Eight Bedford organisations share just over £87,000, and college students chose them. Girls' football, a creative hub and autism youth groups are funded.

Eight organisations working with teenagers in Bedford borough have been given just over £87,000 between them, and every funding decision was made by young people rather than by grant officers.

The money comes from the Bedford Giving Youth Panel, a group drawn from The Bedford College Group, including The Bedford Sixth Form. The panel wrote the funding call around its own priorities, read the applications and decided who got what. Bedford Giving published the results on 28 July.

Twenty-three organisations applied, asking for more than £300,000 in total. Fifteen of them got nothing.

Bar chart: 23 organisations requested over £300,000 from the Bedford Giving Youth Panel; just over £87,000 was awarded to eight of them
Graphic by The Bedford Times

Bedford Giving’s own headline puts the round at £90,000. Its text says the panel awarded “over £87,000”. We have used the figure in the text.

What the eight projects will run

Organisation What the money pays for
Autism Bedfordshire Fortnightly social groups for autistic young people aged 10 to 17, in Bedford and Kempston
Bedford Radio CIC Young people making and presenting radio programmes on local issues and local politics
Food, etc CIC Cooking sessions on nutrition and preparing affordable meals
Hear 2 Listen CIC 48 youth-led sessions across Bedford for 13 to 19 year olds
Sporting Aid CIC Free weekly football for girls aged 13 to 17
Rollback World CIC A creative hub in Bedford town centre for podcasting and creative media
Everyone’s Gang CIC A weekly programme of creative activities and life skills
Q:alliance A youth-led LGBTQ+ hub, one-to-one support and outreach

Q:alliance already runs Q:youth Bedford alongside its Milton Keynes groups. Rollback World is the Bedford CIC behind the campaign for an indoor skatepark and roller rink in the town. Autism Bedfordshire’s groups run in Bedford and Kempston.

The descriptions above are Bedford Giving’s own. It has not published how much each organisation received, so the split of the £87,000 between the eight is not on the public record.

Who decided, and why that is the point

Paul Kellett, a director at Bedford Giving, said the panel “surfaced and championed a new generation of young community leaders” and that “every decision has been made by young people, for young people”.

Yiannis Koursis, chief executive of The Bedford College Group, said the panel had shown “remarkable thoughtfulness and commitment”.

This is the second year the panel has run. Bedford Giving says the projects will take place across the borough over the coming year.

What it means for you

  • If you are 13 to 19 in Bedford borough, eight funded activities are being set up or extended near you over the next year, from free football to cooking sessions to radio.
  • Start times have not been published. Bedford Giving’s announcement names the projects but not their dates or venues. Contact the organisation running the one you want directly.
  • Three of the eight have websites we could verify today, linked in the table above. For the others, search the organisation’s name rather than relying on a third-party listing.
  • If you run a youth organisation and missed out, the round was heavily oversubscribed rather than thinly contested: two in three applicants were turned down, and the panel said many worthwhile projects could not be funded.

Bedford Giving is a place-based giving partnership working across Bedford borough. Its funding decisions are separate from Bedford Borough Council’s.

For what else is on for families in the borough, see our things to do in Bedford page.