It has been announced today that a new Youth Charter will be developed to set out a vision for young people over the next generation and beyond.
It follows a roundtable Mims Davies, Minister for Sport and Civil Society, and Jeremy Wright, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, had with the youth sector, sports bodies, charities and creative organisations last week as part of the Prime Minister’s Serious Youth Violence Summit to tackle knife crime.
Denise Hatton, Chief Executive of YMCA England and Wales said:
“YMCA welcomes the steps government are proposing to support a generation of young people currently disenfranchised. The Youth Charter has the potential to put young people front and centre of the issues which matter most to them, enabling young people to shape and influence their environment.
“However, it’s important to remember we have been here before on a number of occasions with government, where Ministers promise one thing to young people and deliver something completely different.
“Over the past decade, young people have borne the brunt of cuts to services they depend upon to live fulfilled lives. Any Youth Charter created must also focus on how local and national government can reinvigorate those service and opportunities that have been lost which were previously the backbone of a young people’s development.”
The Minister for Sport and Civil Society will chair a roundtable with the sector to take this work forward. The charter will build on the existing support and range of innovative projects currently supporting young people across the country. This includes £90 million from dormant bank accounts that is being used to help some of the most disadvantaged young people into employment.