£450,000 YES fund now live for projects focused on preventing serious violence and protecting young people

THE Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) went live for the 2nd year, on:- Friday, 9 May 2025, offering:- £450,000 for projects focused on preventing serious violence by creating brighter futures for young people across Merseyside.

The fund was unveiled by Merseyside's Police and Crime Commissioner, Emily Spurrell, and the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (MVRP) last year with the aim of unlocking the potential of thousands of young people across the Region by providing safe, engaging opportunities.

In its 1st year, the huge cash investment was used to provide diversionary activities for nearly 12,000 young people helping them to gain new skills, increase their confidence and resilience and fill their time with memorable experiences throughout the year.

Now, the PCC and MVRP want to build on that success by releasing the YES Fund for a 2nd year.

They are inviting community groups, charities and 3rd sector organisations to submit their bids for projects running which will support young people, through programmes offering arts, culture and sports programmes. For the 1st time, this year, there is also a call for projects which can offer young people digital skills, helping them to stay safe online, recognise mis-and dis-information and protect themselves virtually.

Grants of between:- £5,000 and £25,000, are available for projects and programmes which give young people under 25, the opportunity to gain valuable skills and qualifications, build their confidence and make positive decisions for the future.

Projects can run throughout the year, with a focus on times when issues can traditionally increase, such as:- during the summer holidays and the autumn half term when young people are not in School and there may be little for them to do.

The money will be focused in areas of Merseyside which have seen the highest levels of violence and the biggest cuts to youth services, with the aim of keeping young people safe and supported and helping to steer them away from trouble.

In 2024, the investment was used to run a wide variety of initiatives focused on reaching and supporting at risk young people. This included youth workers going out in hotspot areas to engage with young people to:- mental health courses and leadership training, Forest School activities, free sports coaching and more much.

Merseyside's Police Commissioner Emily Spurrell said:- "From graffiti and art classes to music sessions and DJing, capoeira, sports sessions and forest Schools, last year our YES projects offered an amazing array of activities and opportunities for young people across our Region, all focused on keeping them safe and preventing them from getting drawn into dangerous or harmful behaviour. We're determined to build on the success of the 1st year of our Youth Empowerment Scheme by reaching even more young people and offering them opportunities which help to unlock their potential and put them on the right life path. Investing in prevention and early intervention is essential if we are to reduce serious violence in our communities. We know this works. Serious violence is falling and by working with our brilliant community and third sector organisations we can continue to build safer. brighter futures for young people on Merseyside. I can't wait to see what opportunities we can provide to support and inspire our young people over the year ahead."

Director of the MVRP, Superintendent Georgie Garvey added:- "The MVRP has supported a staggering 145,619 young people since we started work in 2020. The feedback from the young people involved with last year's YES projects, as well as the organisations which ran them, is incredibly inspiring and encouraging. Even some of the smallest grants were used to run projects which made a massive difference in the lives of the young people they reached. By announcing the 2nd year of our hugely successful YES fund we are determined to build on this work, giving even more young people positive opportunities and addressing the root causes which may cause them to make poor life choices. Poverty, inequality, and a lack of opportunities can all play a big part. Working with our fantastic grassroot organisations across our Region, we are focused on investing in and protecting our young people and providing opportunities which significantly reduce their chance of ever becoming involved in violence. We firmly believe that violence is preventable, not inevitable and through the YES fund, we are focused on delivering targeted projects which help young people to make positive choices for the future."

Grassroots organisations which are interested in applying are invited to get advice and support to submit a bid at an information session at:- Prescot Community Fire and Police Station, on:- Cables Way, Manchester Road, at:- 10am, on:- 23 May 2025.

The YES will be administered by the Community Foundation for Merseyside (CfM) which holds funds from individuals and organisations as donors who wish to support deserving causes in Merseyside.

Programmes Manager at CfM, James Proctor said:- "The YES Fund is a fantastic funding opportunity to support our local grassroots community organisations and their engagement work with young people. It is so important to recognise and support the valuable community projects delivered throughout the year, including key periods such as the summer School holidays and Autumn half term period, which allow young people to get involved in:- sporting, cultural, digital, educational and crucially, fun activities which keeps them safe and helps to both reduce and prevent violence and anti social behaviour."

All applications must be submitted online via the Community Foundation for Merseyside, by close of play, on:- Friday, 6 June 2025.

Please visit:- CFMerseyside.Org.UK to apply.

The Shadow of Cybercrime - Is Our Digital Leap Too Risky?

THE recent cyberattack crippling The Co-op's supply chain, leaving shelves bare in some Scottish islands like Skye, serves as a stark reminder of the real world consequences of digital vulnerabilities. This incident, coupled with the retailer's admission of:- "significant" customs data theft, underscores the serious implications of entrusting essential services and sensitive information to an increasingly targeted online realm. It begs the question: are we, as a society, hurtling towards an over-dependence on digital infrastructure without adequately addressing the inherent dangers?

This concern is amplified by the UK Government's ambitious push to digitize public services and personal data. Just this month, the announcement that 95,000 students in Manchester and the West Midlands will receive their GCSE results via a new Education App; a precursor to a national rollout; raises immediate questions about security and accessibility, despite assurances of backup paper copies. This initiative follows closely on the heels of plans for virtual driver's licenses and electronic passports, adding to the growing pool of sensitive information residing online. With health records and banking already largely digital, the potential impact of widespread cyberattacks becomes increasingly alarming.

The limitations of current safeguards are already apparent. The recently enacted:- 'Online Safety Act' has proven ineffective in swiftly removing content inciting the 2024 riots, casting doubt on our ability to effectively combat sophisticated online criminals, many of whom operate beyond UK jurisdiction. This raises a critical question: can we truly defend ourselves in the digital arena? Furthermore, the increasing trend of storing personal data in the cloud introduces another layer of uncertainty. Do we truly know the physical location of this data and who ultimately has access to it?

Compounding these vulnerabilities is the UK's reliance on foreign technology. The dominance of US-owned operating systems (Windows and Apple), social media platforms (largely American or Chinese), and search engines (primarily US) the absence of a prominent UK search engine is notable; alongside payment systems like PayPal, highlights a critical lack of investment in homegrown digital infrastructure. This dependence not only exposes us to potential exploitation but also to the political and economic interests of other nations.

The current government focus on Artificial Intelligence, while potentially transformative, appears misplaced if fundamental cybersecurity challenges remain unaddressed. If we struggle to enforce laws against harmful online content, how can we effectively regulate the far more complex landscape of AI? Moreover, this AI push often involves the same multinational corporations that currently dominate our digital ecosystem.

Ultimately, the concentration of our data, from foundational operating systems to everyday applications and the servers that house our information, in the hands of companies outside the UK leaves us increasingly vulnerable. We risk becoming beholden not only to the security protocols of these international firms, but also to the political agendas of the countries in which they are based.

Therefore, a crucial question demands our attention; should our nation proceed with such a rapid transition despite the potential risks? Will our single minded drive towards a fully online existence without a more robust and comprehensive strategy to secure our digital future and foster greater technological independence or lose our independence, whilst potentially exposing us to more crime? So, what are your thoughts? Email our Newsroom at:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com or send us a message on:- Mastodon, Facebook, or Twitter. Please do let us know as we love to hear your views....