Old Basford Community Centre
30 March 2023
Orchard Park
13 October 2023
Paddocks Community Centre
23 October 2024
We’ve recently been supporting The Paddocks Community Centre on Canvey Island. Working with Castle Point Council through theUK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), we’ve been helping them finish off the £2.3million renovations to this much-loved community centre. At the same time, we’ve been supporting local young people, those who are NEET or at risk of becoming so, to engage in the VIY skills experience and earn hands-on work experience in painting and decorating for this valued community space on a major local infrastructure project.
Our work/approach has been so successful, Castle Point Council have since provided further funding for us to complete more works there over at least two more projects, helping to welcome more local young people to play their part in renovating this much-loved space, building vital skills and employability at the same time.
Phase 1, 2 and 3 (2025) – co-funded by the UKSPF by Castle Point Council, with phase 1 co-funded alongside Dulux and Essex Community Foundation
We’ve been helping to complete the wider renovation works by supporting the venue in painting and decorating the wide open public spaces. Our friends at Dulux not only provided funding towards this project, but also gifted their colour services to the venue to build them a colour palette which truly reflected the building and its future ambitions/needs.
33 NEET/at risk young people took part across the three phases of this project, referred from The Children’s Society East, Leaving and Aftercare Team – South Essex and USP College. In total, these young people gained 29 Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations in Painting & Decorating and Health & Safety.
A young person progresses directly from The Paddocks
A few weeks after this first project, we received a request for further support from one of our learners, Riley, referred to VIY as a NEET young person by The Yellow Door Project. He was inspired by the Next Steps Guide we send out post-project to all learner, which includes further resources to explore the trade & construction industry.
They told us that the project had given them exactly what they’d been searching for: real-world experience in a field they were passionate about. Despite having a strong interest in Painting & Decorating, they’d never had the chance to gain hands-on experience, until now. With the support and mentorship of skilled tradespeople on-site, they began to build the foundational skills and confidence they needed.
Motivated and energised by their time on the project, Riley took the initiative to explore opportunities in their local area, and we’re proud to share that they’ve now secured a full-time position with a tradesperson in Canvey Island. They’re absolutely thrilled about this next chapter, and we couldn’t be happier for them.
Phase 4
We’re also now looking at proposals to support the development of a larger industrial kitchen renovation at the centre too.
Pembroke House
6 April 2019
Pembroke House works in support of social action and residential community in Walworth, South London. They run several community engagement programmes covering activities and themes such as music and arts, health and wellbeing, and education and learning.
In early 2019, the charity was set to take on an old church hall – All Saints Hall – to be repurposed as ‘Walworth’s Living Room’, a new community centre intended to be a focal point for the local area. However, the hall had been empty for a long period of time, and needed extensive renovation work to make it safe and fit for purpose, so Pembroke House applied to VIY for help via the GLA’s Good Growth Fund to enable a first stage refurbishment of the main hall.
VIY proceeded to undertake several phases of work at All Saints Hall, covering a complete strip out, including a previously installed hung ceiling, refurbishing three washrooms and installing a new disabled WC, redecorating the main hall and side hall, and sanding and lacquering the original parquet floor. These works involved 86 young people from the local area, including referrals from South Thames College and a local secondary school. The majority of young volunteers, however, were not in education, employment or training and 29 successfully gained a City & Guilds Entry Level 3 construction trade skills qualification through their participation.
The building was totally transformed by the project with Mike Wilson, CEO at Pembroke House, commenting: “The young people and VIY mentors have transformed All Saints Hall from a dark and dilapidated old church hall into a characterful community space filled with light. We can’t wait to show off the young people’s work as we open the doors to the wider community – and having young people from the local community help to restore the venue has been central to the project.”
Phoenix Centre
4 November 2022
The first of twelve projects in 2022 in partnership with Norfolk County Council through the UK Community Renewal Fund*.
The project:
The Phoenix Centre provides vital services to the local community in Mile Cross, Norwich, through food banks and children’s activities. Through our three week project there in March 2022, VIY were welcomed with open arms whilst we refreshed their interiors to make it a more inviting space for the community. The team even put on a lovely buffet to thank all of the team and young people for their hard work! We received another warm welcome as we returned to the centre in October 2022 to refresh even more rooms across the centre.
The young people: 20 local young volunteers, including those who use the centre itself, the Aspire project through City College Norwich and Future Education, for those with special educational needs.
The impact:
–“The Phoenix Centre had an image of being dirty and unkempt prior to being painted and generally tidied by VIY. Some said they hadn’t come to events as it was unkempt and dirty – now people are actively booking rooms and attending events.”
