Celebrating the Bristol Young Heroes Awards 2024!

On Tuesday 15th October, we were delighted to see our Youth Club on Wheels feature on BBC's The One Show, highlighting the profound and life-changing work that the team behind this programme have delivered over the past five years!

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Our Youth Club on Wheels is a mobile youth service, providing detached support to young people aged 8-19 in hard-to-reach areas of the city and rural areas where there is currently no youth provision! Our sessions offer a number of activities to get involved with, including: sports, creative arts and the opportunity to learn new life skills!

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A parent from Speedwell's Youth Club on Wheels session explained:

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"Not only does it get them out the house and keep them off the street, it keeps them busy doing really good, fun and safe activities"

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The feature focuses on the vital work that our Youth Club on Wheels has provided to young people across a number of Bristol communities, offering them a safe space, engaging activities, a free meal, and a sense of belonging!

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Since its launch in 2019, the Youth Club on Wheels has supported nearly 1,000 young people and has become increasing popularity across the eight communities we currently serve. Both young people and parents have responded positively to our sessions, where we have also offered access to positive role models and a space where young people can thrive.

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Shea Stew, Youth Club on Wheels Lead added:

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"We create our own family whereever we are"

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During our sessions, we were joined by presenter Ashley John-Baptiste. From his own experiences growing up in care, Ashley understands the importance of youth work and positive role models, and was amazed to see the life-changing impact a youth provision like ours can have on the lives of young people.

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We were also joined by Leigh Middleton, CEO of NYA, who highlighted that many local youth clubs are closing down and revealed the need for more youth work to be available for young people in their communities.

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Ashley John-Baptiste, presenter from The One Show explained:

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"A warm space, a safe space and a meal here can make the world of difference"

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We would like to thank BBC's The One Show for the amazing opportunity to share the Youth Club on Wheels incredible work! If you missed our piece, you can watch it here!

This week, Young Bristol welcomed our staff team, Trustee Board and volunteers to BS14 Youth Club to discuss our Impact since releasing our 2022-25 strategy as well as developing how we achieve our 2025-28 strategy.

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The meeting explored how Young Bristol has consulted with children and young people, our supporters, national bodies, stakeholders, and the wider community to achieve our strategic priorities for 2022-2025.

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Our Strategy Development Meeting also focused on our new strategic priorities and gave our team and volunteers the opportunity to shape how we plan to achieve our goals over the next three years.

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Thank you to everyone that attended our Strategy Development meeting!

Last week, we were delighted to invite the team from Nine Feet Tall to BS14 Youth Club, where four incredible employees dedicated their day to help us improve our facilities for the benefit of young people!

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During their voluntary day, the generous volunteers from Nine Feet Tall helped by weeding around the club and trimming back the overgrown hedges surrounding our multi-sports court. This has improved our court's appearance and created a safer environment for our staff and young people.

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The team also assisted in our well-being garden, pruning and clearing the space, ready for new flowers to be planted.

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Thank you to the team at Nine Feet Tall for your support last week.

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If you are interested in volunteering for Young Bristol, click here to learn more about all of our voluntary opportunities!

Young Bristol are incredibly proud to announce that Kat, Club Leader at BS14 Youth Club, was awarded the 'Outstanding Leader of the Year' award at the NABGC Awards Evening 2024.

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The 'Outstanding Leader of the Year' Award is presented to a leader at a local youth club, who has helped make the club a special and impactful place for young people over the last year. The successful leader would have helped the club to grow and develop, from raising funds, developing programmes as well as ensuring positive differences are made within young people’s lives and the wider community.

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We would like to congratulate Kat from BS14 Stockwood Youth Club, who was awarded the 'Outstanding Leader of the Year'' Award at the NABGC Awards Ceremony 2024!

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Kat was nominated as 'Outstanding Leader of the Year' award as she has acted as a rock and constant positive role model to the 305 young people attending BS14 Stockwood Youth Club over the past year. Her main focus at the club is how she can create a wide and diverse offer for young people, and has done amazingly well in doing so by leading the only Looked After Children provision in Bristol, being involved in Holiday Club activities, ensuring young people receive a hot meal each day and has undertaken a Level 2 and 3 qualification in Youth Work to help develop her skills.

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Andy Kimber, Head of Operations said:

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Kat has been an amazingly positive influence on the Club. She has taken on leading the Club with such energy and professionalism that the sessions have increased in numbers; as well as engaging and developing a diverse offer for young people and their families. Young people have been able to take part in such a range of activities this year, thanks to Kat’s activeness in ensuring young people know about external offers to broaden their horizons.”

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Young Bristol would like to recognise Cheralee, Jesse and Natasha, who were also nominated for the 'Outstanding Leader of the Year' award as well as Eli and Gracie, who were nominated for the 'Young Person of the Year' award.

