About VIY

Young people volunteering and learning new skills

Tradespeople mentoring and passing on their experiences

Community spaces refurbished and transformed

Doing #SomethingConstructive for youth, community and volunteering

VIY combines DIY and volunteering (VIY!) by challenging young people aged 14-24 to help repair and refurbish community places and spaces, whilst learning vocational trade skills on the job.

VIY learners are mentored by professional tradespeople and can work towards and gain Entry Level City & Guilds trade skills accreditations. We work with young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of disengagement/exclusion from mainstream education and training.

We’ve helped over

14,000 young people

learn trade skills in our first decade

Our mission

It’s really quite simple. Our mission is to combine impact and progression outcomes in three areas: 

• Youth – boosting young people’s skills and work-readiness
• Community – refurbishing and transforming local facilities that host valued services
• Volunteering – inspiring young people and trade mentors/construction professionals to work together and share skills

We’ve transformed over

800 community spaces in need

to help them survive and thrive

Our vision

• Marginalised and disengaged young people better supported to progress towards and into employment, especially within construction

• Vital community places and spaces able to benefit more people and new audiences and become more inclusive, sustainable and financially secure
• More people inspired to volunteer for the first time and/or more often in their communities – with associated health and wellbeing benefits

Over

1,150 tradespeople

have shared their skills with the next generation

Our Values

How we do what we do: our values shape how we work in partnership, and as a team.

We’re progressive

Our model is unique and we’re constantly striving to deliver greater long-term impact and outcomes, continually developing and improving the way we work as a team to achieve our mission

We’re all about collaboration

Working in partnership with like-minded organisations is at the heart of the VIY model.  We also work very collaboratively as a team, trusting and supporting each other.

We’re flexible

We operate with ‘flexibility within frameworks’ and adapt our approach to achieve the best possible outcomes where needed. We’re flexible as a team too, empowering individuals to do their best work.

We’re inclusive

We work hard to offer equal opportunities and a level playing field to everyone on our  programmes, to suit different backgrounds and needs. We also respect and celebrate the diversity of our own team – we encourage everyone to be their true selves.

We’re a passionate bunch

We really care about what we do – we are ambitious and driven to help VIY realise its full potential.