening, communicating, befriending, maths and English or creative but there are many other areas too. The bottom line is that they must enrich the volunteers while they are benefitting the place they live in.”

Projects that earn cash support will involve young people in the planning, delivery and evaluation; provide enjoyable, sociable activity; provide opportunities to learn useful skills and meet a need in the community.

For the full funding criteria see wiltshirecf.org/grant-funds or call 01380 729284.

The deadline for expressions of interest and to request an application form for the first round of #iwill grant funding is March 29.