Youth Action Fund Charity – Transforming Life Chances
Recently, Distillers One of One released details of its 2023 auction. The funds raised will be donated to the Distillers’ Charity, principally to the Youth Action Fund, which aims to improve the life chances of disadvantaged young people in our Scotch Whisky-making communities. Philip Day looks at the work of the Youth Action Fund.
What’s the Youth Action Fund all about?
The Worshipful Company of Distillers has for many years supported a programme of educational support, initially to help members of the drinks trade acquire knowledge and appreciation of spirits, and increasingly to encourage new entrants to the industry.
Recently, The Distillers’ Charity moved to provide a broader range of training and more practical support, especially to young talent and those of limited means, to help them progress in the distilling trade.
The Distillers’ Charity
The Distillers’ Charity was founded in 1955 as the philanthropic arm of the Worshipful Company of Distillers, a City of London Livery company.
The Youth Action Fund – Transforming Life Chances
The Youth Action Fund, which aims to transform the life chances of people, aged between 16 and 25, in Scotland who are facing significant barriers to reaching their potential, whilst empowering them to create positive change in their lives and their communities, is the main focal point of The Distillers’ Charity. However, its charitable work also focuses on two other key areas: Vocational Training and Education to develop the next generation of talent in the spirits trade and City and Livery Giving which also works towards the charity’s mission of transforming the lives of young people.
Inspiring Scotland
To help achieve its goal of supporting young people, The Distillers’ Charity commissioned Inspiring Scotland to produce a detailed Scoping Report in 2021, in order to research: the context and needs of the hardest-to-reach young people; effective practice that existed; as well as identifying gaps and opportunities to make a transformative difference. This led to establishing a set of key principles for the Fund to help guide where it could make the most difference and to draw up a portfolio of organisations with whom to work.
The charity established early on a picture of where the greatest need exists, the barriers young people face, and where the Youth Action Fund could make a difference. Youth unemployment in Scotland, at 7.5%, is nearly double the rate for the overall working population, putting added pressure on the most disadvantaged young people who struggle to join the world of work.
Inspiring Scotland additionally identified that many of the young unemployed face challenges with a broad range of issues: 27% of those supported by the Youth Action Fund cited mental health as a barrier to employment, while 25% of those felt disadvantaged by learning challenges, and 10% considered limited literacy and numeracy to be their biggest limitation, compounded by the two-year disruption to education caused by the Covid pandemic.
Poverty affected 8% of those supported by the Youth Action Fund, and five of the individuals helped had previously suffered from periods of homelessness. The work of The Youth Action Fund is greatly supported by the proceeds of the Distillers One of One Auction Series to transform the life chances of young people in Scotland aged between 16 and 25.
The Fund’s portfolio of charities and impact monitoring is managed by Inspiring Scotland, who since the Fund’s inception in January 2022, curated a portfolio of six charity delivery partners, each bringing a depth of expertise and experience in achieving sustainable employability outcomes with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The six leading charities to achieve the goals of the Youth Action Fund are: Aberdeen Foyer, Action for Children, FARE Scotland, Street League, ENABLE Works and the Alcohol Education Trust. The charities are also engaged as delivery partners in the Youth Action Fund sharing best practices, with the constant aim of making their work – and the outcomes – as impactful as possible.
The Youth Action Fund – key principles
- Holistic focus on outcomes for individual young people informed by data tracking soft outcomes, progression milestones and employability outcomes.
- Collaboration with leading charities working together, under the management of Inspiring Scotland, offering long-term, sustained partnerships with resources committed to delivery, innovation and impact.
- The geographic spread reflects the working footprint of the Scotch Whisky industry, including urban and rural areas.
- Industry engagement provides funding support via the biennial One of One Auctions, and employment opportunities for beneficiaries.
The first year of the Youth Action Fund has demonstrated that, through the support offered, young people are happier, more resilient, confident and independent, and gain qualifications to find their purpose and achieve an employability outcome.
Impact of the programme to date
From start-up in January 2022, 249 employability outcomes were reached. Programmes supported by the Youth Action Fund were active in 26 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities in 2022, with the charities reaching out to some of the country’s most deprived urban areas, as well as to young people in need in rural communities.
In terms of the ultimate goal of delivering a successful employability outcome for each beneficiary engaged, for the young people with whom it worked in 2022 – more than 50% of those supported have already progressed into further education, training, volunteering or employment.
To ensure maximum effectiveness, Inspiring Scotland’s Matrix system records the experience of each individual young person supported by the Fund from the initial engagement through to a successful outcome and beyond. The team carefully monitors and records soft outcomes, progression milestones, and ultimately the employability outcomes and tracks how they are sustained by each young person.
The Fund’s outstanding partner charities have invested in staff and innovation and are working collaboratively to deliver life improvements through employability for all their beneficiaries.
Aiming to help those hardest to reach requires patience; programmes may not succeed the first time – young people’s lives are also not always linear. By supporting each individual young person, our charity partners ensure that they are supported through the ups and downs of their personal development.
Key Performance Indicators
The Youth Action Fund charities track their beneficiaries’ progress with a common set of measures via the Inspiring Scotland Matrix as follows:
- Soft Outcomes: Increased Resilience, Aspiration, Motivation, Self-belief, Personal Responsibility, and Improved Well-being. Total achieved in 2022: 2293
- Progression Milestones: Work Placements, Financial Management Training, Improved Literacy and Numeracy, Mentoring Undertaken, Alcohol Awareness Training. Total achieved in 2022: 1240
- Employability Outcomes: Securing Employment, Apprenticeships, Training Placements, Education or Structured Volunteering. Total achieved in 2022: 249
- 478 young people were engaged for support by Youth Action Fund charity partners.
- 26 local authority areas in Scotland received Youth Action Fund services. (25% of the Youth Action Fund beneficiaries are from the 10% most deprived communities in Scotland.)
Total Employability Outcomes in 2022
249 employability outcomes were achieved by young people supported by the Youth Action Fund, with the average time taken for a young person supported by the Youth Action Fund to achieve an employability outcome being 6-12 months.
The Drinks Trust
Since its foundation in 1886, as one of the many benevolent societies established in that era, The Drinks Trust is The Distillers’ Charity’s longest standing grantee, helping fulfil its historic role of caring for those in the industry who are most in need.
The current fuel and cost-of-living crisis has affected and continues to impact people in the industry, including many of the youngest members of the workforce. The Distillers’ Charity helped in 2022 by giving support for hardship grants to financially support those working in the industry, who have fallen on particularly difficult times.
In 2022, The Drinks Trust helped more than 4500 colleagues facing hardship, while 1290 individuals accessed its well-being services.
As previously stated the work of the Youth Action Fund and the partnerships it funds is dependent on money raised by the Distillers’ One of One Auction.
If you would like to aid the work of the YAF, or if you are a keen collector of rare whiskies, or just interested in all things whisky-related, I urge you to visit the Distillers’ One of One website and peruse the lots on offer – you may just find something that takes your fancy!
If you decide to bid for something I wish you every success as by doing so, you will be supporting a very worthy cause.
Further information
To register interest in this auction, visit the Distillers’ One of One website
References
Press release care of Sotheby’s and The Distillers One of One Press Office. Also, The Distillers’ Charity Impact Report 2022
Images
Kindly provided with thanks by The Distillers One of One Press Office and Simon+Simon Communications