Christine Rumsby, Chair, Phoenix Centre
– Archie, a young volunteer who was NEET on arrival at VIY through Norfolk County Council, has since been supported by VIY and local partners at the Clarion Housing Association onto an SIA course to gain his security license – although he’d also like to pursue a painting & decorating career in the future – as he told us below.
– Bailey a young, regular volunteer to the centre, who struggles in mainstream education and watched hesitantly for the first week, was inspired to get involved and eventually said in their words (as seen below) they’d had the ‘best time of my life’.
Accreditations gained: 24 City & Guilds Entry Level 3 in Painting & Decorating, Carpentry and Health & Safety
* You can find more information, on the UK Government’s Community Renewal Fund here.
Pilling Park Community Centre
30 March 2023
Queen’s Walk Community Centre
13 April 2023
We are painting & decorating to revamp this vital community centre in Nottingham, in partnership with Nottingham City Council, through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Please contact georgie@teamviy.com if you’d like to talk about opportunities for young people, or the chance to become a Community Volunteer on this project.
Reach CIC
13 October 2023
Our first project funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, with Redditch Borough Council.
The project:
To begin with, Reach Director Shannon told us “it just doesn’t look like a community space.. you have no idea how much difference this whole project will make” – we had quite the impact – see the before/after images to the right >>>
The young people: 10 young people referred from Heart of Worcestershire College, Young Solutions and the local area
The impact:
- Helped create a fit-for-purpose space by remodelling and creating stud walls – opening the main space out for larger groups and activities including fitness classes
- Created smaller, safer, confidential spaces for certain services and conversations
- Installed new basic kitchen units, thanks to generous donations from Toolstation suppliers Kitchen Kit and Bushboard, where there were previously only makeshift tables
- Redecorated throughout, including a truly impactful external window design in partnership with local window artist Hannah Exall to showcase the vibrancy of the centre, to help people identify the space and know what services are on offer which could be of use to them
- This work has allowed Reach to expand their groups to the same size as their previous space – and larger – and welcome new people too
Match-funded by Toolstation, Travis Perkins Plc and Sport England.
Accreditations gained: 5 Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations gained in Painting & Decorating, Conduct at Work and Health & Safety
About the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and 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
Redditch Youth Hub
22 August 2022
Young Solutions, a youth training provider in Worcestershire, have never had a central location to meet and help young people from. They were faced with an office in the local town hall, which wouldn’t have been fit to run training activities and support groups, to benefit the learning, development and next steps for their young people.
The project: This 14 day VIY project was our sixth in partnership with Toolstation, seeing us convert two disused units, formerly used as a foodbank underneath the Kingfisher Shopping Centre, into one space for local young people to make their own. We’ve repainted the whole space and refurbished with a new kitchen (our first donated by Benchmarx) and storage facilities for future communal events and classes, whilst the outdoor space has been renovated with outdoor seating and will host regular sporting activities and community events. It also features a kitchen area for young people to learn cookery and provide free meals to people participating in sporting activities.
The young people: 17 volunteers from youth support organisations in the local area, including YMCA Redditch, Bromsgrove District Council and the UP Foundation
The impact? A profound result for the local community, the young VIY volunteers and a new space they’ve even named themselves – W.I.S.E.
A safe, central space for youth work which didn’t exist before in Redditch, now signposted by the likes of the NHS, CAMHS and local social services
5x number of young people in the first six months than initially forecasted
Luke Maguire, Enhanced Youth Support Officer for Young Solutions, who’s dedicated half of his life to working with young people, has never seen impact like this.
“I can’t praise the VIY mentors enough. They were able to generate a relationship with these people inside 3-4 days and help contribute towards the ambitions of the young people we work with to help them want to work, learn and grow, which usually needs weeks or months to make inroads.
One key example for me was a young man who had recently gone through substance misuse and alcohol addiction and looked unlikely to complete our course, then came in on Monday (after a weekend) and said, “I decided not to get wrecked last night, I wanted to come in today fresh and not get buzzed out.”
By day 3-4, this young man had actively decided against taking a substance the night before and he made a decision to go down path A and not B, all because he wanted to come in, complete his work and take ownership of what he was tasked with that day. This project potentially influenced a young man to make a decision that could have saved his life. That’s the true impact VIY can make.”
Accreditations gained: 12 Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations in Carpentry, Painting & Decorating and Health & Safety
See the project in action here
Rochford Women’s Institute
13 October 2023
