After being chosen as a previous recipient of £15,000 from the Ansvar Community Campaign, youth coaching charity Yes Futures has helped young people from deprived areas across London and the South East develop confidence, resilience, communication and self-awareness through their Rising and Finding Futures programmes. These programmes engage young people through intensive coaching and experiential trip opportunities so they can learn to believe in themselves and achieve their potential.
Funding from the Ansvar Community Campaign enabled 500 young people to participate in a series of Play Your Part Days, where they were able to experience first-hand the value of volunteering, forging trusted relationships between themselves and members of the local communities where they live.
Through Play Your Part Days, young people spent a day volunteering with an organisation local to them. They put into practice skills they learnt through one of Yes Futures’ year-long extra-curricular programmes, which sees students receive coaching, visit work places and tackle problem-solving challenges to help them reach their full potential.
Young people from Yes Futures volunteered at over 15 sites across the South East. At Wellgate Community Farm in Romford, students mucked out animal enclosures, built a wormery, emptied a duck pond, and conducted animal welfare checks.
At Greenwich Foodbank in London, young people learnt about the role and importance of the foodbank in the local community by checking donations, counting and sorting food items, and picking for packs, which were later distributed in the community.
Students completed tasks such as weeding and litter picking at Walton Firs Activity Centre in Cobham, helping to improve the site’s appearance and support wild animals. At Herschel Park in Slough, young people were tasked with lopping shrubbery and litter picking, making the area safer for the public and supporting the local wildlife.
Tina Burrows, Director of Partnerships at Yes Futures, commented:
“The visits took place across 30 separate Play Your Part Days and, in total, the 500 young people dedicated over 2,000 hours of volunteering time. In addition, these experiences also provided local community groups and charities with vital volunteering support to help them meet their aims, demonstrating the power and importance of volunteering to a new generation of supporters.
“We rely heavily on grants and donations, and this impact would not have been possible without the generous support received from the Ansvar Community Campaign.”
In addition to donating £15,000 to Yes Futures, Ansvar has also been part of the charity’s World of Work Partnerships programme. Ansvar welcomed students supported by Yes Futures to its offices, where young people experienced first-hand what the world of work is really like, helping them to think about their future careers.
Sarah Cox, Managing Director of Ansvar, insurance and risk management experts for the charity, not-for-profit and faith sectors, commented:
“We have been providing our services to charities for over 60 years and every day we learn about the amazing work being done by organisations like Yes Futures. Our Community Campaign is about giving something back and helping charities to provide a service or programme that will make a difference to the lives of people in their communities. With their Play Your Part Days, that is exactly what Yes Futures has done, and it’s great to hear about what a success it has been – well done to everyone involved.”
