Youth Programme Quality Intervention (YPQI) UK Pilot - English cohort announced

The Centre for Youth Impact has received £607,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder across the UK, to lead a three and a half year (April 2018 to September 2021) test and learn project for a ground-breaking quality improvement initiative. The Youth Programme Quality Intervention (YPQI) was developed in the US and has never before been piloted in the UK. Through extensive research, the YPQI has been shown to improve outcomes for young people, to create a sustainable and supportive culture of organisational reflection and improvement, and to refocus evaluation on the quality of relationships and setting. It is an exciting and potentially transformative opportunity for the UK youth sector.

We are thrilled to announce the fourteen youth organisations taking part in the first English cohort to pilot the Social and Emotional Learning Programme Quality Assessment. Sites from all over the UK contacted us to hear about how the intervention would support youth workers create a context in which young people will grow, learn and thrive. The names of the organisations taking part in England are: 
The Amber Foundation
City Year
Watford FC Community Sports and Education
Corner House Youth Project
Youth Focus North East
Positive Youth Foundation
London Borough of Tower Hamlets Youth Service
Lambeth Elfrida Rathbone Society
Sheffield Futures
Shpresa
High Trees Community Development Trust
Orchestras for All
Young People Cornwall
Dragon Hall
 
A pre-requisite was for organisations to commit to the 12-month pilot and be motivated to improve their services. The sample was then chosen to offer diversity around a range of criteria including size, region, workforce, type of provision and needs of their service users. The diversity is intended to maximise learning for the pilot. Sites have all attended the first training delivered by the Weikart Centre in January. We will be recruiting pilot sites in Scotland and Wales in early spring 2019 and in Northern Ireland in autumn 2019.
 
Notes to Editors:
The National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest community funder in the UK – we’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since June 2004, we have made over 200,000 grants and awarded over £9 billion to projects that have benefited millions of people.  
 
We are passionate about funding great ideas that matter to communities and make a difference to people’s lives. At the heart of everything we do is the belief that when people are in the lead, communities thrive. Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
 
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