Horsell Common

Project contact: graham@teamviy.com

Anchorians Football Club

Project Manager Contact: graham@teamviy.com

Project Overview

Strood Boxing Club

Strood Boxing Club was founded 17 years ago to support a deprived community, to provide a safe, affordable space for individuals aged 8-40 to learn boxing, gain confidence, and access new opportunities. Refuse collector by day, gym owner/coach by night, Chris Ripley has built a community to be proud of at his club.

This is our second project funded by Medway Council through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, following our previous project at Anchorians Sports Club – all helping to boost pride in place in Medway.

The project:

VIY has refurbished the gym by fixing and reboarding a bowing ceiling to boost warmth and safety repairing walls, doors, and ceilings, and refreshing both the interior and exterior to create a more welcoming environment. These improvements aim to attract more members, particularly women, while helping the club continue its vital work of mentoring and empowering the local community.

The impact:

• A club transformed boosted from a makeshift, grassroots space into a more welcoming, inclusive and professional space – boosted to help even more local young people and in particular, help to welcome more young women into boxing
• 18 NEET/at risk young people took part in the project, referred from local youth referral partners including DOMEG, the looked after team at Kent County Council, Medway 16+ leaving care team, Nacro – Medway & The Rowans Alternative Provision
• 15 gained a City & Guilds Entry Level 3 accreditation in Painting & Decorating or Health & Safety
• Chris Ripley, Owner at Strood Boxing Club told us: “Huge thank you to VIY and all your team, we really do appreciate everything you have done for our little club.  Our community was a desperately deprived estate – nothing for the kids was available without costing a small fortune. I have been involved in the art of boxing since the age of seven and searched for the opportunity to help my community and help education towards the sport and benefits it give a individual. From day one it was needed and over the years we have helped not only keep the kids of the street but put them on the right path for later on, helping with employment opportunities and support for the mothers of our boxers too.” 
• Local Active Partnership Active Kent also visited the project and told us: “It was a real pleasure to visit the project at Strood ABC. Getting to meet the young people working on the project and seeing first-hand the impact these projects have, not only for the improvement of local venues but also for the development of the young people working on them.”

About the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus

Greater Manchester

To hear more about our work in Manchester, contact Programme Manager for the North, matt@teamviy.com.

For opportunities for young people in Manchester, contact gemma@teamviy.com.

Admiral Lord Nelson School

Al Madina Community Centre

Amber Foundation Residential Centre

Amber Foundation Surrey

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.

See Phase 1 here

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.

See more of Phase 2 here

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

Aylesbury Youth Motor Project

The Aylesbury Youth Motor Project (AYMP) is a CIC that provides educational and vocational motor training to at-risk and disengaged young people, helping them build confidence, skills, and employability – basically, VIY for the motor industry! They offer IMI qualifications and support with Maths and English, working closely with local councils and youth referral partners to engage young people who are furthest from the job market.

This is our first project funded by the Aylesbury Community Board and our second by The Shanly Foundation, with paint donated from our friends at Dulux.

The project:

We supported AYMP’s move to a larger premises, enabling them to engage a wider group of young people. We’ve helped to renovate the space by fitting a new kitchen to enable a breakout space to allow the young people to regulate during the day (particularly important for those who are disengaged in mainstream education/with additional support needs), fitting a donated kitchen into a staff rest area and painting the mezzanine area walls and classrooms, and refreshing internal walls and workshop floors.

The impact:

• Over 30 local NEET/at risk young people volunteered on the project – including many young people referred by AYMP creating this space they will then train in and benefit from, alongside young people from Buckinghamshire Youth Offending Service and local Alternative Provision, Progress Schools – many achieving their Entry Level City & Guilds accreditation in Painting & Decorating
• 14 local volunteers from our friends at Dulux volunteered their time from their HQ in Slough – helping on lots of much-needed paint work to push the centre along
• These improvements will help the new space to launch with a public event in spring 2025, creating a larger, more welcoming, professional environment for more young people to gain hands-on experience in the motor industry – see the brilliant progress visuals on the right!
• Strong appetite for further VIY experience for these young people in Aylesbury, through the referral partners we’re connected with and other youth partners in Aylesbury including Youth Concern – with whom we converted an empty townhouse into a new nine-bed supported accommodation unit

Aylesford Football Club

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