Young Kensington & Chelsea

Young Kensington & Chelsea (Young K&C), founded in 2019 as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), is an independent membership body dedicated to strengthening the voluntary sector supporting children and young people under 25 in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Driven by stark local inequalities, poverty, mental health challenges, and events like the Grenfell fire, its mission ensures every young person accesses inspiring opportunities, community belonging, and equity through collaboration, advocacy, capacity building, and asset-based approaches. As a strategic intermediary, it distributes core funding from sources like John Lyon’s Charity while fostering cross-sector partnerships among voluntary, public, and business groups to build resilient networks and champion systemic change.

It prioritises grants for high-quality youth services, safeguarding, mental health and wellbeing, play/recreation, inclusion of marginalised groups (e.g., SEND, poverty-affected, excluded youth), and organisational sustainability via core costs, projects, capacity building, and service development. Funded activities include after-school clubs, youth centres, supplementary schools, and trauma support, favouring collaborative, direct interventions for the most disadvantaged.

Eligible applicants are UK-registered charities or CICs (registered before December 2023 with at least three unrelated trustees/directors) delivering services exclusively in Kensington and Chelsea; small grants target turnovers under £250,000. Unsolicited online applications require safeguarding policy, bank statements, insurance, and health/safety docs. Annual rounds feature due diligence panels, young people’s site visits, and council sign-off; the latest closed 8 November 2024, with programmes starting April 2025—check website for next. Grants range from £8,000–£10,000/year (Small/Making Space, £100,000–£150,000 pots) to multi-year core funding (Main, £757,500/year pot).

Distinctively borough-embedded with no religious restrictions, Young K&C excludes non-local work, late applications, and misaligned uses, uniquely empowering youth in assessments and modelling anti-racism, governance, and inclusion best practices.