Our work with local councils across the East Midlands
Building pride in place, local skills and employability in partnership with local councils across the East Midlands.
Since 2022 and our work through the UK Community Renewal Fund (CRF), we’ve grown our presence in the East Midlands by working with a range of partners, including 10 councils to deliver a series of community renovation projects. With many projects supported by part-funding from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), these initiatives have seen local NEET and at risk young people gaining valuable trade and green skills while helping to renovate vital community spaces in need across the East Midlands.
From Northampton to Sutton-on-Sea, we’ve delivered 75+ projects with local councils, supporting 1,200+ young people to gain experience and learn new skills. Of these, 75% achieve a Level 3 City & Guilds accreditation, with c. 20% progressing into employment, apprenticeships or further education so far.
Here’s a look at some of the community spaces we’ve helped improve in partnership with each local council:
Amber Valley Borough Council
The Old Farm Bus CIC
A creative CIC based on a rural farm in Ripley, running youth music, art and community sessions from converted school buses. To help them grow their offer, our mentors supported the young people who use this space to transform a double decker into a warm, welcoming space for them to learn and create. We added storage, insulation, cork flooring, and a full wooden interior fit out, as well as a fold-down desk and a portable ramp to improve accessibility. This renovation has helped expand their timetable, welcome more groups, and support the venue’s long-term sustainability.
“The spaces that were renovated by VIY are a lot more useable than before. We are now able to house more workshops in the buses with well kitted-out designated learning spaces. The space is warmer, more useable and attractive to our groups.”
The Old Farm Bus Team
Bassetlaw District Council
Carlton Youth Centre
In a former bus depot in one of North Nottingham’s old mining communities, this much-needed youth centre offers vital activities. With limited provision locally, the centre is a lifeline, but after years of wear, it was in urgent need of a refresh. We helped update tired spaces including the entrance, sports hall and games room, fitted new flooring and added vibrant new artwork inside and out, working with a local street artist to boost visibility and help more young people realise the opportunity on their doorstep in this great building.
Boston Borough Council
The Boston Local Community Centre
A longstanding and valued hub for local groups, from yoga and dance to hospice support and coffee mornings. With limited funding to maintain the building, we worked alongside young people and community volunteers to redecorate the main hall and entrance areas, and built new planters to create a fresh, welcoming space. Since the improvements, venue usage has increased by around 30%, making it more appealing to both existing and new users.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the couple of days that I worked alongside your team and the young people they were supervising and instructing. The team were knowledgeable, helpful and supportive, whilst the students were enthusiastic, motivated and willing to attempt their tasks. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to work with all involved.”
Richard Tory, Trustee at The Local Community Centre, Boston, also volunteered alongside the young people on the project
Broxtowe Borough Council
Nottingham Casuals Rugby Club
With over 100 years of history, this community rugby club is passionate about keeping rugby inclusive, offering affordable membership and teams for men, women, juniors and girls. Co-funded by Sport England and Continental Tyres, the project reworked the bar area to allow for fridges for youth-friendly soft drinks, fresh club-colour paint, and improvements to female facilities including toilets. Urgent storage repairs were also completed following flood damage. These upgrades have seen boosted revenue from bookings and a more welcoming space for all.
East Lindsey District Council
Meridale Youth & Community Centre
A vibrant hub with a proud 140-year legacy of serving the local community. To help them mark this milestone and continue their work, we transformed the main hall with stylish tongue and groove panelling, a bold new paint job, and gave the toilets, radiators, and entrance a much-needed makeover. These improvements will enhance the centre as a safe, welcoming and inspiring space for all who use it, as well as increases the centre’s appeal for private hire, helping to support its long-term sustainability.
Leicester City Council
St Andrews Play Association (SAPA), Leicester
SAPA provides a safe and supportive space for children and young people. With both indoor and outdoor facilities, the venue offers everything from arts and crafts to sports and local trips. Our work included repainting key areas to attract external bookings, installing an accessible laptop bench, upgrading to energy-efficient LED lighting, and improving storage. Five young people also achieved their EA & Sustainability in Construction accreditation during the project. These updates will help SAPA generate income and remain a valuable community hub as council funding comes to an end.
