Last week, some of the staff and trustees of Solent Youth Action had an Away Day for strategy and planning a-plenty.
In one of the morning activities, we were ideastorming in small groups. My group had to identify what impact SYA has on the community.
I kinda liked the list we came up with. As the work of ten minutes or so of ideastorming, it’s not definitive or official in any way. But I thought it warranted sharing.
- We enable events to take place – such as sporting events, races, playschemes and community events.
- We make a significant environmental impact, through a wide variety of conservation and environment work and work with animals.
- Our work helps to reduce anti-social behaviour, such as through work with charities such as Catch22.
- The experience that our projects help young people to gain increases the skills base in the community. And it enables young people to go on and get employment or further education.
- We’re helping to build a more cohesive community, such as through intergenerational projects, bringing young and old together. This gives young people a chance to meet and better understand and respect older generations that many of them might not otherwise get.
- Our work is a showcase for what young people do. We can be a voice for young people, helping the rest of the community appreciate the positive role that young people can play, and breaking down some of the negative stereotypes of young people.
- We encourage an inclusive society where anyone can be involved. Across the breadth of our projects and activities, we provide the additional support that enables any young person to volunteer.
- Our projects, such as buddies and SLAMS provide respite for parents and families of young people with additional support needs.
- We support a wide variety of other organisations and agencies, helping to enable their work which broadens our impact.
- We help raise awareness of a wide variety of issues affecting young people such as bullying.
- Our volunteers raise a large amount of money for a variety of good causes, many of which are in our local community.
- Getting involved in the variety of the projects we run helps to develop young people’s understanding of the community they live in, including it’s history
- We promote a commitment to lifelong volunteeering, fostering an ethos of volunteering and community involvement. This starts with a progression within SYA – such as from Take Action to vinvolved as young people get older. And it continues after our volunteers become too old to volunteer with us – enabling progression to other projects and volunteer centres. We’re helping to build the next generation of volunteers in our community
I’m sure there are other ways that we make an impact, but this is a pretty good start.
While I mention SYA, we are currently looking for trustees. Why don’t you get involved?