Wyndham Boys & Girls Club

Wythall Hall

YMCA Dickerage

YMCA Dickerage Sports & Community Centre, in New Malden, Kingston Upon Thames, is an integral part of its community providing local, young people from diverse backgrounds opportunities to socialise and take part in sports and activities, whilst also providing opportunities to gain qualifications. This made it an ideal project for VIY to help with.

With funding from Sport England and Toolstation, who also helped to supply materials alongside Travis Perkins, the centre saw a complete revamp of its outdoor spaces including new outdoor seating being built, a new digital education space built and its kitchen and café area refurbished.

The project was completed by 31 volunteers, many of them not involved with mainstream education or training, aged between 14-24. Across 560 hours of work these young people achieved 38 Level 3 City & Guild accreditations in carpentry, health & safety and painting & decorating.

Daniel Slocombe, Centre Manager for YMCA Dickerage, said: “This is the most excited I’ve been since working here – the refurbishment will make a huge difference to young people and their lives… Community is so important and after COVID-19, the centre is helping bring everybody together… It is more multicultural and multi-generational than ever before.“

YMCA North London

To be added shortly

YMCA North Tyneside

YMCA Romford

YMCA Walthamstow

York Travellers Trust

York Travellers Trust welcomes people from the traveling community, including a local drop-in centre. The venue provides a vital place where people can get a coffee and speak to employees to support their needs, a regular food bank, and educational support for young people.

This is our first project funded by the Aviva Foundation’s Future Chances Fund. The fund aligns with our mission and aims to support organisations to strengthen the employability chances of young people facing barriers due to inequality and discrimination.

The project:

The project has helped to develop the educational offering and accessibility at the venue, creating a quiet room and a small creche room for young children.

Through carpentry, we helped to build storage, radiator covers and bench seating, plastered some interior walls, and redecorated to create spaces their community can benefit from.

Impact

• 21 local young people volunteering referred directly from the Travellers community, as well as local young people referred from the JobCentre and local schools/colleges in their holidays
• 18 Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations earned in Carpentry and Painting & Decorating
• Many young people keen to volunteer with VIY again on our future work in York, particularly with through our work with City of York Council
• Hear what Alex Christopoulos, the Lead & Senior Strategic Adviser and Consultant from Aviva Foundation, told us when he visited the project here
• Chris, a tutor at York Traveller’s Trust told us: “For our young people, it has been a surprise to see not only how their work was an essential part of changing the space, but their realisation that their work will impact future users of the space. Those young people are due to start using the space for classes from September and gives them a sense of ownership of the space they otherwise wouldn’t have.”
• Feedback from users of the space: “It looks so much nicer, it makes it feel really calm and bright”
• Young learner: “I came back after it was finished, it looks completely different. I actually feel proud about what I’ve done”
• See the impact this experience had on Liam, one of the young learners

Youth Concern Drop-In Centre

Youth Concern supports young people who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, and VIY has run two projects at the charity’s drop-in centre in Aylesbury. The centre was in real need of refurbishment and the projects were a great opportunity for many of the young people who attend the centre to get involved in something different and to gain new skills and an employability accreditation.

The first project, in 2017, covered the interior redecoration of the centre as well as the building of a new outside decking area and external storage shed (to free up much-needed meeting space within the centre). The second project, in 2018, focused on replacing the centre’s perimeter fence and main gate.

Both projects were supported by Wickes Aylesbury with staff providing additional mentoring support, in addition to donating all the tools and materials. A grant from Heart of Bucks also contributed to the delivery of the projects.

18 young people aged 19-25 participated over the two projects, contributing more than 500 volunteer hours. All were referred by Youth Concern and the local Job Centre Plus, with the majority being long-term unemployed. Ultimately, 14 of the young people taking part successfully achieved the Entry Level 3 City & Guilds employability skills qualification, and three of them also progressed into employment within three months of finishing on VIY.  Some of the young volunteers also subsequently went on to take part in the Golden Mede VIY project based at a new housing development outside of Aylesbury, building their skills further and gaining paid work opportunities with the lead contractor on site.

Ystrad Boys & Girls Club

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