About the project

Having spread our wings across Norfolk since 2022 through the Community Renewal Fund, including a great project at Kaset Skatepark, we’re back in West Norfolk working with King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Council through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, renovating three community venues.

The project:

Here we were helping North Wootton Village Hall to double the size of their storage space for their vital maintenance equipment by building a new external storage unit, and decorating parts of the venue externally to help the village hall to become the most appealing it can be.

The impact:

• Over 15 local young people volunteered on the project, referred from local youth partners including YMCA Norfolk, Norfolk Youth Justice Service and Headway
• 10 young people gained an Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditation in either Carpentry or Painting & Decorating
• We’re working closely with Boost Norfolk, not only on referring young people to this project and others locally, but to support our young people post-project with further employability and job-searching
• Take a look at what Bob Angell, in charge of maintenance at North Wootton Village Hall, told us:

“The team have completed a fantastic job on the tasks set out. They have been a pleasure to have working here.

It is so important today to have an organization such as yours, that can give young adults the opportunity to try their hand at construction. Having run a business myself in the locksmithing profession for over thirty years, I know that first hand, as some of my staff that I employed had not even used a screwdriver when they joined us as young men. Teaching is invaluable and from my opinion, Dave and Dom did just that. Brilliant.

Maintenance on a village hall such as ours, which is now over 87 years old, is continuous. In the last seven years since the present management team took on the task, we have brought an almost derelict building back into our village community, so VIY have helped us enormously. A job very well done.”