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We’re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence.

We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.

FIND OUT WHAT WORKS

Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit

We’ve developed the YEF Toolkit as a free online resource to help you put evidence of what works to prevent serious violence into action.

Find out what works for your area of work, and how we can collaboratively help make a positive change to the lives of young people at risk of violence.

Sectors

To help us make the biggest difference over the ten years of our endowment, we’ve selected ​seven sectors​ where we’ll use evidence to identify what works and what needs to change, so that children are better supported and violence reduces.

For each sector we’ll produce practice and systems guidance, alongside online and in-person events to join.

Education

Whether you work in school, college or Alternative Provision setting, or help to oversee and set policy for the education system, our job is to make it easy to know what works and to help you to make it happen.

Youth Justice

We are looking to improve support for young people who have been arrested, but not charged.

Children’s Services

How do we best support families facing challenges to help them create a safe, loving environment at home?

Policing

How does policing best prevent violence – including through working with other organisations where the police are not the lead?

Health

How do we use therapy to keep children save from becoming involved in violence?

Youth

How can a trusted adult outside the family help keep a child safe, and what positive activities can support young people from becoming involved in violence?

Neighbourhoods

How do we best support the neighbourhoods sector to support children at risk of violence outside the home?

Our latest research reports

Find out what works through evaluation and guidance reports

  • Research

    Report:Implementing Focused Deterrence: Barriers and Opportunities

    We asked OC&C Strategy Consultants to conduct a scoping exercise to help us understand which force areas are delivering focused deterrence and, importantly, how they’re delivering it. The insights collected as part of this project will be used to inform the development of practice guidance on focused deterrence. Research suggests that the average impact of…
    Policing
  • Statistics briefing

    Report:Beyond The Headlines

    Purpose and background In this report, we aim to simplify the complexity surrounding violence affecting children and young people in England and Wales. Our goal is to provide a clear account of whether the situation is improving or worsening, and to evaluate the performance of key sectors supporting these children and young people. To achieve…
    Children’s Services Education Health Neighbourhoods Policing Youth Justice Youth Sector
  • Research

    Report:Effect Size Database

    This report summarises the YEF’s Effect Size Database (ESDB), a free repository that reports effect sizes (ES) associated with each study included in the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) Evidence and Gap map (EGM). It enables users to determine the direction and magnitude of impact reported in a particular study for a specific outcome, intervention, population…

Funded projects

We fund work in England and Wales that aims to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence – especially those aged between 10 and 14-years old.

Every programme and activity we fund, we’ll evaluate. We do this because we want to learn what works, for whom and why.

Three young women smiling

Funding good work

We fund work in England and Wales that aims to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence.

Finding what works

We evaluate every programme and activity that we fund. Our aim is to find out what works, for whom and why.

Working for change

To make a lasting difference we’ll build a movement of people and organisations passionate about making sure that young people get the very best support possible.

Members of the Youth Advisory Board

Youth Advisory Board

We’re giving young people a stake in our decision making and a voice on the issues that matter to them.

We can only achieve by putting young people at the heart of our work. That’s why we’ve set-up a Youth Advisory Board.

Latest from YEF

What’s new at YEF

  • News

    News:New legislation banning zombie-style knives comes into effect 

    Zombie-style knife ban From 24 September 2024, it will be illegal to possess, sell, hire, manufacture, import, or supply zombie-style knives and machetes across the UK. The expansion of The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988 will see these dangerous weapons added to the list of prohibited offensive items.  Jon Yates, CEO of…
  • Blog

    Blog:Implementing Focused Deterrence: Evidence, Barriers and Opportunities  

    It feels like everyone’s talking about focused deterrence. Since joining YEF eight months ago, it’s the intervention I’ve been asked most about; How can we deliver it in our local area? Is it really that effective? When will the findings from YEF’s multi-site trial be ready?    Alongside growing interest from government departments, we’ve seen an…
  • Research

    Report:Implementing Focused Deterrence: Barriers and Opportunities

    We asked OC&C Strategy Consultants to conduct a scoping exercise to help us understand which force areas are delivering focused deterrence and, importantly, how they’re delivering it. The insights collected as part of this project will be used to inform the development of practice guidance on focused deterrence. Research suggests that the average impact of…
    Policing

Newsletter

Sign up to receive the latest YEF news, opportunities and research.

Be the first to hear about:

  • New Toolkit strands (School-based education programmes, Functional Family Therapy, Arts participation)
  • Diversion guidance report
  • New funding rounds
  • New research: one of the largest studies of children’s experiences of violence.

YEF Newsletter