Swindon Youth Voice Project is finally here and will run workshops, discussions, creative activities and a programme of visits and guest speakers. These are all designed to help young people grow in confidence and to make a difference to the world around them.
They have also recently developed their new website! If you would like to visit this to learn more information about the Swindon Youth Voice Project, please click here.
The project also aims to bring together youth services in Swindon to ensure young people can access the support needed.
SMASH, Prime Theatre, and Swindon & Gloucester Mind are all signed up to put on weekly activities / well-being sessions.
If you would like to refer a young person, please get in contact with us. We also have a self-referral form. If you would like to refer yourself, please get in contact.
We would love to know how involved Swindon’s children and young people feel in their communities at the moment.
We have a youth survey for 11-25 year olds in Swindon. Here is the survey link – www.vas-swindon.org/survey.
Anyone completing the survey will be entered to win a £30 voucher as a thank you.
If you would like to discuss the project please contact lisa@vas-swindon.org
Project Delivery Partners
Voluntary Action Swindon
The project’s lead organisation will oversee the whole project. This includes developing policies and procedures, coordinating recruitment of participants, and managing monitoring, evaluation and project reporting. As the local infrastructure organisation, VAS has extensive experience in bringing organisations together and coordinating projects with a community focus.
Prime Theatre
Prime Theatre works with young people to help them gain confidence and skills through theatre, body language and arts. Their skills and approach will bring an extra dimension to the support and activities the forum will offer – one that young people have told us they want included.
SMASH
A Swindon charity with over 20 years’ experience delivering one-to-one and group mentoring for young people aged 9-19. The organisation’s programmes aim to help young people to flourish through building their confidence and resilience. SMASH will bring skills in both group-work and one-to-one mentoring, providing capacity to work positively with all young people.
Swindon & Gloucester Mind
S&G Mind has specialist skills and experience in helping young people who may be experiencing anxiety and other mental health problems. 5-week programmes will run for young people who may need extra support before joining core sessions, for example some young people may not feel confident, have negative self-esteem and/or be socially isolated. The aim is providing support and skills to young people to enable empowerment and confidence to join other sessions.
Mike Read Associates
Mike Read Associates is a small consultancy based in Wiltshire. Having recently worked with the Building Bridges programme as Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Consultant, Liz Read will bring her insight and experience to ensure that the project partners are able to identify “what works” about the project, learn from this, and change any activities which do not lead to the desired change. Liz and colleagues will lead the development, training and implementation of systems and processes for monitoring, learning and evaluating the project activities.
National Lottery Community Fund
The funding, totalling almost £400,000 over four years, is coming from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK. National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. The National Lottery Community Fund distributes a share of this to projects to support people and communities to prosper and thrive.