New investment method to help life chances of young people

18 Mar 2021 10:22 AM

Children from lower socio-economic groups will benefit from a social impact bond enabling The Chances Programme to be rolled out to 21 locations in the UK.

We’ll be using a social impact bond for the first time to harness the power of sport to enhance the life chances of disadvantaged young people.

The Chances Programme, co-developed by Substance, us, the Life Chances Fund and Big Issue Invest, will support more than 6,000 people aged 8-17 across 21 locations in the UK over the next three years.

Investment in the project comes in the form of £1.25 million from the Big Issue Invest’s Outcomes Investment Fund and our own social impact bond (SIB).

The money will be used to create new opportunities to empower young people to get active and re-engage with education and skills provision – with the focus being on young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and those with an offending record and/or low school attendance.

The Chances Programme is currently delivered in Doncaster, Bristol and Devon, and during March and April will be rolled out to 18 more local authority areas in the UK.

“Whilst it's been hard for our children and young people to be active over the past year, this is an exciting project using physical activity to build happier and more productive lives and we are really proud to be a part of it,” said our chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth.

“The Social Impact Bond model used for this project embodies the values of collaboration and innovation that we wish to live by in our new strategy, and this new model represents an excellent opportunity to diversify and develop our investment approach."

This will be the first time we’ve used a SIB – a commissioning tool enabling organisations to deliver outcomes contracts and make funding for services conditional on achieving results – and with more than 20 commissioners involved, it makes it the largest number of commissioners engaged in a SIB in the world.

The bond will help Substance – a research and technology company specialising in sport and physical activity and community regeneration – to work with its network of 16 local organisations based in youth and community facilities where young people meet.

Click here for the full press release