Landmark £11 million investment to test the transformative power of sports, outdoor activities and the arts for young people

New YEF funding for Audio Active, Dallaglio RugbyWorks, Ingeus UK, National Literacy Trust, Rugby Football League and StreetGames

The transformative power of sports, outdoor activities and the arts to change young people’s lives will be rigorously tested thanks to a landmark £11 million investment from the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF).

The charity has commissioned large-scale impact trials for six established programmes delivered by Audio Active, Dallaglio RugbyWorks, Ingeus UK, National Literacy Trust, Rugby Football League and StreetGames.

These trials aim to test whether these programmes can effectively prevent children and young people from becoming involved in crime and violence, while also improving their well-being.

What works to prevent violence?

According to research from the YEF’s Toolkit, sports programmes have the potential to significantly reduce children’s involvement in crime and violence, although the current evidence could be strengthened. Similarly, adventure and wilderness programmes are predicted to lower violence and reoffending rates, albeit to a lesser extent and with weaker supporting evidence.

While a YEF-commissioned systematic review of arts programmes found some qualitative studies reporting positive effects, it did not identify any studies that specifically tested their impact on reducing crime, violence or behavioural difficulties.

That’s about to change.

Art programmes

For the first time, the YEF will fund and evaluate a programme delivered within the secure estate. The charity will assess the impact of the National Literacy Trust’s New Chapters programme on young people’s behaviour in three Young Offender Institutions (Feltham, Werrington, and Wetherby) and one Secure School (Oasis Restore). This 12-week programme uses creative writing to raise aspirations, help young people find their voice and empower them to tell their stories. Sessions cover a broad range of genres and themes – from lyric writing to memoir – and authors with relatable lived experience will facilitate guest sessions. Each 12-week programme will culminate in a celebration event recorded by National Prison Radio.

Rebecca Perry, Head of Criminal Justice at the National Literacy Trust, said: “Since 2018, we have seen first-hand that access to creative writing in custody, where enrichment opportunities are so desperately needed, can have an incredible impact on the lives of participants. New Chapters offers young people who are serving custodial sentences a space in which they can exercise creative freedom, find their voice, develop their literacy and communication skills and, most importantly, feel heard. We are so excited to be part of this groundbreaking trial and to bring New Chapters to young people with such potential.”

Alongside New Chapters, the YEF will fund and evaluate SHIFT, a music mentoring programme run by AudioActive. The programme leverages young people’s passion for music to engage those who have offended or are at risk of offending. Participants will be paired with a SHIFT mentor; active musical artists who are also trained youth workers who’ll support them over six months to develop a more positive self-identity and relationships, improve their behaviour and enhance their well-being. The programme will be delivered and evaluated across six sites in East and West Sussex to assess its impact on reducing offending.

Adam Joolia, CEO at AudioActive, said: “This is such an important piece of work for our sector. Music occupies a massive space in the consciousness of young people and – as artists and youth workers – this provides us with the opportunity to work with some of our most disaffected and vulnerable young people in a powerful and authentic way. Over the last 6 years, SHIFT has shown promising evidence of its impact, however we still see a lot of scepticism in the media, politics and criminal justice system around the value and impact of using music – especially some genres of black music – in this context. This is further compounded by a dearth of a strong quantitative evidence base for both music mentoring specifically and the arts in general and we feel privileged to be working with YEF to spearhead better impact demonstration in this area.

He adds: “Our hope is that the study will help our sector to counter the scepticism and make the case for investment longer term, not only for SHIFT and AudioActive, but for the many other fantastic music projects across the country helping to keep young people safe through similar work.”

Sports programmes

To further strengthen the evidence for sports programmes, the YEF has commissioned an efficacy trial of Dallaglio RugbyWorks.  This programme uses rugby to engage young people excluded from education, offering activities designed to help them transition into sustained education, employment or training after school. The trial will be conducted in Pupil Referral Units, Alternative Provision schools and mainstream schools with onsite exclusion provisions, focusing on how the programme affects young people’s behavioural difficulties.

