We all know that young people need access to better resources and opportunities. Aiming High, the recently launched 10 year Children and Young People’s Strategy, sets out a strategy to achieve these objectives and should be welcomed.

But, in addition to the government’s proposals to give young people greater say over their local services and to invest in new facilities and places to go, national youth work charity UK Youth is calling for the creation of an endowment fund to invest in Youth Zones – a new investment strategy to improve the sustainability of the voluntary youth work sector which would enable them to carry on contributing to better outcomes for young people.

Youth Zones could make use of existing facilities within the voluntary sector and invest in their development. For example, a Youth Zone could be based in a multi-use building, a series of buildings, as a mobile service or be web-based. It could ‘house’ a variety of agencies and provide a centre for the development and delivery of services to staff (both waged and volunteers) who support young people. The Youth Zone could provide a mix of services and facilities for young people in addition to bringing together local organisations.

Types of services could include: sports, arts, volunteering, outreach and detached youth work targeting those young people who live at the margins, enterprise education, alternative curriculum programmes such as the Youth Achievement Awards, social inclusion projects, health and wellbeing projects, media projects, environmental programmes, training for young people to become mentors or peer educators and training for adult volunteers to develop and improve their youth work skills.

An example of the Youth Zone model which already works is the Merseyside Youth Association (MYA). MYA runs services for partners, youth workers and young people from its site The Door in Liverpool city centre. The Door currently hosts over 10,000 visits by young people each year and houses a number of local agencies.

A social investment fund established as a Reserve Fund for the maintenance of the network of Youth Zones could generate income of 3% per annum to apply to revenue costs whilst preserving and continuing to grow the capital sum. The voluntary sector has a strong track record in leveraging support and each Youth Zone could match fund investment from the endowment fund.

There is a huge wealth of untapped resource and innovative and inspirational work with young people already out there – but its potential for being improved, developed and replicated needs to be effectively harnessed. An endowment fund and a clear national strategy of Youth Zones could alleviate some of the pressures of short-term funding, the insecurity surrounding service delivery, harness the reach and potential of the voluntary youth work sector while strengthening quality assurance, multi-agency working and providing meaningful local delivery.

The government is encouraging us to aim higher for young people. Investing in their future in this lasting way is an opportunity to do just that.