Mansfield District Council
The Social Action Hub
This space supports vulnerable adults, families and children through projects focused on poverty relief, mental health and wellbeing. To help them expand their offer, we created a new outdoor Forest School, giving young people a safe place to connect with nature and get creative. As part of the project, we laid a concrete base, installed a summerhouse and decking, added bark for safety, and built planters, seating, a handwashing station, and a display structure. These improvements will allow the hub to run holiday programmes and give more young people access to nature.
Newark and Sherwood District Council
St Andrew’s Mission Hall
Hosting a range of activities for the local community, from toddler groups and bereavement support to bingo and monthly coffee mornings, this well-used space plays an important role in bringing people together in this former mining community. Local young people made the outdoor area safer and more welcoming by building secure fencing, adding garden beds, outdoor furniture and a play area, and created a mural celebrating its mining history. The result? “Insufficient space to say how much this project has done for us – thousands of hits on our social media – transformed the site.”
“Bringing young people into the venue has always been a desire and we now have a new senior youth group. Encouraging the community to engage with the hall has increased in particular because the mining community come to see the mining ‘mural’ painted on the end wall.”
St Andrew’s Mission Hall, Nottinghamshire
Nottingham City Council
Stonebridge City Farm, St Ann’s
This urban farm provides training and education for the community through the operation of the farm, enabling over 150 local people to volunteer on site each week, many of whom have a mental health challenge or a learning disability. We helped them to renovate their cafe area and revamp their outdoor area including creating new spaces for the animals to roam around in, building a poly tunnel, hedgehog trail and repainting outside. See more of our work preceding this project through CRF here.
“VIY transformed our café. It is becoming the hub of Stonebridge City Farm and Gardens for visitors, volunteers and staff alike. It can cater for festivals with over 1,000 people on site as well as serving small groups from other community-orientated organisations including MENCAP, Princes Trust, Refugee Roots, Thriving Nottingham, Alternative Education providers, schools and colleges. Katie and her team were very professional, enthusiastic and just got us! It was an absolute pleasure to work with them.”
Stonebridge Farm Team, Nottingham
Nottinghamshire County Council
Vision West Nottinghamshire College
Through CRF and Nottinghamshire County Council, we renovated 29 spaces across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. This included working with young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities to create a new accessible space for their own horticultural and environmental learning at Vision West Nottinghamshire College – more on this project here. We’ve since worked with hundreds of NEET/at risk students on our projects across the county.
West Northants Council
Long Buckby Youth Centre
Closed for a long period of time, this is the only youth provision in the area. We helped the centre to reopen by replacing fascias, guttering and downpipes, sanding and repainting walls, cleaning and resealing windows and doors, and clearing surrounding vegetation. Inside, we gave the main room two feature walls, and refreshed the toilets and kitchen with new paint and tiling to create a usable space. This space now offers young people a safe place to connect and take part in activities, filling a vital gap in the local community.
We’re working to connect our VIY alumni with positive next steps into further education, training or employment, through our national partnerships with employers like Dulux. Like Ali, who was supported by VIY to secure an apprenticeship with Dulux contractor, Ian Williams.
Ali (pseudonym) first joined us at Evolve Community Centre in Nottingham, a project part-funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund via Nottingham City Council. He was referred via Al-Hurraya, who support young people from ethnic minority and refugee communities in Nottingham to overcome the effects of addiction and crime. He’d dropped out of uni, been injured and out of his beloved boxing, and had been working security since, which he didn’t love.
He told us he wanted to learn as many skills as he could and wanted to renovate houses afterwards. He gained a City & Guilds accreditation in bricklaying with us at the project in Nottingham, and was offered employability support through our Progressions team – who helped him to successfully apply for an opportunity with Ian Williams.
Ali is now thriving and working on void houses that need general maintenance – things like slab laying/removal of tiles/filling/changing taps and refitting broken doors. He told us:
“My favourite part is working with my two colleagues and learning from them, they are like my bosses. I’m really enjoying it.”
