IARS has recently received news from v, the National Youth Volunteering Charity, about specific budget savings to be made this year. The Office of Civil Society (OCS) has asked v to save 5% from their budget for the year 2010-11.
v have managed to prevent these savings from affecting any currently funded projects, and current v staff funded through those projects, through choosing to no longer proceed with a new grants round. v have also managed to maintain the Match Fund commitments for the current year, and are working hard to attract new partners for this in the future.
The coalition government is making substantial cuts across the range of Departments as part of their strategy for dealing with the public spending deficit which will affect a wide range of Third Sector organisations.
Currently, IARS receives vinvolved project funding (The Youth Empowerment Project) from v which will remain unaffected until the grant ends in March 2011. This funding has been instrumental for IARS in working with around 100 young people so far to empower them through high quality volunteering opportunities. IARS has provided training and opportunities for these young people to influence policy and practice through youth-led research. It is this engagement and work like this that will deliver on the government’s vision of the Big Society, whereby young people are having demonstrable impacts in their communities to influence and change local services.
We hope that despite the need for cuts, the coalition government continues to provide support for infrastructure organisations such as v, that are working with organisations to fulfill the Big Society vision already.
IARS has written to Lord Wei, special advisor to the coalition government’s Big Society, requesting that he host a special event in November with IARS and The Prince’s Trust. This event will showcase how existing youth-led initiatives are already engaging in the Big Society and this event will seek to establish further engagement between the government and these organisations and initiatives.
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