Open call – for evaluators

Introduction

The Youth Endowment Fund’s Open Call funding round invites proposals from members of the YEF Evaluator Panel who have identified a project, service or intervention that aims to reduce young people’s involvement in violence and is ready for rigorous evaluation.

This differs from past applications Evaluator Panel members may have submitted to the YEF, as you are being asked to propose the intervention to be evaluated as well as the method of evaluation. 

Unlike previous rounds, which were open for applications for a limited amount of time and focused on specific themes like Positive Activities or Psychological Therapies, this Open Call is ongoing and does not have a closing date. 

As a What Works Centre, our aim is to build strong evidence for practices and approaches in areas where clear gaps exist.  We fund delivery of services only in order to evaluate them and identify what works to reduce young people’s involvement in violence.

Please note, if you are not an evaluator but deliver a project that you think is eligible for YEF funding, please see our Open Call for Projects page instead.

What we’ll invest in

Projects must align with one of our seven focus sectors

To help us make the biggest difference over the ten years of our endowment, we’ve selected a set of sectors where we’ll concentrate our funding and learning. We believe these sectors present some of the biggest opportunities to improve support for children and young people who are at risk of becoming involved in violence.

Applications are open for projects being delivered in one of the following sectors:

1. Youth sector
2. Children’s services
3. Youth Justice
4. Policing
5. Neighbourhoods
6. Health
7. Education

Projects must support children at risk of violence

Projects must primarily support children and young people aged 10–18 who are either:

• At risk of crime or violence (‘secondary prevention’), or
• Already affected by violence, offending or exploitation (‘tertiary prevention’).

While children outside this age range can be included, they should not be the primary focus.

Please note, that we are not accepting projects aimed at universal provision for all children and young people (i.e. ‘primary prevention’).

Projects must be ready for an impact evaluation

We aim to identify projects which are ready to be evaluated via an efficacy study with an experimental design (i.e. randomised control trial) or a quasi-experimental design. We can provide funding for both the delivery of the intervention and the evaluation itself.

We are interested in proposals from both:

• Members of the YEF Evaluator Panel who have identified an evaluable project, service or intervention that they believe would meet our criteria. Evaluators will be asked to provide details of the intervention as well as their proposed approach for evaluating it.
• Formal partnerships between delivery organisations and YEF Evaluator panel members.  In these cases, the delivery organisation should apply as the lead organisation using the Delivery Application Form. 

Interventions may be those already in delivery or those which will also need YEF funding in order to deliver during the evaluation.  As a result, the application form contains a number of questions about the intervention itself.  Please make sure you have taken the time to thoroughly understand it before proposing an intervention for evaluation.  

The impact of projects will be measured against one of YEF’s primary outcomes:

• Reducing violent offending
• Reducing non-violent offending
• Reducing victimisation by crime
• Reducing behavioural difficulties
• Reducing drug and alcohol use
• Reducing sexually violent offending
• Reducing bullying perpetration
• Reducing influence of criminal peers

Projects must help us to build evidence for what works

We welcome proposals that will help fill evidence gaps and build a robust understanding of what works to prevent children becoming involved in violence .

Before applying, please review our portfolio of funded projects. If your proposal is similar to an existing project, you’ll need to clearly explain how your approach is different and why it will generate new evidence.

For example, we have funded several mentoring projects. To consider funding another, we would need to understand how it addresses a distinct and meaningful gap not covered by existing projects.

Other important information about this grant round

• The interventions to be evaluated must be delivered in England and/or Wales. Evaluators can be based in any location.
• We expect the maximum project delivery time required to reach the necessary number of children and young people for an impact evaluation to be 24 months.
• We are looking for projects which are ready to be evaluated via an efficacy study. In some rare instances, we may consider the use of a short (i.e. 6-months or less) ‘internal pilot’ preceding an efficacy study, to test key evaluation procedures such as randomisation and/or recruitment. However this internal pilot must still fit within maximum 24 months of delivery, and the aim would be to include the sample used in the internal pilot as part of the full efficacy sample that is analysed.
• Applicants interested in proposing a multi-site trial (MST) should use the evaluator open call application form, as with any other evaluation proposal, but should first see the MST Call for Proposals.

Application guidance

Please read our application guidance for more information about this funding round, our eligibility criteria and application process.

This guidance is for members of the YEF Evaluator Panel. Separate guidance aimed at projects delivering support and services to children and young people can be found here.

How to apply

Please read the application guidance carefully before starting your application. This grant round is an open call for proposals and has no fixed closing date.

The application form is split into two parts:

• Part One – a high-level summary of the proposed intervention and some description of how this might be evaluated

• Part Two – further detail on the intervention, plus details on your areas of expertise and suggested methodology.

We aim to assess all part one applications within ten working days.  If we believe your proposal has promise, we will send you a link to the part two application.

Please note, this application form is for evaluators only. If you are a project delivering support to children and young people, please see here.

Please note: this call for proposals will remain open for the foreseeable future, it does not have a closing date and there is no current cap on the number of applications which will be considered.  A well considered application is the best route to success, please don’t feel the need to rush, all applications will be assessed.

Questions

If you have any questions or are not sure that you’re eligible, you can contact us at grants@youthendowmentfund.org.uk