Refugee Youth Service has been a Collective Fund under the charitable umbrella of Prism the Gift Fund since 2017. The decision to operate this way was made, as the Prism the Gift Fund website states, in order to be provided with the administration, governance and charitable expertise needed to allow us to focus on our charitable endeavors around the world. To date, being part of Prism has enabled us to carry-out work in France, Greece and Italy, supporting thousands of children and young people on the move.

While this relationship has been very beneficial to RYS, in 2022 the decision was made to also register our own independent non-profit organisation. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly, we felt it was time to build our own board and governance structure, featuring a range of skills, talents and expertise more closely related to our work with children and young people. Secondly, we wanted to become eligible for funding only available to smaller organisations, as some funders could not distinguish us, a small grassroots organisation, from the much larger Prism the Gift Fund (which also encompasses a wide range of impressive Collective Funds doing amazing work).

Therefore, in December 2022, RYS registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC) in the UK under the name Refugee Youth Service UK CIC. This has so far allowed RYS to create its own board of directors, and apply to a range of new funding opportunities. RYS will also continue to work under the umbrella of Prism, as the Refugee Youth Service Collective Fund, to continue to be eligible for funding that is only available to registered charities.

The first major task of the new governance structure will be to support the launch of our new pilot project titled No Children in Hotels (NCH), which will help age-disputed asylum-seeking children leave adult hotel accommodations and enter the appropriate care systems in the UK. Alongside the Journey with an Unaccompanied Child capacity-building training the new project shows RYS’s continued direction towards the UK and efforts to support the children and young people arriving there. Currently, we are looking for enthusiastic and committed volunteers that share our values and principles and would like to support this new project. Please visit the Get Involved section of the website to find out more about the role and how to apply.

Alongside these changes and developments, RYS has also redeveloped its logo and website (with thanks to (Me & You Create). After seven years, this decision was taken in order to have a space to better highlight the issues faced by children and young people, and to better showcase what we are doing to address them. Whilst we might have changed our look, (and we hope that you love it as much as we do) our mission remains the same: to support unaccompanied children and young people on the move to restart and rebuild their lives.