Community-based youth charity Young Bristol has become the third South West charity to win a place on the region’s Noble Deeds programme.

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Set up in 2021 by Bristol-based SME Noble, the Deeds programme provides digital marketing training & support to not-for-profits, helping them deliver vital services in the area. Increasing in-line with Nobles’ own turnover, this year the support package stands at £25,000. Young Bristol will use this to upskill its marketing team and ensure its services reach the young people who need them the most.

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Supporting children and young adults aged 8-25 during their critical out of school hours in some of the most challenging areas of the city, Young Bristol’s mission is to provide innovative programmes that create a positive and sustainable impact on the lives of young people.

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With eight community youth clubs across Bristol, a mobile youth club on wheels, outdoor activity centres and an employment programme just part of what the charity offers, the support from Noble will help the Young Bristol team prioritise where its digital marketing efforts will make the most impact. As well as helping the team to learn new skills and maximise their knowledge of social media, SEO and other digital promotion techniques for a lasting impact beyond the Deeds programme.

We are delighted to announce that we have officially published our 2023-24 Impact Report!

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This years Impact report demonstrates the positive impact we have had around Bristol during the 2023-24 period. The report reflects how we have provided safe, social spaces for young people to thrive in, despite their increasing needs caused by the cost-of-living crisis and the rising epidemic of knife crime in Bristol.

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"Working with Young Bristol has opened our eyes to how difficult it is for young people in Bristol and across the country, and how badly a lack of funding is impacting youth work and young people's livelihoods"

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BBS, Corporate Partner

Last week, we were delighted to invite the team from Unite Students to Ashton Vale Club for Young People. Across the two days of volunteering, seven incredible employees dedicated their day to help us improve our facilities for the benefit of young people!

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During their two volunteer days, the generous volunteers from Unite Students helped us by trimming the overgrown bushes and hedges surrounding our multi-sports court. This has helped to improved the court's appearance and has created a safer environment for our staff and young people when retrieving lost equipment.

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Once the overgrown hedges were cleared, the team helped us remove waste hidden within the bushes and retrieving equipment that had previously been inaccessible for staff and young people to collect due to the overgrowth.

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Thank you to the team at Unite Students for your continued support towards Young Bristol. We greatly appreciate your ongoing efforts and look forward to working with you on upcoming voluntary and fundraising projects. We would also like to thank John O'Conner for donating all the equipment that was used across both voluntary days!

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If you are interested in volunteering for Young Bristol, click here to learn more about all of our voluntary opportunities!

Last week, we were delighted to support three teams from Unite Students as they took part in their first walking half marathon fundraising event, in aid of Young Bristol.

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We were pleased to see 25 staff members from Unite Students take part in their first walking Half Marathon, raising money for Young Bristol. The teams completed their walk from Bath to Bristol on the Bristol and Bath Railway Path in under 5 hours! In total, the team have raised over £3,800 so far!

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Unite Students has been supporting Young Bristol since 2023. Last year, they helped us by running a survey, which provided evidence for Bristol City Council to help secure funding for additional services at the Hartcliffe Club for Young People.

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This year, Unite Students continue to offer their support in various ways. Their support includes participating in voluntary days, with an upcoming date set at Ashton Vale Club for Young People this week. The team are also working on a photography project, helping us develop our growing image library to help showcase our programmes.

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"This marks the second year of our partnership with Young Bristol and after helping last year by running a survey for Hartcliffe Club for Young People, we have really enjoyed having a more hands on approach by hosting fundraising events, the walk being the first to take place. The response we had to the half marathon walk was fantastic, and it was especially great that everyone walking knew the funds were going straight to Young Bristol before we set off. "

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Emma Powell, Insight Analyst at Unite Students

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A huge thank you to the Insight & Analytics, Procurement, and Transformation teams from Unite Students for your continued support this year! If you would like to donate to Unite Student's fundraiser, click here!

During our Holiday Clubs, we were delighted to offer young people the opportunity to learn and practice photography skills during selected sessions throughout the summer!

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Our Marketing team, along with our volunteer photographer Nicolo, visited a number of Community Youth Clubs, the Youth Club on Wheels, and external trips. Young people interested in photography were given creative freedom with our cameras, helping us to expand our image library. These images will be used in our marketing across social media, our eNewsletter, and on our website!

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We are pleased to see that several young people are now considering pursuing photography as part of their studies or as a hobby, thanks to their experience with our cameras over the summer. Our staff are incredibly proud to see such high-quality images produced through the effort of these young people. Some examples are showcased in the image gallery below!

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The photographs taken by young people will be printed and displayed in our Community Youth Clubs!

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If you would like to find out more about our upcoming programmes and activities, click here!