Young Influencers give £1000 grant to help homeless young people have a good Christmas

AVOW Young Influencers are a group of young people between the ages of 15-25 who compose a grant panel for youth led grants. These young people make real funding decisions about grants. At their last meeting, they received a grant application for £75 to help get presents for disadvantaged children.

“It simply wasn’t enough” Fionn McCabe (13) said.

The group then debated about what they should do about it. No-one wanted to give less, but these experienced grant-funders debated about the best way to help.

From the many options before them they settled on a grant of £500 to be used to buy warm blankets, socks and gifts, to ensure that the young person receiving the gift was not only had something to open but could be warm and cosy on the face of a cost-of-living crisis.

In addition to the £500 for Christmas presents, these young people also allocated another £500 for emergency bags. These bags are for when a young person is forced to leave their home and have nothing. The emergency bag will contain emergency essentials for this difficult and traumatic event.

‘It’s so fundamentally connected to everything that we do’ Leo McCabe (15)

The gifts were delivered to the info shop by the young influencers themselves on Monday night. They were relieved by Martine Vaut, Info Shop Manager.

“From the heart, this will make such a difference to young people this Christmas. It means someone is thinking about them” Charlotte Elms of the Youth Homeless Prevention service said.

The Young Influencers group, part of AVOW, have given out over £7,184 in grants to youth-led grants over the last year. They meet every three week on TY AVOW Egerton St, the next. meeting is on the 9ᵗʰ of January running between 16:30-18:00. Young Influencers are welcome to come along or email [email protected] for more information.