The Youth Charter is a UK registered charity and UN accredited non-governmental organisation. Launched in 1993 as part of the Manchester 2000 Olympic Bid and the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Over the last 31 years the Youth Charter has campaigned, advocated and promoted the role and value of sport, art, culture and digital technology in the lives of disaffected young people from disadvantaged communities nationally and internationally. The Youth Charter has a proven track record in the creation and delivery of social and human development programmes with the overall aim of providing young people with an opportunity to develop in life.

 

Specifically, the Youth Charter tackles educational non-attainment, health inequality, anti-social behaviour and the negative effects of crime, drugs, gang related activity and racism by applying the ethics of sporting and artistic excellence. These can then be translated to provide social and economic benefits of citizenship, rights responsibilities, with improved education, health, citizenship, environment and aspiration for further and higher education, employment and entrepreneurship.

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The Youth Charter acts as a social broker and cultural interface between public/private sector and donor organisations. The key to the Youth Charter approach is to provide capacity, leadership and self reliance to hard to reach young people and their communities. This is delivered through our Social Coach training and development workshops, programmes and projects. Further assistance, campaigning, advocacy, support and advice is delivered through our ‘on-line’ distance learning and evaluation tools, which provide a unique impact and assessment of each individual’s and community’s ongoing development and progress.

 

Supported by over 250 Global Sporting, Artistic and Cultural Ambassadors and high profile social role models, the Youth Charter is pioneering new approaches to tackling the increasingly serious problem of anti-social behaviour amongst socially excluded youth.

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The Youth Charter message is also delivered through teams and individuals who have signed the Youth Charter Scroll in support of its work. These include: The Rugby Football Union; The England, New Zealand and South African Rugby Teams; The England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Zimbabawe, South African and West Indies Cricket Teams; The England, Ghanain and South African Soccer Teams; Manchester United FC, Liverpool FC, AJAX FC, Sir Bobby Charlton CBE, Sir Alex Ferguson CBE, David Beckham OBE, Sir Stephen Regrave, Linford Christie OBE, Dame Mary Peters, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Susan Hampshire OBE and Nelson Mandela.

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A number of notable organisations have already invested in the work of the Youth Charter - these include: AMEC plc, Barclays, BBC, British Airways, DHL, The Co-op Bank, Granada Television, Kelloggs, Guardian Media Group, Marks and Spencer, Rank Xerox, Joseph Roundtree Foundation, Lands Securities, Lloyds TSB Foundation, FIFA, United Nations ILO, Football Association, Ford Motor Company, Rugby Football Union, Manchester City FC, Manchester United FC and Unicef.