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  • IYPF Group Photo
    14 September 2026

    The Involving Young People Fund: supporting young people to invest in their communities

    From 2024 to 2025, 11 young people from Wakefield and Barnsley co-designed a £90,000 Fund to support projects that address challenges faced by young people in their communities.

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  • Citizens for Culture - Photo credit Ciara Hillyer

    Citizens for Culture: the making of a citizen-led Cultural Plan

    A new 16-minute documentary tells the story of the West of England’s Citizens’ Assembly for Culture through the people who took part – and invites more people to be part of what happens next.

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  • People working together on a building project as part of WeCanMake's Festival of Making Together in 2025

    Social and affordable housing: Investment deep dive

    An investment deep dive on social and affordable housing in the UK, giving an overview of the challenges facing the sector as well as both the impact and the investment opportunity for asset allocators. It also offers guidance on community-centred approaches.

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  • Restoke,TheLotusEaters,February2023-75

    Community-led art and creativity: mid-strategy review

    We’re pleased to share a report by DHA Communications reviewing Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’s support for community-led art and creativity. It looks at the context for this work and what progress has been made. Alison Holdom, Esmée Funding Lead for Creative, Confident Communities, also shares reflections on the recommendations.

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  • Visualisation of the entrance to the Migration Museum's new permanent home. Credit: Unknown Works

    Migration Museum: building a new museum with community at its heart

    Migration Museum share how they developed a People’s Panel to embed local voices directly into the creation of their new, permanent home.

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  • Anti Racist Cumbria-Saturday Pitch Pic 1.jpg

    Supporting place-based and community-led racial justice

    In this blog, Gillian Goode, a Funding Manager in Esmée’s Creative, Confident Communities team, reflects on ‘place’ within racial justice.

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  • Illustration showing a lake with a few people doing citizen science to monitor the freshwater quality

    Blue Spaces: Working in partnership to improve local freshwaters in the UK

    The Blue Spaces programme set out to support people and organisations to take imaginative approaches to looking after their freshwater environments. Read our report, which shares the collective learning of everyone involved – from the funding process to the different approaches of the 19 funded projects, and the learning programme co-designed with them.

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  • Members of the Involving Young People Collective having a meal during a Blue Spaces site visit.

    Blue Spaces: Reflections on youth leadership, trust and place-based funding

    Thalia Papanicolaou from HUDL Youth Development Agency shares her insights into how the Blue Spaces programme unfolded - and why this way of working with young people created such meaningful change.

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  • Sandwell for Parents of Disabled Children (SPDC) - work funding by SCVO's Completers programme

    Insights from place-led funding 2: Continuing to learn and improve our approach

    We're pleased to share our second Insights from place-led funding report, which shares learning on three large scale initiatives we supported in three places: Barking & Dagenham, Plymouth, and Sandwell.

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  • IYPF Group Photo

    Launching the Involving Young People Fund in May 2025

    The Involving Young People Fund launches in May 2025 in Wakefield and Barnsley, putting young people in the lead to fund projects that tackle the issues they care about most.

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