Swindon Youth Voice Project
Swindon Youth Voice project is finally here and will run workshops, discussions, creative activities and a programme of visits and guest speakers, all designed to help young people grow in confidence and be able to make a difference to the world around them. See our FULL press release here.
The project also aims to help bring together youth services in Swindon and to make sure that young people can access the help and support they need.
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, the application form can be downloaded here . 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, and are hoping as many 11-25 year olds as possible in Swindon will complete it. The link for the survey can be found here – www.vas-swindon.org/survey or if you prefer, you can download the paper copy here.
Anyone completing the survey will be entered to win a £30 voucher, as a thank you for completing.
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, including 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 the project capacity to work positively with young people, whatever their starting point.
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. S&G Mind will run 5-week programmes for young people who may need some extra support before feeling able to join the core sessions, for example some young people may not feel confident, have negative self-esteem and/or be socially isolated. The aim of the programme will be to provide support and skills to young people to enable them to feel more empowered and enabled to join the other sessions being offered.
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.