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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

  • Report

    Report:Children, Violence and Vulnerability 2025

    This is YEF’s fourth annual Children, violence and vulnerability report. This year, YEF surveyed nearly 11,000 teenage children aged 13-17 in England and Wales about their experiences of violence.
  • Report

    Report:Scoping a programme of work for Youth Endowment Fund on nutrition

    Background This report was written for the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) by the Ending Youth Violence Lab (the Lab) in April-June 2025. In it the Lab provide advice on how, in their view, YEF should approach establishing and evaluating a nutrition programme designed to support young people at risk of getting caught up in violence.…
  • Research

    Report:Access to Mental Health Support

    About the Report This report examines how children and young people involved in, or at risk of, serious youth violence in England and Wales access mental health support — and how that access can be improved. It draws on five strands of research: literature reviews, data analysis, service mapping, and over 100 in-depth interviews with…
    Health

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.

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:Posting, protests and polarisation: the divisive content filling teens’ feeds  

    From anti-immigration protests to clashes over gender identity, the tensions dividing society are spilling onto children’s screens.  A survey of nearly 11,000 children aged 13 to 17 in England and Wales found that 82% have seen social media posts in the past year about harming specific groups — such as migrants or people of certain…
  • Report

    Report:Children, Violence and Vulnerability 2025

    This is YEF’s fourth annual Children, violence and vulnerability report. This year, YEF surveyed nearly 11,000 teenage children aged 13-17 in England and Wales about their experiences of violence.
  • Blog

    Blog:Restorative Justice is Punching Higher

    Marking Restorative Justice Week, we’re taking a closer look at how restorative justice is increasingly shaping discussions around violence, accountability and rehabilitation — and why the evidence behind it is becoming harder to ignore. It also feels especially timely that one of the most compelling stories about restorative justice has made its way onto a West End stage this autumn.  Putting restorative…

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.

YEF Newsletter