fbpx Highlights of 2016 - London Youth

21 December 2016

2016 was a very busy year not only for London Youth but for the capital as a whole! We are taking the last 12 days to look back on the year, sharing a highlight from each month.

 

January – New Years Resolutions for London

The city was buzzing with speculation on who would be the next Mayor of London . Former London Youth Chief Executive Rosie Ferguson published her last London Youth blog and shared her thoughts on the Vision for Young London, how we can make young people a priority and presented London Youth’s 6 asks for the new Mayor. Click here to see the full blog.

 

February – Reach out. Enable. Connect.

We launched our employability report, Reach Out. Enable. Connect, which showcased our learning from the first two years of delievering Talent Match London.

During two years of delivery:Report cover of Reach out. Enable. Connect.
• 939 young people have engaged, 41% of
whom were not accessing any support prior

to starting on Talent Match London
• 66% of young people completing the
programme are now in employment; of these
at least 53% remain working 6 months later
• 9% of young people completing the programme
are now in self-employment

You can download the full report here.

 

March – National Apprentice Week

Every year we support tens of young people through our apprenticeships  at Woodrow and at Talent Match London.  In celebration of  National Apprentice Week we highlighted our fantastic apprentices Chloe and Selahattin!

 

 April – Welcome Rosemary!

Our new Chief Executive, Rosemary Watt-Wyness joined us in April. Since joining the team Rosemary has been thrown into London Youth life, exploring the Ashdown Forest at Hindleap Warren and enjoying the scenery around Woodrow High House. Read her full CYP Now interview here.

 

May -Elections!

In May it was finally time for the London Mayoral and Assembly elections. Our very own Rich Straker wrote a blog on why he thinks everyone should engage with politics and vote – read it here now!

With both the Mayoral Elections and EU referendum falling in the Dare London season, we decided to deliver several politics sessions. We used tools such as Verto by Bite the Ballot, which was dubbed “Tinder for politics”. It was a great way for young people to match their interests to a political party. By stripping back manifestos and returning to the basics, Dare Londoners no longer felt intimidated, but rather felt empowered to vote.

 

June – A Royal Visit

Ceadars Youth Club – HRH Prince Philip

HRH Prince Philip visited Ignite Trust and Cedars Youth and community Centre in Harrow. The evening was full of talented young people showing off their skills and equally talented youth workers. Guests from across our network had dinner with HRH Prince Philip and listened to him talk about his 69 years a London Youth patron.

 

June was another politically fueled month with the EU referendum coming to a head. While the whole of the country was split on wherever to leave or remain in the EU, everyone agreed that voting was important.  Katie attended an event hosted by Bite the Ballot that was aimed at empowering young people to vote. Read her blog here. Shivangee also wrote a blog about the importance of voting. Check out her motivations for voting here.

 

July – First Sports Inclusion Resi

Over the weekend of 8-10th July, 15 young people from four member clubs attended the first inclusive sports residential. The Friday night was spent playing indoor games including ‘Kurling’, to help bond the four groups together. Saturday saw the Disability Sports Coach deliver a range of sporting activity from wheelchair basketball to cricket, before the young people were given a taster of archery and swimming. One young person went swimming for the first time in six years. While Sunday saw young people and staff complete in the Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training Programme.

 

August – T-FEST: A new model for employer engagement

August was T Fest time as we welcomed over 200 young people to East London Rugby Club to a career event with a difference. Jody Regan, a former Talent Match London participant and youth board member came up with the idea of a festival. Jody spoke at the festival, sharing his journey from Talent Match London to a successful career in recruitment.

 

September – Summer of Sports draws to an end…

The summer of 2016 will long be remembered for Team GB’s success in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brazil. London Youth also had a sports filled summer delivering sport sessions and tournaments to over 700 young people. Click here to see what they got up to!

 

October – Hindleap Warren back making a splash!

The swimming pool at Hindleap Warren received a radical face lift in October thanks to Sport England!

 

November – National Youth Work WeekBoy playing pool

In celebration of  National Youth Work week we showcased the brilliance of youth workers and the transformative nature of youth work.  The website featured a great selection of videos , blogs and audio interviews on the power of good youth work.

 

December – International Day of Persons with Disabilities

The 3rd December is International Day of Persons with Disabilities and part of London Youth’s Inclusion week. We heard from Ashling at Haringey Shed about the work they do. You can read the fantastic blog here. Also, follow #LYInclusion to stay up to date with our inclusion work!

 

Happy New Year from all at London Youth! We very much look forward to seeing what 2017 holds for our network.

London Youth Staff Group Photo

 

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