Co-op Warm Spaces Funding Boost has provided £1,230 of match funding
Diversity and I support
Sheerness, Kent, United Kingdom
Aim
Supporting diverse youths to raise awareness and make positive change with access to warm community space outside of regular school hours
Providing a safe warm space
We are raising money to help provide additional warm and safe places for young people to access help during this cost of living crisis. We welcome the young people to our warm and safe community spaces, often linked to local schools and offer them the chance to get support from us and their peers and to make a real difference by helping them navigate issues like diversity and mental health. We do all this in an staffed environment that ensures nobody is judged or stigmatised, providing refreshments and assistance for vulnerable people, especially those from deprived areas where their families may be struggling to keep up with the rising costs of energy and heating.
What Am I doing
As my friends and family will know on my birthday 30th July 2018 I was hit by a careless driver that caused me a significant life changing injury to my left leg and I underwent surgery to save my ability to walk. Over four years later I face several more surgeries with the constant threat of amputation.
I struggle to walk properly and do any exertion. But next month we are hoping to start the process of having the huge mental plates and screws removed from my leg and I need to build my Quads to help recover from this.
Therefore I have decided over the next 3 month to cycle on my gym bike as many days as possible to try and manage a combined distance of 603 miles. The distance from Lands End to John O Grotes.
This doesn't seem a lot for many people but given my disability will prove a huge challenge and I hope you can support me to raise funds for Youth Resilience and they great work we do.
Who are we?
Youth Resilience UK work with young people form all backgrounds that are experiencing challenges that may prevent them reaching the full potential. We provide one to one and groups activity along with guidance and advocacy for these young people and their families to help them learn ways to overcome these barriers. We help them learn to improve or manage mental health, wellbeing, behaviour and decision making whilst also challenging all forms of discrimination.
Community impact
Our organisation helps bring young people together from all backgrounds within local communities to build cohesion and wellbeing. We work with young people facing exclusion from education and those that are often stigmatised from being part of diverse groups including BAME, LGBTQ+, Neuro Diversity and Physical or Mental disablements.
We help build understanding and tolerance as well as advocating for real change to promote equality and inclusivity. We also teach the young people coping strategies that they can use to help manage and improve their emotional wellbeing making them more resilient.
The services we provide are a vital part of helping young people remain engaged in formal education and achieve success as well as enabling them to access any additional services they need to not be disadvantaged.
Why are we crowdfunding?
Cost of living crisis has decimated local funding and as an organisation we have recently found we have lost our main source of delivery funding for the entire year as the local council are no longer offering Early help funds. The young people we support are in real risk of losing all services and support from our organisation this year if we cannot secure alternative funding sources so we are trying to increase fundraising to manage this.
How we’ll spend the money raised
We will increase the hours of services in a warm community space that young people can access and get support to remain safe, warm and secure in spite of the current cost of living crisis and gain one tone support to meet all their needs. We will be extending provision to include Diversity peer support groups that advocate for increased knowledge, understanding and change in their communities. We will be offering the chance for young people to come together and volunteer to make a difference whilst also supporting their own mental health and wellbeing.
This includes providing additional sessions at school and other community spaces that are off the main curriculum allowing them to come together in warm spaces for longer and be safe without having to worry about the rising heating costs all of their families face.
"YRUK supported the whole family understanding my sons needs. They have helped educate us, as well as his school and helped him gain the support he desperately needed. Without YRUK he would not be in school."
"YRUK have created great growth in many vulnerable pupils who feel they are heard and have an adult who can advocate for them in school."
"It would be massively detrimental to children and schools if funding stopped. In my opinion every school needs a YRUK presence."
This project successfully funded on 17th March 2023