Consultancy-led capacity building support services

Eastside People has been a key partner to the Youth Investment Fund (YIF) over the past 2 years. During that time, our charity-focused consultants have delivered consultancy-led capacity building support services to grant recipients from organisations providing services for young people to help them deliver their building and refurbishment transformation projects.

The UK Government backed YIF fund supports youth organisations to build or carry out a major refurbishment to transform provision of youth spaces. Over £300 million was invested in rebuilding and expanding youth spaces in England, in places where they were needed most.

With over 270 organisations in underserved areas of England benefitting from funding to complete and open their buildings, it is estimated that over 49,000 young people now have access to safe, modern spaces and activities made by and for them.

The investment was managed by a partnership of Social Investment Business, Resonance, The KeyFund and The National Youth Agency.

It was recognised that many of the organisations receiving funding had little or no experience in managing major development projects or handling the substantial changes in the scale and provision of their youth services that would now be possible.

To help alleviate these issues, a breadth of capacity-building support was created as part of the offer. These services were delivered by third-party partners including Eastside People and were made available to the YIF-funded youth organisations to enable them to strengthen the impact of their capital grants. Over a period of two years Eastside People provided support including:

1. Managing the changes
2. Helping with income generation
3. Providing services for governance, marketing, social media and financial management
4. Diagnostics to understand the needs of grantees to ensure targeted support
5. Provision of training, in-person events and webinars on a range of topics.

The current YIF completed on 31^st March 2026. The Government’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has announced a further £500 million funding for youth services as part of the National Youth Strategy which includes £350 million for better youth spaces programme, the launch of 50 Young Futures Hubs and £22.5 million investment in enrichment activities for up to 400 schools.

If you are interested in finding out more about how we can help your organisation with services related to YIF funding, please contact Jo Simpson, Senior Fund Development Manager at Eastside People ( [email protected]).