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Over £10 million in lottery good cause funding from the BIG Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces programme is spearheading initiatives to motivate and involve often disaffected young people in their local environment and community spaces.

Crime Concern aims to use its £8.3 million funding to deliver 70 England-wide environment projects for young people at risk of anti-social behaviour or offending. The five-year Community Space Challenge scheme is to focus on re-engaging young people with their local communities and involving them in practical improvements to their neighbourhoods and give them a sense of pride in their community.

Activities will include development of community and sensory gardens, graffiti removal, allotment developments, litter clean-ups, park improvements, art installations and wasteland regeneration.                                   

The projects will include young people who have been excluded or suspended from school. The scheme will offer them a chance to pick up qualifications for the environmental work that they undertake, which can be used instead of standard qualifications like GCSEs. Crime Concern's partners – Encams, the Princes Trust and Changemakers – will provide the young people with education, training and employment progression as part of their work. 

Rosie Chadwick, Director of Prevention Services for Crime Concern, said:
"This is a great opportunity for young people to take the lead in improving local public spaces - something we know that many young people feel passionately about. They will be talking to other local residents about the improvements that people want to see.  We aim to reach over 7,000 young people through this funding and far from being seen as 'the problem' they will be part of the solution."

Bringing about a change of environment for children struggling in schools, is The Field Studies Council (FSC) with their £2 million grant. The Eco Challenge project will give 11-14 year olds in the lowest performing local education authorities the opportunity to learn about conservation issues and the environment. 

Focused on disadvantaged pupils in 250 schools, including persistent truants or those with behavioural problems, the first stage of the Eco Challenge project will include residential courses at FSC Field Centres across the country. The courses will give young people a unique opportunity to get away from their usual urban environment, whilst learning about tree planting, fencing and more adventurous activities such as orienteering. Once home, the young people will continue what they have learnt by carrying out work on their school grounds and local green spaces. The projects aim to improve self-esteem and general behaviour as well as benefiting the local environment.

Tony Thomas, Field Studies Council Chief Executive, said:
"This £2 million grant will enable the Field Studies Council to reach out to over 7,500 pupils from schools in 22 of the most disadvantaged urban areas throughout England. The environmental activities that the young people will get involved in on our specially developed Eco Challenge residential courses will inspire them to take a more active role in local projects in parks or open spaces back home working with our project partner, the Civic Trust. We are convinced that these Eco Challenge experiences will have a long lasting impact on the pupils and communities which will continue on beyond the life of the project."

Sir Clive Booth, Chair of the Big Lottery Fund, said:
"Changing Spaces will open up a world of opportunity through organisations with a real understanding of the environment and social issues confronting us today. The funding responds to a range of issues such as youth crime by involving young people in environmental projects in their community.

"Children struggling in school will be skilled-up and empowered to revamp their school grounds and green spaces. More widely, the Changing Spaces schemes will tackle poor nutrition by helping communities grow sustainable, locally produced food, and also encourage communities to transform and learn more about their natural habitats encouraging people to be more active and healthier."

The two young people's schemes are part of a £47million strong Changing Spaces initiative being rolled out nationally by the Big Lottery Fund. Three other large-scale environment schemes are being given multi-million pound awards.  These are focused on community farming, community green spaces and regional environment studies.

The biggest of the Changing Spaces awards £15.6 million is going to provide a range of quality accessible green spaces throughout England run by The Places for People Group. This includes provision of play and youth facilities on estates suffering from lack of investment and problems of anti-social behaviour; community and sensory gardens including some specifically for elderly or disabled residents of sheltered housing.

Imperial College London has been awarded  £11.7 million to study natural habitats through a system of OPALS - Open Air Laboratories. The OPAL network is an England-wide initiative that will encourage the public to engage with some of the country's leading scientists and become involved in environmental projects tailored to their region. Open Air Laboratories could be anything from a window box to a sports field or the grounds of a business. Activities may include assessing the condition of local woodland or gauging traffic pollution and air quality.

The Plunkett Foundation is receiving over £10million for a bumper crop of initiatives to help local communities reap the benefits of locally produced food. The award will be spent across England to help communities, backed by expert help, to grow organic, fresh and local produce.

The project will ensure that produce can be distributed to communities that may not have good supplies of fresh local food, such as inner cities and more isolated rural areas. It will involve organising farmer's markets, community-owned village shops and co-operatives.