History
13 years of YouthNet.
1995
'Go For It', a useful directory of young people's services, is published by Martyn Lewis CBE to reach out and inspire young people across the UK. Eleven companies each donate £4,000 for three years and YouthNet is granted charitable status.
YouthNet receives a £25,000 grant from the government to bring to life the Home Office's vision of honest communication to empower young people.
1997
YouthNet's first website, TheSite.org, is launched with a database of 5,000 useful organisations. It quickly becomes a primary channel for young people looking for information, support and guidance.
1999
The Home Office grants YouthNet £1 million to create a website to encourage volunteering, equip one-third of the Volunteer Centre network with computers and develop special volunteering management software (V-Base).
2000
TheSite.org's Community section goes live, providing a forum where young people can chat and seek peer-to-peer support and advice.
Prime Minister Tony Blair launches do-it.org.uk with a database of 350,000 opportunities to volunteer.
2001
YouthNet is chosen as the flagship charity of The Vodafone UK Foundation, which invests an initial £2 million enabling us to reach more young people who seek information, advice and guidance.
2002
do-it.org.uk now partners with 99% of the Volunteer Centre Network in England.
The Big Lottery Fund and The Vodafone UK Foundation invest a total of £1.7 million in our new expert advice service askTheSite.
2003
The Home Office Active Communities Unit grants do-it.org.uk £1.3 million to re-equip Volunteer Centres and to build partnerships with 120 hospitals. This will add even more opportunities to volunteer to the existing 500,000.
The askTheSite pilot phase goes live with Samaritans, bss and a specially contracted team of advisors offering confidential advice on relationships and general health.
2004
New askTheSite partners providing expert advice on: sexual health (Brook); housing (Shelter); mental and emotional health (SANELINE); legal, rights and money issues (Wymondham CAB).
do-it.org.uk's first marketing campaign generates over 6,000 new registrations for volunteering opportunities over six weeks.
Fiona Mactaggart, Home Office Minister and Labour MP for Slough, launches do-it.org.uk's bright new look and feel.
The Vodafone UK Foundation commits further investment to YouthNet, enabling us to help reach young people via mobile phones, digital television and other new distribution platforms.
askTheSite joins BSkyB's 'Reach for the Sky' project and provides content for young people aged 11-19.
With the Institute of Volunteering Research, we become a research partner for the Russell Commission report. This report sets out exciting and ambitious plans to engage one million young people in volunteering and community action over the next five years.
askTheSite mobile alerts go live, ensuring young people can get their responses to questions as soon as possible.
Posts on TheSite.org discussion boards reach one million.
Having consulted with hundreds of young people throughout 2004 about how they access advice, we redesign TheSite.org and the 'new look' site goes live.
2005
do-it.org.uk provides its database of 700,000 opportunities to volunteer to the official Year of the Volunteer website.
askTheSite and the redesigned TheSite.org are launched at the Houses of Parliament. At the event, MPs and YouthNet's funders listen to one young woman's account about how using TheSite.org's services helped her work through her problems with self harm.
New Media Age magazine shortlists TheSite.org for the 'Best Charity Website' award.
We reach 16,000 registered users on TheSite.org's discussion boards, a rise of 34% since 2004.
Our content syndication partnership with ministryofsound.com goes live, with content provided from TheSite.org on: sex, relationships, drugs, money, health, legal issues, travel, work and study.
New askTheSite partner providing expert advice on drugs (Addaction). We now have seven partners.
2006
The 10,000th question is answered on askTheSite.
TheSite.org on mobile goes live. Young people can now access details of thousands of local advice agencies through their mobile phones.
We begin a startegic partnership with v.
do-it.org.uk offers over 800,000 volunteering opportunities, and has over 150,000 registered volunteers.
We launch our online poster membership scheme.
2007
YouthNet wins 'Best Use of Technology' in the Charity Times Awards and 'Community Project of the Year' in the Computing Awards for Excellence.
100 new articles were added to TheSite.org on mobile.
We launched a new Work and Study section of askTheSite, funded by Thales and with expert answers from BSS.
In partnership with the three other youth volunteer organisations of the Choose Action alliance, we developed and launched a Virtual Volunteering section on TheSite.org.
The do-it.org.uk site hosted 'do-it in your local hospital' – a campaign to increase the number of hospital volunteers in England, funded by the Department of Health.
Almost 70,000 new volunteers registered with do-it.org.uk. We also added a new resources section for our partner organisations to do-it.org.uk.
YouthNet's a million for a million ball was attended by almost 300 guests and generated £300k to help TheSite.org reach more young people.
Our Respect? campaign went from strength to strength, earning a mention in the Department for Children, Schools and Family's strategy document Aiming High.
YouthNet, alongside UnLtd and CIVA, came together to found the Young Achievers Trust, which continues the legacy of the Whitbread Young Achievers Awards. YouthNet hosts the Young Achievers Trust Project Manager.
In partnership with The Foyer Federation, Rathbone and Skill, YouthNet wins a new three-year £5m partnership with The Vodafone UK Foundation, to empower and equip young people to make informed choices about work, study and training.
We were also awarded a grant of £1.5 million from The Big Lottery Fund towards the development of the National Volunteering Database over the next five years.
YouthNet_Accounts_2006-7YouthNet_Accounts_2005-6