NEWS November / December 2018 - Berkshire Youth
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NEWS
Helping young people lead better lives November / December 2018
In June 2012, the Department for Education provided a statutory guidance for Local Authorities on
services and activities to improve young people’s well being. The guidance goes into great lengths
outlining the need for prevention and support for young people. It places a commitment to work with
youth services and youth workers to enable young people to become active and positive members of
society.
However, under a Freedom of Information request across the County of Berkshire, since 2010 there are
355 fewer staff delivering youth work to young people and 92 fewer centres available as safe places to
young people. This is all set against ever increasing gaps in social mobility, violent crime and the
increase in organised drug gangs, increases in reported issues of poor mental health and lack of activity.
Yet, against this back drop we at Berkshire Youth have worked with over 12,000 young people.
We have supported:
● over 200 young people to engage in community activities,
● increased our after school activity programme by 19.5%,
● delivered community sport activity to 4,184 young people,
● supported 46 young people to access the new eDofE Award Scheme,
● engaged with 69 young people who have completed our Young Leaders course
● supported young people to take part in our Fit4YOUth programme with 71% of those participants
reducing their waist size; and
● 777 young people completed a First Aid course.
I hope that what we are doing with our small team and dedicated volunteers gives us
heart that if we all pull together we really can make such a huge difference
David Seward, CEO Berkshire Youth
On Saturday 20th October, The Lord-Lieutenant of the Royal County
of Berkshire, Mr J H L Puxley hosted a reception followed by a
Festival of Song at St Gregory’s Church, Welford in aid of Berkshire
Youth.
The evening featured the premier Reading Male Voice Choir, with
guest artist Eleanor Stevens. The Festival of Song covered a range
of music ranging from Dona Nobis Pacem to Rhythm of Life.
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The Government plans to add CPR to the national school
curriculum in England.
The draft proposal sees first aid and CPR being added to the curriculum as
part of wider health education classes in England from 2020. With out-of-
hospital cardiac arrest survival rates being up to three times higher in
countries where first aid is taught in schools compared to the UK, this landmark move could save
thousands of lives each year.
The draft legislation, which was published on 19th July 2018, proposes that schools talk about the
steps that pupils can take to protect and support their own and others’ health and wellbeing, including
learning basic first aid.
Primary school children will be taught basic first aid, such as dealing with head injuries and calling
emergency services. Secondary school children will learn life-saving skills such as CPR and the
purpose of defibrillators.
If your school is interested in booking first aid training then please get in touch with our Training
Department, who have been delivering first aid to young people for over 6 years and make the
session interactive and youth friendly.
The Training Department can be contacted on 0118 9090927 or email admin@berkshireyouth.co.uk
Fit 4 YOUth Farewell
After 5 and half years we were sad to be say goodbye to our Healthy
Lifestyle Project Coordinator, Holly Raby at the end of August. Holly has
developed our Healthy Lifestyle offer (Fit4YOUth), putting together
sessions and resources which are fun for the young people taking part.
Alongside her team, she has delivered to over 1,500 young people on the
Fit 4 YOUth programme in over 1,000 hours of sessions across Berkshire.
Holly has been passionate about the Healthy Lifestyle programme that she
developed and has delivered to schools and at youth club sessions. This is
not just a job role for Holly, as she is passionate about helping young
people adopt healthier lifestyles. She willingly shared this passion to inspire her team, the young
people and families that she worked with.
Everyone at Berkshire Youth will be sorry to see Holly go as she was such a positive, enthusiastic
member of the team. We would like to wish Holly every success in her new job role and wish her well
for the future.
Tesco Bags of Help scheme - Your votes needed!
We are in the customer vote for Bags of Help grant from Tesco for our
SPLAT (Sports, Leisure and Activities Team) programme. It is a scheme
which gives community projects like us grants of up to £4,000 - all raised from the sale of carrier bags in
Tesco stores. The public will now vote in store from Thursday 1st November to Monday 31st December
2018 on who should receive the awards. The store that is taking part in the voting on our project is
Hungerford superstore. Please support Berkshire Youth and vote for us if you use this Tesco store.
For more information on the Tesco Bags of Help scheme go to www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.
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What a summer!!
With the darker months well and truly on their way, it is important to
remind ourselves of how busy we were this summer. Amongst all the day
camps we supported, activities that we ran and summer festivals we were
at, we also saw a record number of young people attend residentials.
Firstly, The Wayz ran a residential at Kingswood for 16 young people 14
of whom achieved a level one leadership accreditation and two started
working towards their level two award.
