My journey at YG started 4 years ago, as a nervous University student, in my first year of my Youth Work degree.

I met Tracy at the University on a recruitment drive for volunteers for the NCS programme, shortly after I met Kay who interviewed me; I was delighted to join YG on delivering the first NCS programme. That summer was a great introduction to the organisation, a whirlwind of working with teams of young people, going out on activities that not only challenged the young people but myself too, spending hours driving young people to the countryside on residential trips. Somewhere between the coasteering, learning to hula hoop and building my confidence in working with young people I knew I wanted to keep this up.

 

At the end of the summer, Kay encouraged me to apply for a programme leader’s job delivering a new sports course at YG. I was successful in my application and started soon after. 18 months later, having nearly completed my degree (with a few tears along the way…) I had completed work on 20 Sporting Chances projects with over  150 young people, supporting them to re-engage with education, employment and training. There are too many laughs and treasured memories from this project, but a couple that stand out in my memory is being in sub-zero temperatures with Niki Clarke in the Forest of Dean on the side of a rock face, trying to scramble our way to the top of a very muddy slope after a very long few days, as well as to locking Tom Saunders out of the Youth Hostel in the middle of the night and falling fast asleep!

 

Shortly after completing my degree and achieving a great result, thanks to a whole world of support and encouragement from line managers, mentors and colleagues, I joined the Youth Work Team to deliver the Skills for Adolescence course in schools across the county and to work in two local youth clubs – Stonehouse and Cainscross.

 

The work in schools provided me with a great opportunity to work with other organisations such as Ambition and meet other workers from across the country. I was able to gain some valuable skills in delivering a curriculum based personal education programme in a class room environment alongside some excellent teachers.

 

But the youth clubs is where I really found my feet; I loved this work and feel immensely proud of what was achieved. Stonehouse Youth Club was being run out of the back of a Youth Bus, with limited space and resources we would be there come rain or snow with a hot chocolate and a listening ear, while we waited patiently for a new purpose built youth club in Stonehouse and for access and enough young people to attend the Pavilion in Victory Park – Cainscross too, was not much more than a detached project.

 

Stonehouse and Cainscross councils are unique and very lucky, they have some incredible councillors who are totally committed to young people who tirelessly campaign and fundraise for the projects.

 

At Stonehouse, this time last year we finally got our youth club! We had an amazing opening event and party in the park and since then the youth club has gone from strength to strength. The Victory Park Pavilion too had a great make over, a new sign to go above the door – that was a proud moment and a great deal of support from local funders for trips, activities and resources. We have great relationships with the young people in these areas and have worked so hard to provide them with quality and consistency. Developing these projects has given me a great deal of job satisfaction and taught me a great deal.

 

I am pleased to say that the development work at Cainscross and Stonehouse continues, the nights of delivery are increasing to 3 nights a week and lots of great plans for the summer are in the pipe line. But for me it is time to move on to pastures new. I am packing my back pack and heading to Australia for a year. I plan to travel initially and then carry out 2, 6 month placements at youth work organisations down under. I hope that this experience will inspire me further for the next chapter of my youth work journey.

 

It has been an incredible 4 years, not to mention the small matter of climbing 3 mountains, raising a whole load of money for youth work services with a bunch of work mates, all I can say is a huge THANKS to everyone at YG, the Schools and Local Councils for challenging me every step of the way. I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone and their projects via social media. Good luck and all the best for 2015!