Depaul UK wins £1.6M grant for homeless youth – The Fair Chance Fund grant to support homeless and disadvantaged young people into housing, education and work recognizes and support the work of Depaul UK.

Today, Kris Hopkins MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, announces Depaul UK as one of the successful organisations set to implement the Fair Chance Fund programme.

Working in the four local authorities of Manchester City, Rochdale, Oldham and Greenwich, Depaul UK will support 160 homeless young people to ensure long-term solutions are found for their housing, training and employment needs. To be eligible for the Fund, young people need to be between 18 and 24 years old, who are homeless and not in education, training or employment.

The Fair Chance Fund has been created by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Cabinet Office to improve the lives of young people who are facing homelessness at a crucial stage in their lives. The funding will be delivered through social impact bonds, a payment by results scheme that will see Depaul UK working together with social investors Bridges Ventures, Montpelier Foundation and Big Issue Invest and social intermediary, Social Finance.

Jonathan Flory, Director of Social Finance, said: “Depaul UK is an innovative and forward looking charity and we are delighted that they have benefited from the Fair Chance Fund. Social Impact Bond funding will enable them to break free of the constraints of traditional service models and tailor their support to respond to the young people’s individual needs and progress.”

About the Fair Chance Fund

The Fair Chance Fund is a payment by results scheme that was launched by the Department of Communities and Local Government and the Cabinet Office in February 2014. The fund aims to improve accommodation and work outcomes for a group of young, homeless people (predominantly 18 to 24 year olds) whose support needs are poorly met by existing service because of the complexity of their circumstances. It is designed to stimulate innovate approaches which can be built on and replicated in the future and address problems that would otherwise lead to long term benefit dependency, health problems and increased crime.

Due to the complexity of the problems faced by the group, and the lack of quality data in this area, it is very difficult to specify how such services should be run in advance, and we therefore want, instead, to pay for outcomes achieved and allow voluntary sector and other providers the freedom to innovate and adapt to achieve the best possible results.