4.0 Grant Application Reference Information
Fictional extract. Project figures, quotations and grant details are illustrative.
Fictional Youth Opportunity Fund
Illustrative application submitted on 31 October 2026, following the waiting-list update recorded that day. Request: £18,000 for youth club and mentoring delivery in 2027. The fund and its application are fictional.
Example question: Why is this project needed now, and what evidence do you have of demand from young people and local partners? (Maximum 250 words)
Funder guidance under question: Tell us about the specific local context in the wards you serve, the pressures facing the young people you work with, and any waiting lists or referral trends you are seeing.
Answer:
Our project works with young people aged 11 to 17 in Barking and Dagenham who need consistent support outside school. Census 2021 recorded 62.4% of borough households deprived in at least one dimension. Trust for London’s historical 2022/23 measure placed child poverty after housing costs at 42%. Those dated indicators provide context for the pressures described by the families and schools who refer young people to us.
Several council-run youth clubs that operated locally in the early 2010s closed following budget reductions, leaving teenagers with very few free, safe spaces after school. Demand at Mayesbrook Youth Project has risen sharply as a result. Our Tuesday evening youth club at Mayesbrook Park Pavilion regularly welcomes 40 young people a week, referrals from our two partner secondary schools have roughly doubled over the last two academic years, and our one-to-one mentoring waiting list has grown from 8 young people in 2023 to 20 today. Local Safer Neighbourhoods policing officers have also flagged active exploitation and anti-social behaviour hotspots within ten minutes’ walk of two of our venues. As one 15-year-old member put it during a project consultation session: “There’s nowhere else round here that’s just for us, that isn’t school and isn’t home.”
Historical context sources: ONS Census 2021 and Trust for London, 2022/23. Project figures and quotations are illustrative.