The additional funding is part of a new £7m Youth Accelerator Fund from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

The Youth Accelerator Fund has been set up to address urgent needs in the youth sector, and to expand existing projects at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Sport England, Arts Council England and the British Film Institute.

"This fantastic additional investment will build on the already strong partnerships that are flourishing through our Kick The Dust programme." 

Eilish McGuinness, Executive Director, Business Delivery at The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport said: "I'm thrilled this funding will allow even more young people across the country to participate in fantastic activities, whether at their local youth centre or through sport, arts, film and heritage organisations.

"If we wish to get the best out of all the great talent in our country it is vital that we offer the next generation opportunities to build character and resilience, not just in school but outside the school day."

Eilish McGuinness, Executive Director, Business Delivery at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: "This fantastic additional investment will build on the already strong partnerships that are flourishing through our Kick The Dust programme. The collaboration we're seeing through the Youth Accelerator Fund shows a really joined-up approach across all the activities that, together, we know young people can benefit from."

How the funding is distributed

The funding will be distributed as follows:

• The National Lottery Heritage Fund: £1.27m to invest additional funding into Kick the Dust.
• Sport England: £1.32 million to expand grassroots programmes and offer extra-curricular sport to young people in deprived areas.
• Arts Council England: £500,000 to expand their Youth Music programme.
• British Film Institute: £155,000 to expand the weekly BFI Saturday Clubs to more areas of the country

Also:

UK Youth, the membership organisation for youth clubs in the UK, will distribute £1.15m to run a small grants programme to deliver extra sessions in youth clubs and youth groups across England.

Additionally, over £2m of the funding will go towards setting up new Local Partnerships across the country, designed to effectively coordinate and sustain local youth activities.

The Youth Investment Fund will cost £500m over five years. It consists equally of £250m capital and £250m resource spending. It is expected to attract match funding from private, local authority and civil society sources.

Kick the Dust

Kick the Dust is a £10m investment to make heritage relevant to young people aged 11-25. There are 12 large-scale projects currently running across the UK.

To mark its second year, we will be running a series of features on our learnings so far, sharing ideas on ways to involve young people in heritage.