Young Camden Foundation

Who we are

Young Camden Foundation (YCF) is a membership-led organisation that aims to improve the life chances of children and young people in Camden by building capacity in the Children and Young People’s sector. Set up as a joint venture in 2017 by London Borough of Camden and John Lyons Charity, YCF aims to provide a positive new approach to supporting the local Children and young people sector. 

Our mission: To encourage and assist our members, partners, and supporters in connecting and working together to form innovative and sustainable opportunities for young people. We aim to do this by utilising our networks to broker more investment and build more capacity in the Children and Young People sector.

Our values: Collaboration; equality; community; sustainability.

Our objectives:

• Increase long-term investment in the Children and Young People sector in Camden
• Enable new cross-sector collaboration between members, partners, and supporters
• Ensure that young people feel safe, listened to, and are thriving and achieving their full potential
• Ensure that members have the capacity to deliver high-quality and sustainable youth provision

Our culture and values

YCF’s guiding values are:

-          Equity - YCF is … an anti-racist and inclusive organisation – working towards a Camden where no child or young person is left behind  

-          Community – YCF is … a hyper-local and member-focused organisation, keeping our sights set on Camden’s grassroots and serving our communities, and advocating for Camden in regional and national spaces

-          Collaboration – YCF is … collaborative in enabling and facilitating partnerships across sectors and interests, and connecting and advocating for Camden’s youth ecosystem, all in the interests of young people and the sector that supports them

-          Sustainability – YCF is … driven to support a sustainable sector that can meet the needs of young people today and tomorrow, via high-quality services and long-term investment

YCF’s ways of working are…

-          Member-centred and led – YCF’s members are at the heart of everything we do and everything we champion, delivering some of the sector’s leading and most innovative offers in our borough

-          Informed and led by the views and experiences of children and young people - We are working towards a Camden where the view and experiences of our children and young people are at the heart of decision-making and service design

-          Adaptive, flexible and responsive – Life is constantly changing for young people in Camden and the sector that supports them, and therefore we need to be able to adapt too. YCF’s working is responsive to the changing rhythms of need, sector challenges and funding and support climate