Bury Cricket Club

Bury Cricket Club is a long-established and prominent sports club in the local area, which is one of the 20% most deprived wards in the UK. The club applied to VIY for help to construct perimeter picket fencing to improve the appearance and security of the grounds and also, at the same time, to engage more potential female members at the club.

Over the course of two project phases, 21 young female volunteers were involved: 14 referred by Lancashire County Women’s Cricket Regional Development Centre and seven from Bury College. Most of the participants were first-time volunteers and all of the college students were new to cricket. Working together with VIY trade skills mentors, all of the young volunteers had the opportunity to try their hands at a mix of jobs, covering groundwork and fence-building, and 14 of the participants successfully achieved an Entry Level 3 City & Guilds Carpentry Skills Accreditation in the process.

The club was really pleased with the results of the project and the enthusiasm and positivity that the young people brought to the club. Matthew Metcalfe, chairman at Bury Cricket Club, said the following: “Imran, the VIY Lead Mentor, and his team did a great job in enthusing the young volunteers and the very positive working relationship between the mentors and the volunteers was clear to see. It’s easy to sometimes be jaded about young people and their willingness to involve themselves in community activities, but this project was a great reminder that there are thousands of young people who, if the right button can be pressed at the right time, will metaphorically move mountains for you. The girls did a great job and hopefully we can continue to involve them with the club.”

Bwlch Youth & Community Centre

Cadge Road Community Centre

Cafe INDIEpendent

Cafe INDIEpendent is a live music venue, community cafe and social enterprise on Scunthorpe high street, and was introduced to VIY by Music Venue Trust, a charity that acts to protect, secure and improve grassroots music venues at risk across the UK. The focus of the VIY project was to help refurbish the downstairs performance and bar area, involving an all female VIY team of mentors and volunteers, including construction students from Doncaster College.

The project was also visited and filmed by Guy Martin and Channel 4 for Guy’s Building Britain series of short films on All 4 that highlight the UK’s national shortage of building and construction skills.

Caister Community Spoon

Youth Opportunities Contact:  JoJo Yohannes, email jojo@teamviy.com

Project Manager Contact:  Mick Loftus, email mick@teamviy.com

Calthorpe Academy

Cam Youth & Community Centre

Canada Villa Community Centre

Canley Community Centre

Refreshing Canley Community Centre, a rundown centre in a highly deprived part of Coventry tackling the drug trade and knife crime, was the first of six projects working in partnership with Think Active – working together to help more local people become more active across Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire.

The project

Over 2 weeks, we painted & decorated the whole centre to increase appeal/use of the centre for external groups to use for physical activity, private and community events.

“As a charitable organisation ourselves, the centre hasn’t been painted in 10 years due to slim resourcing and funds. In order to be able to best serve our community, through our food bank, local youth groups tackling knife crime and soon, local sports activities like yoga, dodgeball and fitness classes, we need to be looking our best to attract more people to use the centre and our services, whilst feeling comfortable to be in a bright, welcoming space, when they’re here. This full redecoration of the centre will do just that.”Anne-Marie Corbett, Centre Manager, Canley Community Centre

See our full Think Active partnership here

The young people: 10 local young volunteers, from Coventry College and Hereward College

The impact:

• Targeted local impact into an area and community space that need help the most

• More usage and financial stability through private hire reported through greater interest from groups including a dance school, social gatherings, community groups and increased youth activity

• Increased engagement from young people, elderly people and people from low socio-economic backgrounds

• Four partner volunteers involved from the technical team at our Trade Partners, Dulux

Accreditations gained: 7 Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations in Painting & Decorating and Health & Safety

Cannock Chase High School

« Previous Page — Next Page »