Zenna Hopson, CEO at Dallaglio RugbyWorks, said: “We are thrilled to receive funding from YEF for Dallaglio RugbyWorks. Conducting randomised control trials is challenging but absolutely essential to demonstrate the effectiveness of our programme. This funding will allow us to rigorously test our methods and prove that our approach truly makes a difference in the lives of young people. We are deeply grateful to YEF for their support and belief in our mission.”

Another rugby initiative receiving YEF funding is the Rugby Football League (RFL)’s Inspiring Futures programme. As one of the first recipients of YEF support in 2019, the RFL has been granted additional funding to build on pilot study findings through a larger-scale efficacy study to assess the programme’s impact on reducing behavioural difficulties.

Tom Brindle, the RFL’s Head of Development, says: “Working with the Youth Endowment Fund for the last five years has been a pleasure and a privilege, so we are absolutely delighted to have received this vote of confidence in what we have delivered.

“Club foundations are the unsung heroes of the sport, using their expertise and knowledge of Rugby League’s deep community roots to harness the enthusiasm of volunteers and make a real difference to thousands of lives.

“The Youth Endowment Fund is a perfect fit in that regard, with a clear vision of trying to understand what works by working with grant partners IPSOS to evaluate the impact the ‘Inspiring Futures” programme has on young people.”

The impact of smaller grassroots groups on preventing offending will be tested through an innovative evaluation of StreetGames’ Toward Sport programme. Fifty youth organisations from the sports charity’s network will participate in a ‘multi-site trial,’ involving over 3,000 young people aged 10 to 17.

Efficacy studies generally require large participant samples, which can be impractical for smaller grassroots organisations. A ‘multi-site trial’ addresses this challenge by conducting smaller trials concurrently across multiple organisations delivering similar activities and aggregating the results.

This approach enables smaller grassroots organisations to access YEF funding and benefit from participating in a rigorous evaluation. It also supports the YEF’s broader Race Equity commitments to ensure its funding reaches children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. The target is for 60% of the organisations involved in the trial to be led by representatives from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Stuart Felce, UK Director of Strategic Business Relationships at StreetGames, said:

“The transformative power of sport in changing young people’s lives cannot be overstated. Young people in low-income, underserved communities face significant challenges, making them more vulnerable to youth crime. The Youth Endowment Fund’s £11 million investment will rigorously test the impact of our StreetGames’ Toward Sport programme and other established interventions. This multi-site trial is a unique opportunity to support and evaluate the effectiveness of grassroots efforts in preventing youth crime and improving well-being. We are excited to participate in this landmark initiative and are committed to building safer, stronger communities through sport.”

Adventure and wilderness programmes

Finally, the YEF will test the potential of adventure and wilderness programmes to prevent offending through a pilot and efficacy trial of Ingeus UK’s Positive Pathways project. This five to seven-month programme supports young people who are at risk of offending or have already offended. They’ll be paired with a mentor and engage in various outdoor activities, including a residential adventure week.

Simon Smithson, Director of Youth Services for Ingeus UK, said: “We are delighted to be working with Youth Endowment Fund on the impact trials. With Positive Pathways, we will extend our services to support some of society’s most vulnerable young people, those at risk to falling into a life of crime. It will give young people new opportunities in new places, allowing them to develop new skills, grow in confidence, and discover their potential. Importantly it will explore what works in supporting young people to change negative behaviours and build themselves a safer future.”

Ciaran Thapar, Director of Public Affairs and Communication at the Youth Endowment Fund, said: “In my experience as a youth worker in schools, youth clubs and prisons, I’ve seen first-hand for years how engaging young people in positive activities can be an impactful diversion away from violence. From grassroots sports groups to the secure estate, our latest funding and evaluations demonstrate our commitment to building high-quality, reliable evidence on what works to prevent violence. Evaluations of this scale and nature are complex and challenging, so having six brilliant organisations recognise the value of these trials and collaborate closely with our team and evaluators to make it happen deserves huge credit. We look forward to seeing the programmes develop and providing more young people with the opportunity to benefit from positive activities.”