Explore your heritage!
Did you know that the Heritage Lottery Fund awards grants worth between £10,000 and £50,000 to help young people explore their heritage? This is done through their Young Roots grants programme. It is suitable for a wide range of heritage projects working with young people aged between 11 and 25 years.
Who is eligible to apply?
Schools and colleges can apply – but your project must take place outside of normal school hours. You also need to communicate how the project will benefit the wider community in your application.
Other organisations like community and voluntary groups, Community Interest Companies, local authorities, social enterprises, charities and trusts can also apply.
What projects are funded?
Heritage includes many different things, such as cultural traditions (stories, festivals, crafts, music, dance), histories of people and places, languages and dialects, people’s memories and experiences, natural heritage like habitats and geology, historic buildings and archaeological sites.
You need to demonstrate how you will ensure youth and heritage expertise will be brought to the project. If you are applying as a school, you have the youth expertise, but a partnership with at least one heritage organisation will give you heritage guidance and expertise. This will give you a much stronger project, ensuring that the outcomes are deeply-rooted and longer-lasting.
To be successful in securing grant funding, you also need to ensure that your project delivers at least one of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s outcomes.
They are:
- Outcomes for people – people will develop skills, learn about heritage, have new experiences, change attitudes
- Outcomes for communities – more people and a wider range of people will engage with heritage
- Outcomes for heritage – heritage will be improved, better interpreted or explained, identified and recorded.
What costs will the funding cover?
You can use funding for direct project costs, which may include:
- Running costs of activities
- Equipment or resource purchase
- Employing extra staff
- Cost of restoring heritage.
A full list of eligible costs can be found in the application guidance notes.
What next?
You can download the application form and guidance notes from the Heritage Lottery Fund website.
There is no deadline for this programme, so you can apply any time. Applications are discussed at monthly advisory meetings at your local Heritage Lottery Fund office.
Good luck!
