Tim Evans, one of our number here in the Birmingham community, and his mate Dave Wiles are in the middle of a journey of protest, for want of a better word, to highlight the negative stereotyping of young people in Britain and to publicise the launch of a new fund, Talent – Youth in Action, to help young people create their own positive stories for the media.

But here's the catch: four cities in four days, but only a tenner each to survive on - that's right, only £10 each for four days!

Here's the full skinny on Tim and Dave's four city odyssey...

Greetings to you all!! I thought you might be interested to know that from Monday to Thursday next week (Sept 18-21) I will be on the road with a friend for 4 days with a mere £10 to live on!!

Dave Wiles and I plan to travel between Bristol - Cardiff - Birmingham - Liverpool with no fixed plans, no hotels, no trains, cars or planes!! WHY!!! We are going to collect and publish 100 stories of hope from young people from the streets!

We are tired of the negative stereotypes that all too often prevail in our society about young people and so we have decided to establish a fund – ‘Talent Youth in Action’ - as a way of enabling them to create their own positive stories for the media.

Frontier Youth Trust (who Dave works for) and Worth Unlimited (that I work for) are giving away £1000 in £10 notes to youth groups (£10 maximum to each group) around the UK and asking them to use this to raise more money to create the ‘Talent Youth in Action!’

As a way of launching this new trust fund Dave and I are going to collect and publish stories of HOPE from the streets and if you would like to sponsor us in this activity you can do so by completing the form below and send it back to Worth Unlimited (see download below).

Our longer term plan (early 2007), when the trust fund is established (we have a target of £10,000), is to give away ALL that we raise to enable young people to act on their own concerns in their own localities – we will then ensure that there stories are told in public.

Frontier Youth Trust (FYT) and Worth Unlimited are two organisations that work with and for young people on the margins of society. We have joined forces to create a trust fund that will be controlled by young people - for young people and which will enable them to act on their own concerns. We are tired of the negative stereotypes of young people and want to enable them to demonstrate that they are a positive force for change in society.

In order to create the Young People in Action Trust fund we are giving away £1000 in £10 notes! We are offering £10 to youth projects/groups and are asking them to take 3 months to turn this into as much as they can. We see this as related to the parable of the talents (see Matthew 25:14) however we are quite happy about the double meaning in that we believe in young people and want to give them an opportunity to demonstrate their talent. We want to end the 3 months of talent multiplication by December 2006 as a symbolic gesture to celebrate Christmas. Just imagine if each group raises £100 with their £10 this would launch our youth-led trust at the start of 2007 with £10,000! We also intend to continue fund raising to enable the trust to grow.

Talent - Youth in Action
We hope that the youth projects will catch the vision and show off their entrepreneurial skills. Some of the ideas that have already emerged include:

1. Creating and selling hand-made Christmas cards
2. Running a fair-trade cafe in a local hall
3. Selling hand-made jewellery
4. A cake stall
5. Make-over stall
6. Creating and selling a book of youth poetry
7. Organising a fashion show using charity shop clothes!

Tim Evans
CEO/Team Leader
Worth Unlimited