News and stories

Young Bristol are incredibly proud to share that Jesse Payne, Club Leader at The Grove @ Bedminster Down and Cheralee Mckeown-Redman, Club Leader at Ashton Vale Club for Young People have completed their Youth Work qualification!

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Jesse and Cheralee completed their Level 2 Youth Work qualification with South Gloucestershire Playscheme in 2023. Since beginning the course, the pair have learnt how to engage with young people in a youth work setting, and how they can promote young people’s personal and social development, enabling them to have a voice and influence in the community.

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We are very proud of Jesse and Cheralee for completing their Youth Work training. Not only does it progress their professional development but also has a huge impact on delivery in our community youth clubs. They have both taken on their learning and used it to influence how they plan their sessions and provide young people with an engaging and youth focused environment. Congratulations to them both!”

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- Andy Kimber, Head of Operations

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At Young Bristol, we continue to reinforce our strategy pillars by developing our people and programmes by providing opportunities for personal and professional development, skills for life and opportunities to grow.

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Last night, our corporate partner, Burges Salmon, kindly helped us to host our 2023 Annual General Meeting and Year In Review. The evening was well attended, with over 40 people joining us! Everyone thoroughly enjoyed hearing about our impact and upcoming opportunities.

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The evening began by hearing from Young Bristol president, Jonathan Webb. He kindly welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending. Jonathan then kindly introduced Jamie Cameron and Victoria Matthews, Young Bristol Joint Chairs. They outlined the progress we have made with the Young Bristol strategy 2022-25 and the impact we have had across our Community Youth Club network.

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Throughout the evening, we heard from Young Bristol’s office staff, who discussed the future plans for Young Bristol in 2024. We heard about some exciting upcoming developments including our new website, Theory of Change and the potential release of a new podcast!

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After the success of Young Bristol’s Golf Day & Dinner in September 2023, we are delighted to announce we will be hosting our Golf Day and Dinner 2024, and we plan to make this years bigger and better than before! If you are a business in the South West with some keen golfers in your team and an ethos for supporting local charities, then this is the sponsorship opportunity for you!

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Our Golf Day will be taking place on Thursday 4th July, 9:00am – 3:00pm at Bristol and Clifton Golf Club, Beggar Bush Lane, BS8 3TH. Bacon rolls and hot drinks will be available to all guests upon arrival. Teams will also be offered a one course meal post golf.

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Now more than ever before, young people and families across Bristol need the support of charity’s such as Young Bristol.

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Are you deciding on your New Years resolution for 2024? Are you continuing your 2023 health and fitness habits? This year you can make a difference by taking on the Bath Half Marathon and raise money for a local cause! Grab your trainers and get fundraising!

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"I have really enjoyed fundraising because of the work Young Bristol does. On the day, I really liked the vest. It was quite a challenge, but I enjoyed it all-in-all.” Angad, Bath Half Marathon runner 2023

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The 42nd Bath Half Marathon is planned to take place on Sunday 17th March 2024, from 10:00am. This takes place in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath. We ask that runners taking part in the Bath Half for Young Bristol pledge to raise £250.

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By entering the race, you will receive:

• Chip timing, race number and race day instructions
• Race day tracking app
• On course entertainment
• Unique 2024 finishers medal
• A FREE Young Bristol runners vest

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This week, The Grove @ Bedminster Down hosted their second annual Christmas Fair at Bedminster Down Ex Service Club! Over 150 local residents came through the doors, enjoying all of the stalls and activities we had on offer.

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Our stalls ranged from Tarot Card readings, wax melts and food stalls. Everyone was also able to enjoy our range of activities such as; guess the sweets and bottle tombola! We were lucky enough to even be visited by Santa and his elves, who hosted a Grotto to help raise money for The Grove!

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To finish off the Christmas Fair, the raffle ticket winners were announced, winning some of the amazing prizes, some of which had been kindly donated by some local businesses! Some of these included: Next, Asda and local food restaurants. Thank you to everyone who donated a raffle prize!

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Last week, Ashton Vale Club for Young People joined a number of different youth clubs to take part in the final session of NatWest Thrive with Marcus Rashford!

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Our first group of young people from Ashton Vale Club for Young People have graduated from the NatWest Thrive programme with Marcus Rashford! This amazing programme has helped young people think about their goals, learn new life skills and develop valuable money habits.

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We heard some inspiring words for Luke Vernon, who hosted the NatWest Thrive graduation. He recognised young peoples achievements across the programme, and the group enjoyed virtually interacting across a Zoom call.

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The group at Ashton Vale won a signed book after finding the most things around their club starting with the letter "t". They were able to collect 15 items in order to win the prize!

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To make it a night to remember, our young people had a pizza party to celebrate in style! All graduates received a backpack filled with exclusive NatWest Thrive goodies in recognition of their achievements and dedication to the programme.

Over the last few months, we have been working with University of Bristol Engineering and Bristol Composites Institute, to deliver our co-created programme, Discover Composites!

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The aim of the programme is to spark curiosity in young people from various hard-to-reach communities across Bristol and inspire the next generation of composite engineers. The programme has been directly ran from our Youth Club On Wheels!

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As a result of this programme, the NextCOMP team are working on a "workshop in a box". This will include a range of activities and guidance documents, which can be delivered to young people by non-technical specialists! The team have created the box to be accessible to every environment while still making sure it is interesting.

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We hope the "workshop in a box" can be delivered across our Community Youth Clubs and other youth groups across Bristol.

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"Working with Young Bristol has been inspiring. I have learnt so much and continue to learn. The most important lesson is that there are plenty of budding composite engineers out there, we just need to find the funds and novel ways to get materials and engineering out into the community."

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Richard Trask, Professor

We are delighted to announce that Rosie and Maddison from Sea Mills Boys' and Girls' Club are the winners of our 2023 Christmas Card Competition!

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Last month, we hosted a Christmas Card competition across our Community Youth Club network. Young people from each club were encouraged to create a Christmas card design to be entered into our competition. The designs were then shortlisted by Club Leader's and submitted to our judge.

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Nick from Olas Art chose the winners from the 15 entries that were shortlisted and submitted. He chose a junior and senior winner from the range of amazing designs young people created!

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"I love the colour in these both and they have captured that cheery Christmas spirit. Well done to everyone who took part, and Merry Christmas to you!" Nick, Olas Art

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After the success of Young Bristol’s Golf Day & Dinner in September 2023, we are delighted to announce we will be hosting our Golf Day and Dinner 2024, and we plan to make next years bigger and better than before! If you are a business in the South West with some keen golfers and an ethos for supporting local charities, then this is the day for you! Event specific information is listed below:

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• 4th July 2024
• Bristol & Clifton Golf Club, Beggar Bush Lane, Bristol, BS8 3TH
• 8am –  3pm
• 9am Shotgun tee off
• Bacon rolls, tea and coffee, one course meal
• Raffle and golf winners’ prizes
• £300 per team of 4.

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