The second residential we ran was at PGL Osmington Bay by Weymouth, which saw 57 young people
from two different youth groups attend the three days and two nights on the coast. Britwell Youth &
Community Project focused on team work and encouraging the current young leaders to take a more
active role and the Fusion project, based in Bracknell, saw 25 young people achieving an entry level
leadership accreditation.
The final residential trip was to our old favourite, Rhos-Y-Gwaliau Outdoor Centre in Northern Wales,
which saw 10 young people attend and seven of those achieve a level one leadership accreditation.
In total we have seen 83 young people given the opportunity to go away with us, 48 of whom have
achieved an Open College Network leadership accreditation, which is fantastic.
Thank you to all the staff and volunteers for their support and well done to all of these young people
who helped to make the summer of 2018 one to remember!!
During the Summer Holidays Fusion held 2 trips for young people.
On Thursday 2nd August, 30 young
people spent a hot and sunny day at
Horseshoe Lake. They completed
different water sports activities which
included paddle boarding, raft building
and kayaking. The day’s activities were
followed with a BBQ to which family
members were also invited. This was a
celebration of the young peoples efforts and engagement to the Fusion Programme over the last term
at school.
The second trip was a residential at Osmington Bay, Weymouth. Twenty seven young
people packed their bags and headed for a fun-filled 3 days. The young people were
chosen from all those who had participated in Fusion throughout the 2017/2018
academic year for their outstanding participation
towards the Fusion Programme. The young people
took on many challenges and activities and
completed an entry level Leadership qualification.
This is a nationally recognised certificate which will
benefit young people in their future. The young
people had a fantastic time at the PGL centre,
meeting other people who had completed Fusion and the
feedback from parents has been fantastic.
Well done to all who have completed Fusion in 2017/18! Here’s to another fantastic year this year.
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First Reading University Student intern takes a Summer Placement
I have been partaking in a 7 week internship scheme run through the University
of Reading and Berkshire Youth. During my 7 weeks as an intern I have been
given many different opportunities to work with young people of varying ages,
backgrounds and abilities, which has given me a real insight into all the work
that Berkshire Youth carries out across the county.
It has given me a chance to experience what it is like to work with children for
the first time and all the joys and challenges that come with it. The internship
itself has been packed full of opportunities for me to interact with young people
and I feel I have gained everything and more than what I set out to.
I have participated in many different activities from a Wembley Stadium tour, a trip to Horseshoe Lake,
regularly delivering SPLAT sessions at Riverside Community Centre, to observing Richard teach first
aid to young people, plus many more. All have been great fun, but more importantly I’ve worked with a
new group of young people almost every day. It’s kept me on my toes and working with such a diverse
range of young people is an experience that I don’t think I could have gained working with any other
organisation.
My favourite activity has to be the day spent at Horseshoe Lake. The instructors were great fun and the
young people and I had a great day out kayaking, paddle boarding, raft building in the sunshine and
followed by a BBQ in the evening. The event highlighted to me that the activities provided for the young
people by Berkshire Youth and The Wayz igenuinely increase children’s confidence. I watched a young
person change from not wanting to go into the water, to ending the evening having gladiator fights on
paddle boards with her friends. This emphasises how important these experiences are for young
people in building their self-confidence.
Delivering SPLAT at Riverside Community Centre gave me a chance to have regular interaction with
nearly the same group of young people multiple times throughout the week. Through this I was able to
create a rapport with the young people, and also see how their attitudes changed as they spent more
time around the familiar faces of the SPLAT team. The young people were constantly engaged and
eager to play, which made the sessions enjoyable and gave them a chance to progress both their
sporting and social skills. After spending time with so many different groups it was nice for me to be
able to constantly work with one group of people at Riverside as you know what characters to expect
that day and you can tailor your sessions to activities that you know they will enjoy.
To the team at Berkshire Youth I would like to say a huge thank you for giving me the opportunity to
work with such a wide range of young people. As an organisation you have been so welcoming and it
has made my internship stress free. I think I’ve had just as much fun (if not more as the young people
that I’ve worked with and the service Berkshire Youth provides for the community as well as the
experience that I’ve gained are priceless!
If you are interested in finding out more about student volunteer opportunities at Berkshire Youth, then
contact Richard Jennings at richard.jennings@berkshireyouth.co.uk
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NEWS
In October The Wayz received its Queens Award for Voluntary Service
from Her Majesty The Queen at an awards event at Windsor Guildhall,
presented by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire.
