Rhyl Youthbank
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RHYL YOUTH ACTION GROUP A Company Limited by Guarantee: 06395882 PROJECT REPORT RHYL YOUTHBANK INDEX: 1. INTRODUCTION 2. TRAINING THE YOUTHBANK 3. TAREGTS & GRANTS AWARDED 4. AROUND WALES & IN THE NEWS 5. PARTNERSHIPS & WORKING LINKS 6. AREA’S FOR IMPROVEMENT 7. FINANCIAL INFORMATION 8. FUTURE PLANS 9. NUMBERS OF YOUNG PEOPLE ENGAGED 10. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 1. INTRODUCTION This report has been compiled for the RYAG YOUTHBANK. The project has been funded by WAG’s Local Environmental Quality Branch together with funding from other Welsh Assembly Departments, Comic Relief, The Tudor Trust, YBUK and WCVA Russell commission to enable RYAG to develop the first Welsh YouthBank. We are now part of a growing Welsh network of YouthBanks including Pembrokeshire and Swansea, with Merthyr Tydfil, Wrexham, Anglesey, Flintshire and Gwynedd moving to establish their own YouthBanks. Rhyl YouthBank is focused on distributing grants to young people to undertaken projects that benefit or raise awareness of the local environment in Rhyl, activities which are safe, supportive and innovative. What is Rhyl YouthBank? Young people come together to form the YouthBank. They decide how grant applications will be assessed and who receives the money. The YouthBank is supported by local organisations that help with training, administration and provide support to the young people involved. Rhyl YouthBank offers a range of development opportunities for young people; opportunities to learn about and participate in their own community, to develop new skills and have new experiences, and to travel to meet other young people involved in YouthBank across the UK. Rhyl YouthBank provides a positive role for young people in their community and in turn can improve the community’s perception of them. Young people involved are able to directly contribute to the regeneration of communities and, by putting money into the hands of young people, ensure their priorities are being met. 2. TRAINING THE YOUTHBANK Young people who form the YouthBank undertake a number of training events, during the last six months young people have undertaken the following; Grant Making Equal opportunities Teamwork & Leadership Health & Safety First Aid Emergency First Aid ( C P R) Child Protection Food Hygiene Healthy Living Independent Living Each young person will soon also be able to undertake the Princes Trust XL course and gain ASDAN qualifications by being on YouthBank. Members also gained experience by going to a meeting with the National Lottery in Manchester and working with them on designing a new application form for national lottery grants across the UK and we also regularly send two young people to represent Wales on the YBUK (YouthBank UK) advisory panel. As part of their training the young people designed their own new processes for accessing =, awarding and monitoring grants, below is the method they have chosen to access YouthBank Grants. Grant process and Projects. Rhyl Youthbanks method of analysing and deciding on Applications received. Stage 1 1 of of application. application. Rhyl Base d Young grant makers use Pyramid levels Aged 11-25 years where they 3 + in group. assess that the application meets required criteria. Environmental Is it Safe, do we need to help Healthy Living/Sports. Stage 2 of application If YouthBank committee is unhappy or unsure of any applications they will contact and arrange an interview to clarify any issues that have arisen. Stage 3 of application YouthBank Panel will visit project to take video footage or photos and record the before and after affect. Stage 4 of application Youth will write to inform the group of its decision, with any terms and conditions and / or training requirements. 3. TAREGTS & GRANTS AWARDED We wanted to achieve the following targets with our YouthBank programme. 1. To provide a “one stop funding and support package” To support, provide guidance and funding to a minimum of fifteen small scale environmental projects to be undertaken by young people in the community, with support from our partners and community leaders that foster a culture of intergeneration trust and friendship. Current position: Completed, with an aim to continue and expand, with 18 projects already awarded funding to date, details of which are below. 2. To develop and produce a “top 10 “ wish list of LEQ issues by undertaking audits, interviews, questionnaires and group discussions with members of the community, voluntary groups and statutory bodies. Following the completion of our initial community audit that highlighted LEQ issues as the highest priority for young people when asked “what don’t you like about Rhyl”, a copy of the report is enclosed and we are now developing a new consultation to look further into specific areas of Local Environmental Quality. We may yet decide to do this with another Participatory Budgeting event together. 