Anchorians Football Club
26 November 2024
Project Manager Contact: graham@teamviy.com
Project Overview
VIY will renovate and refurbish the female changing rooms and toilets, which are in poor condition and urgently need refreshing. This will provide young girls and women with a proper space to change, eliminating the need to use the upstairs toilets. The project includes painting benches, doors, frames, walls, and ceilings in the club’s colours. Additionally, a large communal changing area, often used by female players, will also be redecorated.
The club has faced challenges in retaining female players, with adult players moving to a neighbouring club. However, they have a thriving junior girls’ team that they are determined to support and grow into the next generation, ensuring the future of female rugby at the club. Anchorians also host football and hockey, making this upgrade vital to the community.
Strood Boxing Club
23 October 2024
Project Manager Contact: graham@teamviy.com
Youth Engagement Contact: meera@teamviy.com
Project Overview
Aylesbury Youth Motor Project
20 December 2024
Project manager: graham@teamviy.com
Project Overview
The Aylesbury Youth Motor Project (AYMP) is a charity garage that provides educational and vocational training to at-risk and disengaged young people, helping them build confidence, skills, and employability. They offer IMI qualifications and support with math and English, working closely with local councils and youth referral partners to engage young people who are furthest from the job market.
We are supporting AYMP’s move to a larger premises, enabling them to engage a wider group of young people. Our contributions include renovating the space by replacing an outdated kitchen with a new one, fitting a donated kitchen into a staff rest room, painting the mezzanine area walls and classrooms, and refreshing internal walls and workshop floors. These improvements will provide a more welcoming, professional environment for the young people, enhancing the overall experience and impact of the project.
Admiral Lord Nelson School
9 April 2020
Al Madina Community Centre
22 January 2019
Amber Foundation Residential Centre
1 September 2021
Amber Foundation Surrey
10 May 2024
This is our fourth renovation project with Amber Foundation to-date – a wonderful charity who support young people at risk of homelessness.
Our partnership with Amber is a win-win for spaces and skills – not only have we renovated parts of the buildings young people live in temporarily to help them rebuild healthier lives across three of their sites, those same young people also volunteer with us on other external community projects to gain skills, experience and confidence.
- 100+ young people volunteering with Amber across 20+ VIY projects
- 3 of 4 Amber residential centres renovated by VIY – with this our second at their place in Surrey
- Multiple City & Guilds accreditations gained by Amber volunteers on each project
This is also our first project in partnership with the Shanly Foundation, who wish to have a positive impact on young people and their local communities in which they operate.
Phase 1 – November 2023
We transformed a large piece of overgrown, disused land to create a more useable outdoor area and learning spaces, including building and painting all new brightly coloured seating and furniture and jetwashing their paved areas. We then also replaced old, dishevelled structures with new and converted some disused outdoor buildings into brand new health, wellbeing and therapy spaces, including an external glow-up to make them more inviting and homely.
Phase 2 – April 2024
We then returned to design and fit completely new roofing across three stables, which were dilapidated and covered with holes, turning previously unusable spaces into rooms for learning, IT, 1:1s and art. We then boarded out and redecorated a fourth room, for the team to use for further learning and training for the young people supported by Amber. The new roofing was funded by the Wooden Spoon Charity.
The impact across the whole project:
- Transforming both their outdoor and damaged indoor spaces, creating brand new spaces for teamwork and personal development that wouldn’t have existed otherwise
- 33 unique young people supported by Amber trained in construction skills, helping to improve their environment they call home
- 35 City & Guilds trade skills accreditations gained in Carpentry, Health & Safety and Painting & Decorating
- Following his VIY experience on Phase 1, Tyler has since successfully progressed away from Amber, gaining his CSCS card and gaining a job in roofing!
- Kieran (pictured right) has also successfully moved away from Amber and is studying Biology with the Open University
- Patrick and Jamie, aged 25 and 24, were coached as Peer Mentors on the project, leading their own groups of peers on sections of the work and sharing their skills they’ve bolstered with VIY
- Introduced Clarion Housing as an employability partner for future collaborative work and entry into the industry for some Amber learners, alongside support from VIY’s Progressions team
Take a look at our impact so far elsewhere with Amber Foundation:
Boosting wellbeing at Trowbridge
Creating inspiring spaces in Devon
Success story: helping Angel take his next steps
Helping young people like Vanessa to build a brighter future
Amber residents repeat volunteering with VIY
Aylesford Football Club
18 January 2019
Barton Leisure Centre
1 February 2019
Basingstoke Rugby Club
18 January 2019
VIY worked with Basingstoke Rugby Club on two Sport England-funded projects in 2018-2019. Basingstoke RFC is a growing club with a strong presence in the local area. They have a rapidly growing female membership and needed to improve their clubhouse facilities to meet this demand. They also wanted to improve disabled access and security and create a new office space.
With these aims in mind, VIY trade skills mentors helped young people at the club to: create new female shower facilities; build a new disabled ramp and install handrails to improve accessibility to the clubhouse; brick up a window in the clubhouse shop which had previously been a security risk, build more outside seating for those less able to stand on match and community days; and refurbish and repurpose a disused storage space as a new office.
28 young people from the club were involved over both projects, 17 of whom gained an Entry Level 3 City & Guilds Accreditation in Carpentry Skills through their participation. The second project at the club was enabled by an all-female team of VIY mentors and young volunteers, affirming both the club’s and VIY’s commitment to female participation in volunteering, sport and construction.
The club was delighted with the outcomes from the two projects, with Chairwoman Michele Amos commenting: “The building works have really made a difference. The ramp and handrails have greatly improved access to the clubhouse for those with restricted mobility or balance. We’ve greatly improved gender access to the shower block and privacy in that area. And the new seating has improved facilities for those who cannot stand for long periods outside the club, especially on match days. We also really enjoyed working with VIY – the mentors were so lovely and they really brought out the best in our young volunteers. The VIY projects have set a great example, and all the young people involved have continued volunteering regularly at the club as a result.”
As a footnote, the improvements made to the club’s facilities through VIY have also helped the club to develop their future plans for growth, and the club has since received a £50,000 RFU grant to extend their facilities further.