The Wayz has supported the engagement of over 80 youth and adult
volunteers in Bracknell over the last 12 months, accumulating over 6000
hours of volunteering within their local community. It was a great
achievement and having seen the development of our volunteers over
many years it is great to receive this award. However, our volunteers
have been contributing for decades and we have seen over 1000
volunteers engage in the opportunity. So an extended thank you and well done to all volunteers past
and present. I am proud to be involved with the centre and contributing to the support of our offer and
the volunteers’ development. A special thanks to Silva Homes for their continued support in our
volunteer programme who have funded to support of these volunteers over recent years.
‘The award was a proud thing to achieve and it really recognised what we do as a volunteer team. The
award is a token of all the hard work from all the volunteers across all sessions throughout the youth
centre. Personally, it gives recognition that our work is being recognised and it is appreciated. Such a
prestigious award being presented, shows the work we do does make an impact. The impact we give
across to young people is again shown through this award and is a very proud thing to achieve. I have
enjoyed volunteering for the last three years and enjoy working with the other volunteers. It has helped
my confidence hugely and is somewhere to get support when I need it.’ Cameron – Young Volunteer
A group from The Wayz and The Zone youth clubs led organised activities
and events as part of an exchange programme with a youth group from
Leverkusen, Germany. The activities included: Thorpe Park Fright Night,
London Eye and sight-seeing, Coral Reef, Lexicon Tour and shopping,
disco, rodeo bull and a visit to Windsor Castle. This exchange has been
running for many years and the young people were really excited to be
involved. It was a real challenge for them and something which evidently
had a huge impact on them. We are now exploring funding opportunities to
visit Leverkusen in 2019.
“On the Germany trip during half term we did loads of different activities with them and
helped them learn English. I also went to some places I have not been before for
example Coral Reef. I have made new friends through this and I am looking forward to
maybe going there next year. The one bad thing was having to sit on the floor on the
train home because it was so crowded but it was still fun. It was one of the best things
I have ever done”. Amy.
“On the Germany trip during the October half term we
had an amazing opportunity to meet new people and
learn about their backgrounds. We also had an amazing chance to try new
activities. I also had a chance to face one of my biggest fears at Thorpe
park. I have made a new friend that I still talk to now after the Germany trip
ended. I am looking forward to possibly going there next year. Despite the
fact that there was a language barrier we have all come away with new
friends and phrases in German.’ - Amber
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Training & Development
Berkshire Youth offers a wide range of courses focusing on
developing young people which are available to schools and
youth clubs. Our current programme of courses include:
● Motorwise
● Introduction to First Aid
● Leadership
● First Aid with qualification
● Fit4YOUth
● Bounce Back, a mental health programme.
We also offer a range of courses for individuals who work with young people as part of our Youth
Workers Development Programme. Courses are available in:
● Universal Safeguarding Children
● An Introduction to Understanding & Managing Young People’s Behaviour
● How to Run a Successful Youth Club
● Working with Young Volunteers
● Equality & Diversity
● Emergency First Aid at Work
● Paediatric First Aid
If you are interested in booking any of the courses, please contact our Training Department on 0118
9090927 or email admin@berkshireyouth.co.uk.
October 2018 JOIN OUR 501 CLUB
501 Club Winners Help raise money for Berkshire Youth whilst having
fun.
1st Clive Williams Membership of 501 costs from just £12 per year and helps
to raise much needed money for youth activities. What’s
2nd Clive Williams more, you have the chance to win a cash prize every other
month in our draw.
3rd Alister Watt For more details or to join please contact Sue Tabor at
Berkshire Youth on 0118 9090927.
David Seward CEO 0118 909 0926 David.seward@berkshireyouth.co.uk
Sarah Emery Operations Director 07884 310426 Sarah.emery@berkshireyouth.co.uk
Debbie Dye Finance Administrator 0118 909 0924 Debbie.dye@berkshireyouth.co.uk
Sue Tabor Data & Information Officer 0118 909 0927 Sue.tabor@berkshireyouth.co.uk
Watlington House Area Youth & Community
Gareth Mepham 07928 816186 Gareth.mepham@berkshireyouth.co.uk
44 Watlington Street Worker
Reading, RG1 4RJ Training & Volunteer
Richard Jennings 07881 941343 Richard.jennings@berkshireyouth.co.uk
Development Manager
Registered charity 1106341 Youth Worker & Project
Alfie Day 07923 954741 Alfie.day@berkshireyouth.co.uk
Lead
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