South Whitehaven Youth Partnership Annual Report – Notes – 2023-24
SOUTH WHITEHAVEN YOUTH PARTNERSHIP (SWYP)- TRUSTEES REPORT 2023-24
In 2023-24, our 4th year of operation, all trustees continue to be very pleased and proud of the progress of the project now recognised and approved across the patch and within the community. Our youth work offer in the Mirehouse and Woodhouse youth clubs are firmly established, and the detached programme we initiated last year, alongside the MentoRole School programme – supporting secondary school students identified as in need by their school staff - and our community toddler group and women’s group have all gone from strength to strength.
In our youth clubs we recorded 396 young people taking part aged 8-18 years, with most young people in their teenage years. 136 of these young people attended at least 10 times across the year. This is a key success measure for youth work providers and an excellent return.
Our detached youth work programme - that is meeting young people who do not want to attend youth centres where they gather in the evenings - has worked with 124 young people aged 11+ years. Again, this is a high level of contact in what can be difficult and challenging work with an emphasis on keeping young people safe. Good productive relationships have been established both in South Whitehaven and into the town centre where young people from local estates often go.
Trustees have taken time to visit 2 youth sessions, 1 in each area, to check the quality of delivery. Both these sessions had good plans with clear objectives and lively young people were safe and enjoying themselves. “There was a very positive atmosphere to the session with a very lively group of young people. We saw lots of examples of young people and youth workers engaging together and our discussions with staff and young people showed high levels of empathy from the staff and high levels of appreciation from the young people.”
Highlights of the year have included HAF (Holiday Activities Funding) a 2 week programme at Easter, a Christmas holiday programme and a huge 6 week summer holiday programme commitment across Mirehouse and Woodhouse. Fun activities in safe spaces with lots of friends alongside food and drinks were clearly appreciated by young people and parents/carers. Alongside a visit from the High Sheriff of Cumbria (Sam Scott) to St Peters Junior Youth Club SWYP was recognised with a High Sherrif Award for “an outstanding contribution to the community”. Jacq Cardy, our Project Manager and Mandy Taylor, our Treasurer, gave a presentation on the wider community benefits of youth work to Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster (BECBC) and Toni – Anne Wardle successfully completed her Level 3 apprenticeship with us.
The year has seen a number of positive partnerships continue or develop including VONNE, Cumberland Council, St Benedict’s RUFC and Active Cumbria. Community Groups and others have generously fund raised or made donations, including Jacobs, Mirehouse Residents Group, Tubby FC, Unite, VONNE, WCCAT (West Cumbria Community Action Trust).
Trustees and all beneficiaries remain very grateful to our key funders: Copeland Community Fund, Francis C Scott Charitable Trust, Cumbria Community Foundation, Sellafield Ltd (YDF
Project), Cumberland Council, Lottery Reaching Communities and Well Whitehaven. Without them none of this is possible.
Most valued and appreciated by trustees are our committed and skilled staff: Jacq Cardy – Project Manager, Adrianne Bell – Lead Youth Worker, Kelly Bell – Detached Youth Worker lead, Laura Kelly – Youth Worker, Rebecca McGreggor – Youth Worker, Toni-Anne Wardle – Youth Worker, Lyndsay Jones – Youth Support Worker.
Mike Priestley – Chair, South Whitehaven Youth Partnership
Youth Work Journey
2023-24 saw another successful year South Whitehaven Youth Partnership we have continued to develop our existing youth work offer through our Mirehouse and Woodhouse youth clubs, Detached youth work, MentoRole School programme and our community toddler group and women’s group.
This is our fourth year of providing Youth Work across South Whitehaven working primarily in the Mirehouse and Woodhouse estates, each year our standing within the community increases leading more positive partnerships with other organisation such as VONNE, Cumberland Council, St Benedict’s RUFC, Active Cumbria and many more enhancing our offer to local young people.
Across the year we continue to attract new members across all 4 youth clubs during 2023-24 we had 396 children and young people aged 8-18 years attend, of these 136 attended more than 10 times across the year, which highlights the continued attendance and recognises the need. Alongside youth clubs we have been delivering our detached youth work programme – this is youth workers engaging with young people on the streets, across the year we have worked with 124 young people aged 11+ years. During the year we have also delivered other projects and activities which will be highlight throughout the rest of this report.
In April we delivered a Easter HAF (Holiday Activities Fund) programme in both Mirehouse & Woodhouse across 2 weeks of the Easter Holidays with 110 children and young people attending. The HAF programme enables SWYP to deliver a needs-led provision to those on Free School Meals offering a healthy hot meal during school holidays, alongside also offering fun and engaging activities such as football, dodgeball, badminton, and many different crafts.
During the Easter programme, 2 Trustee’s attended a junior session, they observed staff delivering sports session and also spoke to young people about what they enjoy about attending SWYP. The trustee observations have been implemented to ensure we are delivery a high-quality provision across all sessions, a second observation took place with senior a senior club, the trustees have been very impressed on how staff engage with young people, especially for those who are not taking part in activities, the level of planning for each session and mainly how much respect was shown by young people to the youth work staff.
Toni-Anne completed her Level 3 youth work apprenticeship – she has been working towards this for 2 years, over this time she has developed into a fantastic youth worker and we were fortunate to be able to offer her a Youth Worker role within SWYP.
In June we has a visit from the High sheriff (Sam Scott) along with Annelee from the Cumbria Community Foundation, they came along to speak about our detached youth work programme and also met with members of our St Peters Junior Youth Club – From this in March 2024 we were invited to the High Sheriff Awards at The Appleby Hub, where we received an award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Community’ this is great recognition for the team and all those that support SWYP.
