The Neighbourhood Fund
Understanding if and how empowering people to make decisions about their local neighbourhoods can prevent children from becoming involved in violence.
Evaluation type
Funding round
Neighbourhood Fund – Round 1Setting
Evaluator
| Projects | Funding | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Aston Villa Foundation | £1,000,000 | West Midlands |
| Born in Bradford | £1,000,000 | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Right to Succeed | £1,000,000 | East of England |
| Young Manchester | £1,000,000 | North West |
| Citizens UK | £1,000,000 | Wales |
What does this project involve?
The Neighbourhood Fund aims to establish if and how empowering people to make decisions about their local neighbourhoods can prevent children from becoming involved in violence. It seeks to establish community violence prevention partnerships in specific areas with high levels of violence among children and young people and provides funding for them to carry out local action plans.
Each site progresses through three preparatory phases (feasibility, discovery, and co-design), which involve local organisations forming a steering group and creating an action plan to address violence in a specific local area, under the leadership of one organisation appointed as the lead co-ordinator. Each site then embarks on the action plan delivery phase which can last for up to five years.
Why did YEF fund this project?
The Neighbourhood Fund is part of YEF’s work to invest in and evaluate place-based approaches. Although the evidence that violence is concentrated in certain locations is strong, there has been a lack of robust evaluations of place-based approaches to violence prevention. These approaches have also tended to take a ‘top down’ approach and failed to collaborate with the organisations which operate in communities experiencing high levels of violence.
So far, YEF have published two reports regarding the delivery of the Neighbourhood Fund:
Neighbourhood Fund Annual Report 1 (October 2024)
The first report describes the initial implementation of the first round of the Neighbourhood Fund, which is taking place in five sites in England and Wales (Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Manchester, and Norfolk). It examines the transition from the preparatory phases to the action plan phase, and the various approaches that sites are taking to delivering their plans. Early findings (based on the preparatory phases and first year of delivery) regarding how well the action plans are being delivered are also included, as are initial insights from the learning partners, Renaisi-TSIP, that have supported the sites throughout the process. This phase of the evaluation started in December 2023 and concluded in April 2024.
Data for this first annual report was drawn from qualitative interviews with 11 members of lead coordinator organisations and 28 steering group members/delivery partners using framework analysis, which organises content according to pre-specified themes. The report also drew on each site’s quarterly reports of programme implementation and their action plans, the learning partner’s reports for each site and for the programme as a whole, and observations of programme meetings.
The findings from this first stage may be downloaded below.
Neighbourhood Fund Annual Report 2 (October, 2025)
The second report describes an implementation and process evaluation of the second year of action plan delivery (2024/2025), again, synthesising findings across all five sites. This report explores what approaches delivery partners are taking to deliver action plans, how well action plans are being delivered, and stakeholders’ and children and young people’s perceptions of the programme.
Data were collected for this second report through an online survey with 39 partners; 27 interviews with lead coordinators, delivery partners and steering group members; and focus groups with 46 children and young people, exploring their experiences of the programme and suggestions for improvement. Monitoring data and document review were also used. The second phase of the evaluation started in November 2024 and concluded in May 2025.
The key conclusions for the second report are as follows, and the full report may be downloaded below.
Key conclusions
| Delivery partners employed a wide range of approaches, including mentoring, sports and arts activities, and mental health support. In several sites, delivery partners reported that adapting activities to the cultural needs of children and young people helped increase participation and retention. |
| Children and young people (CYP) and stakeholders were broadly supportive of the programme. CYP valued supportive one-to-one relationships and safe spaces and described the programme as providing positive alternatives to unsafe environments. Stakeholders valued its inclusivity in engaging diverse groups and perceived that the embedding of youth leadership and voices made activities more relevant, better attended and more empowering. |
| Partnerships across statutory services, grassroots organisations, schools and steering groups were perceived to provide strong foundations for community-based delivery. In Year 2, many steering groups expanded their membership to include schools, local organisations and trusted community figures, which was perceived as strengthening reach and resources. |
| Lead coordinators played a central role in how sites worked together to deliver their action plans. The coordinators ran meetings, solved problems, supported data collection and monitoring and helped recruit new organisations into the programme. Many sites have depended heavily on their coordinator, raising concerns about the sustainability of delivery when the role ends. |
| Barriers have continued to affect delivery. Funding constraints have reduced the ability to meet demand and expand interventions. Workforce pressures, including staff turnover and burnout, have affected delivery consistency. Inconsistent data collection, limited monitoring capacity among smaller partners and confusion around evaluation terminology have made it harder to track progress and demonstrate impact. |
What will YEF do next?
All five sites are continuing to progress with the delivery of their action plans. YEF will conduct further evaluations to learn from their experiences and assess the impact of the Neighbourhood Fund on levels of violence.
Downloads
- Young ManchesterNeighbourhoodsIn progress
Young Manchester
About the project We know that a lot of violent crime happens in very specific local areas. To make a difference, many believe that it’s essential to work with the people and organisations who live and work there – they know their communities best. Through our Neighbourhood Fund, we are investing and building long-term partnerships…Project name:
The Neighbourhood FundFunding (Project and Evaluation):
£1,000,000Evaluation types:
Impact evaluationIn progress - Right to SucceedNeighbourhoodsIn progress
Right to Succeed
About the project We know that a lot of violent crime happens in very specific local areas. To make a difference, many believe that it’s essential to work with the people and organisations who live and work there – they know their communities best. Through our Neighbourhood Fund, we are investing and building long-term partnerships…Project name:
The Neighbourhood FundFunding (Project and Evaluation):
£1,000,000Evaluation types:
Impact evaluationIn progress - Born in BradfordNeighbourhoodsIn progress
Born in Bradford
About the project We know that a lot of violent crime happens in very specific local areas. To make a difference, many believe that it’s essential to work with the people and organisations who live and work there – they know their communities best. Through our Neighbourhood Fund, we are investing and building long-term partnerships…Project name:
The Neighbourhood FundFunding (Project and Evaluation):
£1,000,000Evaluation types:
Impact evaluationIn progress