The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone T.D., today launched a new targeted youth funding scheme entitled, UBU - Your Place Your Space, which provides over €38.5 million for youth services.

UBU - Your Place, Your Space brings together four already existing, overlapping schemes with a value of over €38.5 million. The scheme aims to provide services that support young people to develop the personal and social skills required to improve their life chances. These include services covering health, education, employment and social connectedness. The scheme targets young people who are marginalised, disadvantaged, or vulnerable.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Zappone acknowledged the vitally important role that youth services play in the lives of young people across the country:

‘‘For many young people, the relationship they have with their youth worker is the most significant relationship in their lives. These relationships must be valued and supported. It is my hope that through the implementation of UBU - Your Place, Your Space we now have in place a funding programme and framework which will allow strong and stable youth services to flourish. ’’

UBU - Your Place, Your Space was designed in collaboration with young people, the youth sector, and Education and Training Boards over the last five years.

The Minister continued:

“I am so happy to be taking the next step on this important journey. The launch of UBU – Your Place, Your Space contributes to the broader efforts of my colleagues across Government in acknowledging that a positive community context can enable engagement and play a part in breaking the cycle of disadvantage.”

UBU - Your Place, Your Space aims to ensure minimal disruption to provision for young people. That’s why projects already funded under the previous four schemes will continue to be funded based on an evidenced demonstration of young people’s needs by Education and Training Boards. The new scheme will help deliver the National Drugs Strategy goal of improving services for young people at risk of substance misuse in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Applications will open in 2020, with a view to having the scheme fully operational before the end of 2020.

ENDS

Notes to the Editor:

The Government approved the launch of UBU - Your Place, Your Space, and its implementation in 2020, at the Government meeting of 10th December. 

Previous schemes

In line with the Department’s strategic objective of ensuring high standards of compliance on governance and accountability, a Value for Money and Policy Review of the Youth Funding Programmes (VFMPR) was conducted in 2013. The VFMPR examined three of the targeted funding schemes administered by the DCYA:

Target group

Young people aged 10-24 years who are described in the National Youth Strategy as marginalised, disadvantaged, or vulnerable will be the primary target group for services available through UBU Your Place Your Space.

Young people experiencing economic, social and cultural disadvantage. This includes:

• Young people who live in communities with high concentrations of families/individuals who: are dependent on social welfare or have low incomes; experience intergenerational unemployment; have high levels of addiction; and come from one parent families. It also includes young people who come from situations of family breakdown and low educational attainment, including young people who live in communities with a deprivation score of below minus ten.

Marginalised young people whose specific circumstances limit their opportunities including, but not limited to: 

• Young carers
• Travellers
• Roma
• Immigrants
• Young people with disabilities
• Young people with mental health issues
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI+) young people.

Young people who are vulnerable or at risk of not flourishing including, but not limited to: 

• Young people in or leaving care, young people experiencing or involved in substance misuse and young people with little or no formal structure in their lives, for example young people not in education, training or employment. 

Types of Service Provision

In the first policy cycle of UBU Your Place Your Space, there are three strands of funding available:

• Strand A: Funding for the direct delivery of youth services, on either a geographic or thematic basis, to the target group of young people for UBU and the operational costs associated with this provision.
• Strand B: Funding to support access for the target group to existing youth facilities originally built using the Young People’s Facilities and Services Fund (YPFSF) 1 and 2 and to provide for the use of office space for organisations funded under the scheme.
• Strand C: Funding for supports that build and strengthen the capacity of frontline practitioners/funded organisations to deliver youth services in the UBU Your Place Your Space target group. These must be pre-existing and be youth services formerly funded under YPFSF 1 and 2, the Local Drugs Task Force scheme (LDTF) and Special Projects for Youth (SPY).

Development outcomes

The specific seven personal and social development skills encompassed within the provision of UBU Your Place Your Space are:

The outcomes sought by UBU Your Place Your Space are informed by the high-level national outcome areas set out in Better Outcomes Brighter Futures (BOBF) and the corresponding objectives in the National Youth Strategy. 

• Communication skills
• Confidence and agency
• Planning and problem-solving
• Relationships
• Creativity and imagination
• Resilience and determination
• Emotional intelligence 

Consultation

• The design of UBU Your Place Your Space has been informed by an extensive programme of consultation throughout the reform. The consultation focused first and foremost on young people. Sixteen different consultation events took place throughout the country.
• The adult stakeholder consultations provided opportunities for youth workers, boards of management, national youth organisations, volunteers and other key stakeholders to input into the design of UBU Your Place Your Space.