In July we welcomed 2 students from St Benedict’s school complete a week long Work Experience – the young people wanted to go somewhere they felt comfortable plus this was a good way to show what goes on behind the scenes. Safeguarding is very important to everyone working with children and young people, so during the week we asked them both to complete an online Level 1 safeguarding course, work together on making some vision boards for our holiday programmes, update the display board in the youth space and they also helped staff to deliver activities in the Junior Youth Clubs.
In July we started our 6-week summer programme, over 5 weeks we had a different theme e.g. Tag week, Olympics week, Football week and at the end we had a ‘Chose your own week’, where young people could vote on their favourite activities to do again. Week 6 was trip week – the juniors went to the Ritz cinema to see Ninja Turtles and both the juniors and seniors enjoyed a day at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
In September we hosted a funday in Mirehouse at the St Benedict’s RUFC, this idea came from young people during planning social action projects, however as it would be a high cost event young people gave ideas on what to have – we also received donations from Tubby FC and Mirehouse Residents group towards the funday. The was a free event to raise awareness of SWYP within the community, it was well attended day with over 400 people in attendance, we had singers, children’s entertainer, face paints, bouncy castles and we also invited the local PCSO’s to engage with community members and also invited local small businesses to set up stalls to sell crafts and cakes. On site we also had a Fish & Chip van and a Ice cream van, and as part of a social action young people made up vouchers for free chips and ice cream to give out to families attending.
Other Social Action projects taken part this year included 6 members of the Mirehouse Senior Youth club organised a Halloween party for the Junior members, They decided to do party games, music, snacks, the young people ordered everything that was needed for this day including ordering things online. The members done some research and asked the junior members what kind of things they like to do when attending a party and they implemented these into their planning.
4 members of the Woodhouse juniors youth club wanted to do an afternoon tea and entertainment day for the residents who attend R & R day services at the Woodhouse community building, this idea fit well because a few of the young people said there grandparents liked afternoon tea with another young person adding that their nana likes to dance, so overall the young people come to a decision that they were to organise a Halloween themed afternoon tea and with entertainment. The young people done research online trying to find who they would contact to do the entertainment and supply the afternoon teas, They asked parents and carers for suggestions and eventually came to a decision that they would get afternoon teas from local small business ‘Karen’s Bakes’ and a local singer called ‘Cindy Holton’. The young people helped to serve the afternoon teas to the older residents on the day and they done a great job of this
In December we delivered a Winter HAF programme – this was 2 days face to face which a range of activities and with healthy hot meals and 2 days remote where young people were given 2 bags – one with activities which included a family game, a football and arts and craft supplies, the second bag included ingredients to make healthy meals at home, such as pitta pizza and jacket potatoes.
Alongside all the individual projects highlighted throughout the year and our weekly youth club sessions, SWYP has programmes running to help complement our youth work offer in South Whitehaven, these include:
MentoRole - We have been delivering MentoRole for the past 2 years in St Benedict’s School, they attend weekly sessions where we will go through their concerns, their positives of the week, and what they need supported with. We also meet with the school once per term for an update and whether there has been a positive improvement on school life, to date young people have become more confident in class, having better communication with parents and carers and higher attendance in school. Since starting the project, the number of referrals have increased due to school seeing the positive benefits for each young person.
Youth Development Fund – Is a Copeland wide youth work programme funded by Sellefield Ltd with the aim of broadening the horizons of young people while encouraging them to learn new skills, young people also gain an ASDAN Award by completing a portfolio highlighting the skills they have learnt/improved. Below are 2 examples of what young people have chosen during this year:
A group of 7 young people from Mirehouse planned a visit to Rheged art gallery in Penrith, this group didn’t want to travel far but wanted to visit an Art Gallery, after lots of research the group chose this one. They then went along to Rookin House Farm where they enjoyed Quad biking and Archery, which was a new experience for all members of the group. This group was made up of young people with low self-esteem, confidence issues and although they were really nervous about their presentation the group worked really hard and pushed their limits by speaking in front of others.
A group of 4 young people from Woodhouse planned a visit to the science museum in Manchester followed by Chill Factore. The group had some difficulties through the process, as they were originally a group of 5, but the group worked together, changed round parts of the presentation and delivered their presentation to a member of a local residents group and community members.
Yearly Stats:
During the year we monitor young people’s attendance, how many times they attended (10 plus shows regular attendance), how many induvial young people have taken part in issues based workshops such as Bonfire Safety, Stress & Relaxation and Bullying. We also monitor the number of accreditations such as ASDAN Awards and training.
-
Total Number of young people Attending = 520
-
Attended more than 4 times = 227
-
Attended more than 10 times = 138
-
Recorded Outcomes = 108
-
Accredited Outcomes = 18
CHARIIY COWASSK F(* EFWJ40 •JIO WALIS Recei tsand CC16a section A Receipts and payments Totsl rA Al •4 lF£
Section B Statement ol assets and liabilities at the end of the period O•thi
Sarah E Lamb Bsc FCA Chartered Accountant 23 Park Drive, Whitehaven, Cumbria, CA28 7RY Tel: 07764684607
Independent Examiner’s report to the trustees of South Whitehaven Youth Partnership
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of South Whitehaven Youth Partnership for the year ended 31[st] March 2024
Responsibilities and basis of the report
As the charity trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (The Act)
I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
-
The accounts do not accord with those records.
-
2 -
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Examiner’s signature Name: Sarah E Lamb Bsc FCA Professional Qualification: Chartered Accountant Address: 23 Park Drive, Whitehaven, Cumbria, CA28 7RY Date 30[th] January 2025