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How did you hear about the Youth Funds?

- "One of the youth workers told me about the fund and because I was on a different kind of grant panel beforehand, they said it would probably be quite good for me."

- "Well, my sister was elected onto it the previous two years."

- "We all came from different backgrounds. Some of us came from voluntary organisations. Other ones came from the City Council that looks after young people."

- "I just got a letter through because I’d been selected from my group because I’d signed all the forms and stuff. They selected me to come here."

- "I personally heard about it because I worked with a children’s charity and they contacted me to ask me if I wanted to be in the youth opportunity fund."

- "Well, we went to a ‘Mix It’ thing at the Black Lion and we signed up for it and they sent us a letter."

- "I told by a person down at the Youth Club. They asked me if I’d like to come in and see them and then I’ve been coming ever since."

- "Originally it was attending these meetings to represent youth opinion and I found out that the government had given up one and a half million pounds for the next two years to spend on youth projects."

Why did you get involved?

- "I think it was a great opportunity to help broaden our understanding of say, how funding works in different groups around Leicester."

- "My area where I live is not particularly great for youth, so I wanted to do something to make a difference."

- "Originally we applied for funding as a group, because I work at a project for overweight and obese young children and we applied for funding and then we got told that we could take part in a selection panel if we wanted to."

- "Well, I was told that Derbyshire had to spend 1.5 million pounds between the Youth Capital Fund and the Opportunity Fund."

- "Sometimes people they don’t get to put their ideas across and ask for things they would like and it’s like, you’re helping to get people’s ideas and make it happen."

- "I just thought it would be a good opportunity to meet new people and stuff."

- "I thought that the government was very sexist to us, and I believed that they gave for facilities for men and males than they did for women, like skate parks and football pitches and there are netball courts, but they’re mainly overwhelmed by all the males and they play basketball and that, so I felt like, nobody’s speaking up for us, especially the young women as well."

What does the panel do?

- "Everyone on the panel has opinions, like equal say, and we all have the same role, but the panel consists of young people because obviously the projects all have to be kind of young persons led."

- "I think all of ours is quite an important role because it’s basically everything that happens is just all in the control of us, basically.  Like us young people."

- "Well, I hope I definitely represent the people of Derbyshire Dales’ views and my own personal views.  But I try not to give a biased opinion."

- "Well, we all really have the same role.  We’re not really have anything to do with the Chair, in that we have two - one Chair and one Vice Chair and we’re just really the other people."

- "We decide who gets funding for different areas of Sheffield and how much they get."

- "And we had to apply with everyone else in the panel and then they accept it or decline it and then the next week we’ll interview the people to check that they’re honest and also to fill out that application form and we go through it with them."

- "We just listen to what people think should be done within the community and see what we think about it and see what we can do about it."

- "We come about twice a month, three times a month, don’t we? And we stay for about three hours - for about three hours a week."

- "We sit on a panel and we’re all together, we all have the same role representing the areas."

How do you decide who gets funded?

- "At first, we weren’t allowed to do the parts where we were from, in case we knew the person."

- "We started out with this points system where we gave- we had like, five different points we have to give them, so many points out of, I think it was ten."

- "We’ll look at which areas need it the most.  If they’re deprived and we’ll try and give them the biggest chance we can."

- "They all have to be the ideas of the children.  No adults can be involved whatsoever."

- "We read the applications through, and then we’ll just sort of vote on it and see how many of us like it and how many of us don’t like it."

- "I personally see what the history of, and how bad that area is and how much is needed, to make my decision."

- "Just basically develop the relationship between everyone and that makes activities enjoyable, like making enjoyable activities for just everyone to get along with."

- "We all sit and look at the application and we want young people to apply to that.  And then we look at the criteria and go through it, point by point.  If we have any issues, we get back to the applicant and hopefully we’ll see it from there."

How much does each project get?

- "There’s different - there’s two funds.  So for the Opportunity, one thousand to twenty thousand and for the Capital it’s one thousand to forty thousand pounds."

- "The Capital Fund’s more for like physical things, the bigger things, things you can buy.  The Youth Opportunity Fund is for places to go and things to do."

- "It can vary depending on how deprived the area is or how big the project will be.  Also, how many people it will benefit."

- "Eight thousand on Opportunity and ten thousand on Capital. If they’ve applied for big grants one time round, then on the second time round they can apply for one thousand pounds."

- "Projects can vary completely in money - from hundreds to tens of thousands of pounds depending on how many people it will benefit."

- "Well, they actually ask how much money that they’d need.  We ask that for one of the questions when we interview them. We need to find out."

- "Then we can still chop and change on that depending on how much we think and if we could get a quote or something – that could help."