Golden Mede Housing Development

Golden Mede is a new housing development in Waddesdon, near Aylesbury, and VIY has worked closely with the Rothschild Foundation and Places for People, the lead contractor, to enable local unemployed and ‘at risk’ young people to gain work experience on site.

Under the guidance of VIY Lead Mentors and other professional tradespeople, 20 young people recruited via local youth work organisations, including Aylesbury Youth Concern, have learnt and applied skills such as bricklaying, plastering, carpentry/joinery and plumbing. In the process, the young people have completed more than 800 guided learning hours, with eight participants successfully gaining a City & Guilds Entry Level 3 construction skills qualification and eight also achieving the Lincsafe health and safety accreditation, enabling them to undertake paid work on construction sites.

The Golden Mede project was also visited and filmed by Guy Martin and Channel 4 for Guy’s Building Britain series of films on All 4 that highlight the UK’s national shortage of building and construction skills – and all five young Golden Mede VIY participants featured in the film have already successfully progressed into paid employment beyond the project.

Gorleston Community Room

The Gorleston Community Room was a disused community hub, a place where Orbit Housing envision a variety of groups/tenants meeting from the community where they live in Orbit housing in Great Yarmouth, the most deprived area in Norfolk and one of the most deprived towns in the UK. Orbit wanted to increase the functionality of this building, to increase the promotion of healthy living/wellbeing and deliver more quality experiences for the community to host from coffee/parent & child mornings, to physical activity groups like yoga and local services like voting.

The project:

To bring this vision to life, with some design input from MUF Architects, the project has seen the garden boundary extended, new doors being fitted to lead into the new garden, the construction of a large decking area with a section being covered by a pergola, a complete internal refit including new flooring, a new kitchen and larger, accessible toilet as well as external decoration and storage.

The young people: 19 local young volunteers recruited from the local Orbit housing community, YMCA Norfolk, Catch-22 Great Yarmouth and Dial Great Yarmouth, who support vulnerable young people and those with disabilities

The impact:

• 14 Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations gained in Carpentry and Health & Safety
• Transformation of community hub including new kitchen and accessible toilet, new flooring and blinds for groups to use the space
• A new storage shed, pergola, seating and decking area ready to use for outdoor physical activity
• The building now has a larger footprint and more storage meaning it can host varied activities more flexibly.
• The newly refurbished interior also means it’s a more attractive space for private hire and general community events
• 2 young volunteers promoted to paid Peer Mentors with VIY during this project – supporting other VIY volunteers to learn trade skills on two further VIY projects in Norfolk
• 4 other young volunteers progressed into further education/training/employment following this project, with 2 more supported by VIY to find future opportunities
• The space was officially reopened to the community in October 2023

Match-funded by Sport England.

See this project in action here

Grace Academy Darlaston

Granby 4 Streets Community Land Trust

Great Academy Ashton

Great Horton Church Cricket Club

Great Horton Church Cricket Club

Great Wryley Academy

Greenway Centre

Grimsby Boxing Academy

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