We’re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence.
The Youth Endowment Fund is a UK charity dedicated to youth research and evidence-led action to prevent violence affecting children and young people.
We believe that no child should be affected by violence.
We research youth violence to understand how and why it affects children and young people; we find, fund and test what works to prevent it; and we are building a movement across England and Wales to end it.
FIND OUT WHAT WORKS
Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit
We’ve developed the YEF Toolkit as a free online resource for youth organisations, practitioners and policymakers across England and Wales, helping you put evidence of what works to prevent serious violence into action.
Find out what’s effective 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 across England and Wales 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.
Our Guidance Hub provides evidence-based practice and system guidance reports to protect children from involvement in violence in your sector.
Education
Youth Justice
Children’s Services
Policing
Health
Youth
Neighbourhoods
Our latest youth research reports
Explore independent youth research, evaluation and guidance reports examining what works to prevent violence across England and Wales:
- Report
Report:Children, violence and vulnerability 2026
Each year, we ask thousands of teenagers across England and Wales about their experiences of violence. This year we’re publishing the findings as a series of themed reports. Each one looks at a different side of how violence shapes children’s lives. CEO Jeremy Miles, and Youth Advisory Board Members Jess and Elijah discuss the importance… - Report
Report:Found but NOT followed
This project was developed in response to a gap identified through the Youth Endowment Fund’s work with local violence prevention partnerships, as part of our Area Leaders Programme. To better understand this gap, YEF commissioned the Centre for Safer Society to conduct an evidence review, national survey and case study interviews to explore how local… - Practice Guidance
Report:Policing, Children and Violence
Violence affects too many children across England and Wales. In our Children, Violence and Vulnerability report, nearly one in five 13–17-year-olds reported being a victim of violence in the past year, and one in eight reported committing violence. The impact is serious, long-lasting, and extends far beyond those directly involved. Recommendations Treat children as children…Policing
Funded projects
By evaluating programmes across England and Wales — from mentoring in schools, to therapy in communities, to different types of policing — we find what works to prevent violence. We get behind interventions that are supported by robust research, evaluations and advice.
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.
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 insights, evidence, and Sector updates from YEF
Stay up to date with the latest research, policy insight and evidence on preventing violence affecting children and young people:
- News
News:Violence among teens falls, but small minority report daily behaviours linked to fixation
Just over 2% of teenagers in England and Wales report engaging in behaviours that could indicate a fixation on violence every day or almost every day, according to new research from the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The findings come as the proportion of teenagers seriously hurt by violence has fallen. The murder of three children… - Report
Report:Children, violence and vulnerability 2026
Each year, we ask thousands of teenagers across England and Wales about their experiences of violence. This year we’re publishing the findings as a series of themed reports. Each one looks at a different side of how violence shapes children’s lives. CEO Jeremy Miles, and Youth Advisory Board Members Jess and Elijah discuss the importance… - Blog
Blog:What works to protect children from gendered harms involving AI systems?
Over the past few months, a wave of rogue AI incidents has flooded the news and sparked numerous policy debates. During OpenAI safety testing, a swarm of agents escaped their sandboxes (restricted testing environments) and hacked Hugging Face, hunting for clues on how their test would be marked. METR’s investigation found that over a thousand…
Newsletter
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Be the first to hear about:
- New Toolkit strands
- New guidance reports
- New funding rounds
- New research: one of the largest studies of children’s experiences of violence.