Wheels Vocational and Life Skills Centre is the rebranded evolution of Black Country Wheels School which the instigator and founder member, Jan Lear, began in 1999 as The Wheels Project. Jan listened to the needs of the young people she worked with and presented them with a learning platform that they were interested in, engaging them in life skills and improving their chances of future employment.
In 2011, to fulfil statutory legislation, Black Country Wheels became an Independent School in order to allow the work to continue with some of the most vulnerable young people in the local community who have been permanently excluded from mainstream education, or who are at risk of the same.
Today, Wheels VLS Centre is guided by its’ Ethos. This is to provide each young person with a positive experience of education within a curriculum framework that is based on nurturing individual talents and providing opportunities for personal development. This enables students to be self-aware and to learn the skills that will help them manage their work, their lives and their relationships in the future.
We wish to continue our project, which started in 2015. Since its opening, over 300 young people and their families have accessed the fitness suite, which has allowed teaching and socialisation. The fitness equipment and area have become worn and old and require updating to become a light, inspiring, and exciting place to be.
We know from the feedback we receive that this area is welcomed and has improved the social, emotional, and physical health among the young people we work with.
The money raised will be used to decorate the area, including a new rubber based floor as well as ew cardo equipment, boxing fitness equipment and resistance machines.