3. To host a funding / fundraising event Workshops bringing residents, community groups and stakeholders together with appropriate funders and the “top 10 “wish list we hope that groups will work together to apply for funding to undertake larger LEQ projects. We worked with Communities First and Participatory Budgeting to run a funding event where local people chose by voting a number of projects to be run in the local community, over 150 people voted on the day. 4. Facilitate Relationships To facilitate relationship building between stakeholders and grass routes residents/community groups to start identifying larger LEQ projects. We have been working very closely with partners including Princes Trust, Rhyl City Strategy, the Probation Service, youth Inclusion Programme, Nacro Communities First, Crest, DCC regeneration unit and others to work together more closely with young people and the wider community to take forward new and enhance current LEQ projects, we have also been attending local LEQ partnership meetings to develop links and ensure that all work compliments each other and plan to work with them on a number of projects including the railway station enhancement. 5. Host LEQ event To Facilitate and host an LEQ event in Rhyl bring together stakeholders and community groups to try and identify new and existing issues that can be changed by joined up working, Ideally this will be held at one of the project locations or will include a visit to all the projects that have been funded. We had planned to host our own event early in 2009, however we recognised that the LEQ partnership were best placed to do the wider scale events, with this in mind we concentrated more on ensuring that the Welsh Assembly polices and consultations are fed into and that senior stakeholders such as the first minister, secretary of state for Wales, and the host of ministers we have had in Rhyl get a full picture of how our YouthBank with LEQ grants has made a difference. We will also be launching results from our consultations to WAG with a private audience with First Minister Rhodri Morgan in the Senydd. 6. To regularly monitor and evaluate Over at least the next 2 years we want to monitor and evaluate the developments of project we have funded and the wider impact on LEQ issues, we plan to publish 6 monthly reports/heads up guides for community groups and stakeholders We will also monitor separately with our own YouthBank monitoring tools which will be made available to yourselves, along with a DVD we plan to produce with our digital media suite. Two DVD’s are going to be made about LEQ issues, we have almost finished making the first and are working on the other DVD at this time. GRANTS AWARDED Since the launch of our Youth Bank Environmental grants we have approved the following projects for funding. Project 1 (Application YB- 01) SAA Group a young group of local residents requested £2,000 to revive an area located central in there community, that had become overgrown and unused. There plan was to clean and decorate area with plants. Also adding Benches and memorial stone for the local residents to have a place of retreat. Around 30 young people are to be involved in this activity; it has also been used in our DVD “Rhyl’s Revival”. Project 2 (Application YB- 03) Marsh Mowers a project that was set up to benefit those in the Rhyl area who were no longer able to keep there gardens maintained resulting in local councils fining the residents. This is to be a free service where young people undertake tasks in the garden for pensioners and disabled the group were awarded £2,000 to purchase required equipment. The emphasis on this project is to help build young peoples social skills and help break down barriers between young and old and this project should encourage and motivate some residents to get involved within their community and provide people with basic gardening skills OCN. Project 3 (Application YB-04) Growing together want to develop a community allotment at the rear of there building and encourage intergenerational gardening activities in the area. To get local people in their community involved in improving their community and to make sure these improvements last the raised beds have been built my young people (YIP and the North Wales probation service) so that people in wheelchairs can move around beds and plant with ease and watch what planted blossom like their community Project 4 (Application YB-05) A Rhyl college based programme called Skillbuild requested £2,000 To make a link between Rhyl college and the brickfield pond instead of people trampling down the existing hedge rows and fence disabled access kissing gate with be fitted and post rail together with surface path, hedge laying and tree planting will take place, this link will enable disabled people and people with learning difficulties who attend the college to sample the beauty and the wild life on the pond during their lunch this access can be used my the local community also.