Using insight gained from the young people’s Listening Report the VVU continue to respond to locally based needs, including through our ‘You Said, We Did’ funding pot.
This funding pot supports local youth groups with purchasing equipment suggested by the young people who attend the project and links to improving the offer and activities on offer to young people, in their local area – an area highlighted in the Listening Report.
Working with local partners including the third sector and Community Safety Partnerships we have supported a range of local youth groups through ‘You Said, We Did’. These local youth groups include:
Flex Youth Group – Basildon
Happy Youth Group – Halstead
Braintree Youth Project Charity – Braintree
Third Space Youth – Braintree
Garon Park Youth Club – Southend
Garon Park
We were invited to visit Garon Park Youth Club in Southend, to understand how the ‘You Said, We Did’ pot will help them. We met with Anna one of the youth leaders who was overseeing around 80 young people, taking in part in a variety of activities – football on the astro, playing on the climbing area, arts and crafts, karaoke and simply just chilling inside talking to friends and the young leaders present.
The Garon Park youth club runs every Wednesday from 6pm to 8pm, including school holidays. Each week they average between 60 to 80 young people, aged 8 to 15 from all areas of Southend. To make the youth club accessible to all, the club is free to attend. A voluntary donation of £3 a session is suggested for those who can afford to pay.
The Garon Park youth group took part in the VVU Listening Project last year and really appreciated being able to give their views on how to keep safe and be safe in the local area. As a result of the Listening Project, Anna has been able to access external funding to provide things like self defence and first aid classes for the young people as she can use the Listening Report to evidence what is needed by local young people.
Garon Park Funding
On our visit we asked how the “You Said, We Did” funding would be spent? The ideas the young people had were: lockers to keep their belongings safe and dry if they were outside playing football or climbing; more crafting activities as these are really popular and a great wet weather activity, and also looking ahead some basketball/tennis equipment for the summer.
While talking to Anna a young boy walked past and said: “Oh why does time have to go so quickly while I’m here?” Anna responded with “Time flies when you’re having fun!” to which the boy replied, “I’m having so much fun.”
