Participants are mentored by professional tradespeople and can gain vocational accreditations as well as access to further training, work placement and apprenticeship opportunities.
The majority of young people who take part and benefit are disengaged or excluded from mainstream education and training, at risk of disengagement, and/or unemployed.
We also deliver ‘early intervention’ construction sector employability skills and careers training for 10-14 year olds in schools.
2022 is a year of tremendous growth for VIY. With new funding, partnerships and projects in our pipeline, we’re building our capacity and working at depth in existing and emerging hub regions, working towards greater impact with the young people we work with and the community places and spaces we help to save and sustain.
Want to be part of the team and work on our projects with purpose together?
We’re delighted to be marking 10 years of Volunteer It Yourself with the release of a review celebrating our first decade as an organisation – VIY: Our First Ten Years. This coincides with another milestone, awarding our 5,000th City & Guilds Entry Level 3 construction skills accreditation to the young people who volunteer with us.
Since 2011 (and our first project at John Corfield Community Centre, Streatham, pictured above), we have worked with over 12,000 young people, principally those disengaged or excluded from mainstream education and training, at risk of disengagement, and/or unemployed, with the aim of upskilling and supporting them to progress back into the workforce, education or training.
At the same time, we have delivered over 600 regeneration projects to transform, and in many cases save and secure, valued community buildings and facilities. In the process, we have also mobilised over 1,000 local professional tradespeople as inspirational trade skills mentors for young people, whilst also underpinning the delivery of the works on each project.
With exciting plans in the pipeline, including the news of our funding through the UK Government’s Community Renewal Fund across three local councils as featured below, we’re ready and raring to do even more in 2022 and beyond.
As a complete novice, Kayleigh, from Hackney, took part in skills sessions at VIY’s north London Hub project, on the Northumberland Park Estate in Haringey, in 2015. Through her participation she achieved City & Guilds Entry Level 3 accreditations in carpentry and plumbing, and her VIY experience inspired her to start a construction skills course…
