- Area:
- West Midlands
- Release date:
- 14 3 2013
• Young people in Birmingham will gain qualifications and skills through the pioneering Lottery-funded “Volunteer It Yourself” (VIY) programme
• Local Wickes trade customers will mentor and train young people to renovate five Birmingham-based youth clubs in a scheme backed by City & Guilds
• The five youth clubs being transformed through VIY are in: King’s Heath, Shirley, Selly Oak, Rednal, and West Tyseley
• Launch event takes place on 14 March at All Saints Centre, Kings Heath. Interviews with participating young people, spokespeople and trade mentors available.
An ambitious new national programme aimed at giving young people aged 14 upwards the chance to gain accredited construction skills while refurbishing their local youth clubs, is being rolled out in Birmingham.
The Volunteer It Yourself (VIY) scheme is run by young people’s charity London Youth, working with The Co-Sponsorship Agency, an organisation that specialises in pulling together cross-sector partnerships, and is backed by a £940,000 Big Lottery Fund grant.
It will see young people renovating 47 youth clubs in total across England and Wales, receiving mentoring from local Wickes trade customers and gaining qualifications from City & Guilds.
Five clubs in Birmingham will be renovated during the course of the project, giving young people in King’s Heath, Shirley, Selly Oak, Rednal, and West Tyseley the opportunity to work with local mentors to learn new skills as they do up their own community space.
One of the clubs that will be benefiting is All Saints Centre in Kings Heath. The club’s Young Leaders Co-ordinator, Kiu Wai Lam, said:
“The Volunteer It Yourself (VIY) Scheme is a real life line for making this much needed youth club a reality. Not only does it serve to realise the vision of the new youth wing to our community centre, it provides valuable opportunities for our young people to learn new skills and gain accreditations for their efforts. Moreover, it offers them the unique privilege to contribute to the bricks and mortar of the new building – quite literally!"
Michael-Don Smith, CEO, Birmingham Association of Youth Clubs said:
“BAYC is really pleased to be working with the VIY project: we can provide opportunities for young people in our member clubs; connect the clubs with businesses; and of course get young people engaged in a way that improves and develops the youth clubs. In 2013 one of our key goals is to connect youth clubs to businesses and we applaud VIY for taking such positive steps in this direction.”
Since London Youth launched VIY in June 2012, work has been completed at seven youth clubs in London, and 25 mentors and over 100 young people have benefited. The five clubs in Birmingham will take the project closer to its aim of working with 47 youth clubs in total.
London Youth Chief Executive, Rosie Ferguson, said:
“VIY is one of the most important and ambitious programmes we’ve ever been involved in at London Youth. The combination of giving young people the chance to plan and then carry out the renovation of their club, learning from mentors drawn from the local community and supported by nationally recognised partners in Wickes and City & Guilds contains all the elements of what we believe high quality youth work to be.
“We’ve been delivering the programme successfully with youth clubs in London for the past nine months, and are delighted now to be taking what we have learned into a partnership with Birmingham Association of Youth Clubs so that many young people in the West Midlands can benefit. We know how serious an issue youth unemployment is in this region, and will work hard to ensure that VIY complements other local efforts being made to provide young people with opportunities to learn new skills in sustainable, high quality community settings.”
VIY has been made possible following a £940,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund. Describing the importance of VIY, Mick McGrath of the Big Lottery Fund said:
“This is a wonderful opportunity for young people across Birmingham to gain access to practical skills and accredited qualifications in construction skills, which will improve their chances of securing future training and employment during a very challenging economic time.
“Volunteer It Yourself will not only have a positive impact on the lives of more than 100 young people across Birmingham taking part in the scheme, but hundreds more will also benefit from the renovation of five city youth clubs. These clubs offer a vital, safe space for young people to socialise and be themselves - it is crucial they are protected and preserved. And what better way to do it than to get the young people to do it themselves?”
The VIY scheme is backed by Wickes, and as well as recruiting trade customers via its nationwide network of stores, the leading home improvement retailer has donated all the tools and materials for the project. Every participating youth club will also be matched up to a local Wickes store. Wickes trade customers are being invited to give their time and expertise to the project on a voluntary basis to deliver over 4,000 hours of volunteer support across the programme.
The training that the young people receive as part of VIY will all be accredited by City & Guilds, to assure its quality and ensure the participants get the best out of their experience.
An event to mark the progression of VIY to youth clubs in Birmingham will take place on Thursday 14th March at 5pm, at All Saints Youth Centre, 2 Vicarage Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7RA. The event will include talks from project stakeholders as well as an opportunity to see DIY training in action amongst young people and Wickes tradesmen. Interviews are available on request. Media interested in attending should RVSP to bmiles@btinternet.com.
Notes to editors
Project website
For more information, go to: www.volunteerityourself.org.
Contacts
The Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888, Out of hours: 07867 500 572, Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030, Textphone: 08456 021 659
An event to mark the progression of VIY to youth clubs in Birmingham will take place on Thursday 14th March at 5pm, at All Saints Youth Centre, 2 Vicarage Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7RA. The event will include talks from project stakeholders as well as an opportunity to see DIY training in action amongst young people and Wickes tradesmen. Interviews are available on request. Media interested in attending should RVSP to bmiles@btinternet.com.
About the VIY partners
London Youth is a network of 400 community organisations serving 75,000 young people and their families in neighbourhoods across every London borough. We want everyone growing up in and around London to enjoy access to high quality youth work – structured, developmental activities, someone to talk to and a positive peer-group – all within a safe, stimulating and supportive environment.
London Youth’s mission is to help young people be the best they can be. Its vision is of a great world city in which every young person, whatever their background, is valued and challenged to do just that.
We do this in London through an ever evolving range of contemporary programmes covering youth action and youth leadership, sports development, employability, the environment, tackling youth crime, youth work training, the London Youth Quality Mark (our quality assurance scheme accredited by City & Guilds), and at our two outdoor residential centres, Woodrow High House and Hindleap Warren, which also host Activenture, our residential adventure weeks for young people with disabilities.
Full details of London Youth’s work can be found on the website: www.londonyouth.org
The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery. BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and awards grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since June 2004 BIG has awarded over £4.4bn.
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888, Out of hours: 07867 500 572, Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030, Textphone: 08456 021 659
Full details of the work of the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Wickes has over 200 stores nationwide and is an established brand within the UK DIY Market. The stores are designed to appeal to tradesmen who undertake general repairs, maintenance / improvement projects for households and serious DIY customers who carry out more complex projects. Wickes also offer a design and installation service for kitchens and bathrooms.
The Co-Sponsorship Agency (CoSpA) specialises in creating, delivering and enhancing social action projects by identifying and enabling cross-sector partnership and funding opportunities. Most of its work is focused in areas like education and training, social enterprise, health and sport, and volunteering and community cohesion. CoSpA's role on VIY includes developing the original concept, putting in place partnerships and sharing project management and delivery tasks with London Youth.
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