Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa

Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa, operating as SYP Trust and established in 1843, champions vulnerable children and young people through refuge, education, and holistic support rooted in social reform. Core values of inclusivity, youth voice, equality, diversity, and participatory engagement drive their grantmaking, embedding lived youth experience in governance and strategy via ongoing consultation. They believe systemic change arises when young people lead identification and removal of barriers to education, employment, health, and civic participation, prioritizing partnerships with grassroots organizations for youth empowerment, capacity building, and innovative interventions.

Funding centers on three priorities: Youth Voice empowering young people aged 5-25 through leadership opportunities, co-production of projects, peer support groups, advocacy, and community-led initiatives addressing exclusion and marginalisation; Learning and Employment supporting educational attainment, vocational training, employability skills, mentoring, after-school clubs, and work readiness programs for disadvantaged youth facing barriers like youth unemployment, including young refugees via market-based employment pathways; Health fostering wellbeing, mental health counselling, resilience-building therapeutic activities, physical health interventions, and holistic support overcoming disadvantage for children and young people with complex needs. They back preventative, trauma-informed, person-centred services such as youth engagement drop-ins, skills workshops, outdoor activities, creative arts programs, and innovations tackling social isolation, poverty, and family carer challenges among urban youth.

Exclusions encompass projects outside children and young people aged 5-25 or lacking direct youth benefit; they avoid non-participatory or top-down approaches. Distinctive for historical social reform legacy blended with progressive youth-led grantmaking, they prioritize marginalised London youth in grassroots, lived-experience-driven charities promoting EDI, early intervention, and community empowerment, favouring organisations amplifying youth voice in health, learning, and employment for sustained resilience and inclusion.