Stubbin Wood School

Swanwick Hall School

Switch Up Mansfield

The Chase Centre

The Elizabethan Academy

The Local Community Centre

The Boston Local Community Centre is a great community hub which hosts a variety of groups including yoga, dance troupes, coffee mornings, health and hospice groups. We were funded through the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund with Boston Borough Council.

The project:

As a longstanding venue with very little funds to maintain or improve the building, VIY, along with local young people and community volunteers, redecorated the main hall and entrance areas of the building, including constructing planters to create a fresh, bright and welcoming entrance.

The impact:

• 19 NEET/at risk young people took part on the project, referred from local youth organisations including Nacro, Thomas Middlecott Academy, Springwell Academy and Future For Me
• 17 Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations were achieved by the students in Carpentry and Painting & Decorating
• Usage of the venue increased by around 30% following the project to make the venue more attractive to current and new users
• One of the young learners enjoyed the carpentry so much he was inspired to investigate a career in construction
• Strong, positive feedback and demand for more from 3 students referred by Middlecott Academy:
• “Great fun, enjoyable and a really great experience. I enjoyed helping other people and being able to work with other people as part of a team. I made new friends. I would definitely like to work with Team VIY again if I had the opportunity to do so. It’s given me independence and confidence to try different things. I was always happy when I got home because I had had such a great time.”
• “I enjoyed the freedom from school and a change of scenery, I could try something different.  Great experience and would like to work with Team VIY again in the future. I really enjoyed painting and making a difference to the community.”
• “Great fun, enjoyed having the independence. I really enjoyed painting the Community Centre and making it look a better place for people to go to. I would really like the opportunity to work with Team VIY again.”
• Feedback from the Board of Trustees: “The centre looks lovely now it’s had a refresh. The planters outside are really well made by the group, I can’t wait to see the plants in the summer.”
• Richard Tory, Trustee at The Local Community Centre, Boston, also volunteered alongside the young people on the project: “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.”

The Old Farm Bus

The Pythian Club

The Treasury Mansfield

The Treasury is a a much‑loved hub for everything from Scouts to dance groups, Messy Church, and a local youth club. The building had seen better days, with large areas out of action, clutter piling up, and energy bills on the rise.

The project:

The venue was refurbished over two phases, each building on the other to transform The Treasury into a vibrant, welcoming space for the local community. The project delivered real impact, improving energy efficiency, helping them to reopen their community café, fitting new toilets, and giving the space a full refresh, boosting its usage in the local community and by even more local people/groups.

Phase 1 – July 2025 (funded by Morgan Sindall) 
Phase 1 gave the building a huge refresh. VIY worked with 18 community volunteers and 25 local young people to improve energy efficiency, repaint and refurbish the main hall, install new toilets, and help reopen the community café. Outside, volunteers tidied the garden and transformed the space, creating a brighter, more inviting environment for local groups.

Phase 2 – January 2026 (funded by Mansfield District Council via UKSPF)
Phase 2 built on this success, expanding the venue’s community impact. The café garden gained a timber shelter, fresh planters, painted walls, and a new café sign. Three side rooms were renovated to host activities or a potential food bank, and donated benches were restored, making the outdoor space welcoming and usable. This phase ensures The Treasury continues to thrive as a hub at the heart of Mansfield.

“Environment engaging, all staff helpful, friendly and on hand to help. Both myself and students have learnt new skills. The benefit to the venue is that we can see positive changes made from before to after. Would definitely recommend and do it again. Thank you. “

–Queen Elizabeth’s Academy

The young people:

A total of 52 young people aged 14–18 took part, referred by: Futures Mansfield, King’s Trust Mansfield, Mansfield Jobcentre Plus, Queen Elizabeth’s Academy, Switch Up Mansfield, and Vision West Notts College.

Accreditations:

• 50 achieved an Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditation (6 in Conduct at Work, 40 in Painting & Decorating, 4 in Carpentry)
• 18 achieved a NOCN Level 1 ‘Environmental Awareness and Sustainability in Construction’ accreditation

Progressions included:

• Toby, 18, has successfully secured a Painting and Decorating Apprenticeship with the Bell Group.

He was referred to VIY by Vision West Notts College and joined his first project with VIY in March 2025.  His second project was at The Treasury, Mansfield, where he took part because of his interest in the Environmental Awareness and Sustainability in Construction qualification which he achieved. Building on these experiences, Toby impressed during his trial week with the Bell Group (an experience facilitated via a VIY partnership) and was offered a full apprenticeship, which he is currently completing and really enjoying. More on Toby here. 

• 90% of young volunteers who took part in the project are planning to start or return to college.
• The remaining students are exploring employment opportunities or apprenticeships with support from our Progressions team.

• 100% of learners felt more confident about getting a job in the future as a result of the skills gained during the VIY project
• 98% of learners felt more aware of employers’ expectations due to VIY
• 82% of learners would consider a job or career in the building or construction industry due to VIY
• 88% of learners felt their overall feeling of happiness or wellbeing had improved due to volunteering with VIY
• 80% of learners felt their overall feeling of physical health had improved due to volunteering with VIY 

Trowell Community Centre

To help this community centre become a more central part of the community in Bellamy, we helped to free up their downstairs room and converted this into wider, more accessible space for the community in a more private space – to be used for coffee mornings, physical and mental wellbeing, benefits advice, as well as a confidential space for community meetings and complimentary therapies. All of these services were previously up a steep staircase, very inaccessible for some members of the public, particularly the elderly and those with disabilities.

We also helped to decommission part of the original building, previously a children’s toilet in this former children’s home, and convert this into storage space

In the year following the VIY project, we caught up with the team at Trowell Community Centre:

• Really enhanced what the building can deliver for the local community, broader discussions with health partners, to help build relationships and build trust for people who need it most
• Huge impact/improvement in social inclusion, loneliness, seeking advice
• Their food club has benefited hugely – the dedicated storage room storage has now become a small social supermarket
• Complimenting their work trying to take health & wellbeing services for the community to tackle huge health inequalities on Bellamy – which has no doctor’s surgery or pharmacy
• 6-8 key delivery partners use the space inc. food club, bingo, coffee morning, community events, social-prescribing, community college
• Kirsty, Health & Wellbeing Officer for Bellamy reported lots of health & wellbeing conversations are taking place where they were not before, as more people are accessing the venue through coffee mornings, the food club etc – this has led them to set up of a weight management group for local people
• Just walking to the centre for the wider services on offer has got people who were previously inactive to come outside and be active in some way – geographically isolated community
• They’re also talking about a couch to 5k and walking group, chair-based exercise, self-defence – a group who meets in the Trowell private room are also setting up a charity bike ride for Prostate Cancer 
• Others work in progress – working with NHS partners on outreach, smoking clinics, flu vaccines, health & wellbeing pop-ups all using the private space
• Beginning delivery of a diabetes support group/pilot programme for this diabetes-intensive area – all came from candid conversations with those in the community where diabetes diagnosis hadn’t happened or were under-supported
• They’re now developing a volunteering impact report as part of this updated delivery from this centre following VIY’s improvements, looking at how they’re contributing to the NHS prevention agenda, community cohesion, reasons for volunteering etc

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