Thanks to the Big Lottery Fund YouthCheck is now in its second year. The
project has come on in leaps and bounds, as well as a full-time Project Manager
YouthCheck now consists of a full-time Project Worker and an EVS volunteer. The
project reaches disadvantaged areas of Northamptonshire and Leicester and works
with groups of young people aged 16-24 as well as older community members.
YouthCheck promotes community cohesion through uniting younger and older
community members by developing opportunities for young people to make decisions
about the facilities available to them.
YouthCheck promotes sustainability through generating personal ideas about
sustainable lifestyles and incorporates the youthxchange website. CommunityCheck
training is also available where young people perform mini environmental audits
on their community buildings. This provides them with an insight into energy and
waste consumption and ways in which to reduce the vast quantities used on a
daily basis.
YouthCheck continues to work with a number of groups of young people in
Leicester and is beginning to establish itself in Northamptonshire. YouthCheck
has developed a training package specifically designed to aid the personal and
professional development of young people. YouthCheck incorporates the Hear by
Right/Act by Right initiative and includes the making change happen accredited
training.
The project promotes youth inclusion and gives young people a wide variety of
activities to try. YouthCheck invites student volunteers from Loughborough and
De Montfort University to mentor and coach young people in Leicester.
A
youth group in Highfields, Leicester aptly named Active Youth, promote healthy
lifestyles in their local community. They encourage community members to join
them once a week to play a game or two of badminton. As well as increasing
levels of fitness they get to meet new people and encourage more young people to
join in their worthy cause.
Last
August Active Youth organised a badminton event to promote healthy living and to
promote their youth group. They also invited along a professional coach to give
them a few tips. The event was a great success and was celebrated at a unity and
diversity evening at the Highfields centre in Leicester where the group where
presented with trophies. Active Youth have now expanded and have constituted
their group, they go on to develop and further the causes important to them.
