YMCA of the Year 2018

YMCA Burton upon Trent & District

Despite being a small YMCA, our team is passionate about the services we provide which have a big impact in the local community. We conduct Outreach services to locate local people in immediate need of support and accommodation, and provide for them at our Homelessness Centre, Reconnect. Here we assist with assessments for accommodation, provide showering and laundry facilities, and refreshments and clothing. There is not another facility like this one in the county.

From this centre we also provide a community food bank, along with counselling, mediation and chaplaincy services, plus accommodation. In addition we offer homelessness prevention education and wellbeing services in the local college and schools. Our breakfast and lunch clubs continue to grow, and this has led us to launch Café Connect, a community café run by volunteers in association with the local housing provider.

We have four furniture shops offering recycled items of furniture to people who may not be able to afford high street prices. Last winter we launched our Night Shelter in partnership with local churches. This opened for 7 nights a week from December to end of March. This saw 95 different individuals in need come through the church doors, and we were supported by 130 volunteers. We have secured £250,000 of funding to enable us to continue to provide key services, while developing our new Night Shelter project, and new roles of Volunteer Co-ordinator and Participation Officer which is specifically to support our young people.

We work with a variety of local groups and charities, as well as supporting national campaigns such as #IAMWHOLE and the Be Real Campaign. Over the last 12 months we have reached 27,086 different people through our work as well as recruiting over 200 volunteers who contributed more than 38,000 hours.

YMCA Norfolk

The last twelve months has been an incredible year for YMCA Norfolk! We are immensely proud to have supported 2047 people in our local community.

Our work with the Broadland Youth Advisory Board has enabled us to hear the views and concerns of 2500 local young people, while our regular Your Voice and Residents meetings enable young people to shape our services, including the introduction of a new LGBTQA+ group and two weekly running groups.

Our newly restructured ‘Communities’ team is delivering a new £196,000 service, Rapid response and return, commissioned by Norfolk County Council Children’s Services. Families are referred via the council where there is an immediate risk that a child might need to come into care, and YMCA Norfolk provide two weeks of immediate, intensive support.

Our Mind Matters programme has grown into a full range of services including schools work and bimonthly Mental Health First Aid training delivering a recognised MHFA qualification to professionals.

We have raised the profile of the Be Real Campaign locally, with our work in schools featured by YMCA England & Wales nationally. We have been successful in leading a partnership of seven local organisations to secure £450,000 from the Youth Investment fund. The Youth-West partnership will establish five open access youth clubs and deliver new activities for young people aged 10-18 over the next three years.

We made our first international trip to Kenya after developing a partnership brokered by a YMCA Norfolk volunteer. Three young people who have accessed our services were able to visit the YWCA in Mombasa and the YMCA in Nairobi, participating in programmed activities at these sites.

Our staff continue to be our biggest champions, each contributing with a newly-introduced individual fundraising target. As we reflect on our impact, YMCA Norfolk is excited about the next twelve months.

YMCA St Paul’s Group

At YMCA St Paul’s Group we’re leading the way with our pioneering approach to ensure young people thrive and communities flourish.

Over a two-year period, four of the largest YMCAs in the country came together to create YMCA St Paul’s Group. As a result of the selfless vision shown by the trustees of those four YMCAs, YMCA St Paul’s Group is now the largest provider of housing for homeless young people in London and the capital’s largest youth and community charity. This scale means we leverage the collective strength of the YMCA, attracting the interest of key political decision makers and investors, not least with a (YMCA record) £30M investment from Metro Bank to create new YMCAs.

By coming together and reducing back office costs, we have increased the funding going straight into the local work with young people and communities by over £1.2M per year. This means we have been able to improve the quality of what we do every day: housing 300 more young people per year, providing nursery spaces to over 200 more children and creating new YMCAs in previously unreached local communities.

YMCA St Paul’s Group has already drawn significant attention; a fact that was marked by a commissioning service at St Paul’s Cathedral in May 2018 which was led by the acting Bishop of London and attended by young people, senior dignitaries, investors and decisions makers from across London. Over the last 12 months YMCA St Paul’s Group has shown a vision of what it means to be both a large and local YMCA; to be driven by a passion to see local young people thrive and communities flourish whilst being part of an Association that is more than the sum of its parts.

YMCA Trinity Group

YMCA Trinity Group impacts on thousands of young lives each year. We are proud to be part of such a strong and outcome driven organisation meeting the many needs of our communities.

We don’t just house people; we offer the opportunity to change lives positively, offering education, ways into work, volunteering and learning to be part of the community.

“Jane turned negative behaviour around through our Positive Behaviour Programme, saying ‘I am too busy to cause problems now!’”

We don’t just look after children for parents that work; we offer support for parents who are struggling and childcare that makes a difference for the whole family.

“The nursery is the best I have seen. Leo is very excited to go back to school the next day.”

We don’t just provide a place for young people to meet; we help young people stay safe, stay in school, stay out of the justice system and above all, have fun and learn new skills.

“Michelle can now socialise, is volunteering, has made friends and learned new skills because of YMCA Youth Lowestoft”

We don’t just offer schools workers; we meet pastoral and wellbeing needs of young lives through counselling, well-being support and a listening ear.

“In the last 6 months, 94% of schools saw an improvement in the young people we worked with through our mental health support.”

We don’t just offer reparation; we turn young lives around by offering something they are interested in, giving them opportunities at the end of it for work or further education.

“Over the last year, 83% of young people said that reparation with YMCA has made them think differently about their offence”.

And we do so much more! Our YMCA is a joyous place to work because we make such a difference to peoples’ lives.