‘The way the youth sector has come together, both locally and nationally has shown how we can work together to respond to the needs of young people.’
Young Bristol has been at the core of Bristol’s communities for over 90 years, adapting and evolving when faced with challenges, to ensure that we are there in local communities, providing safe spaces, empowering and inspiring children and young people to overcome and achieve great futures.
This has been a year unlike any others, as we were faced with the unprecedented challenge of supporting young people during a pandemic and multiple national lockdowns. At a time when we knew that young people desperately needed safe spaces to go to, opportunities to connect with their friends and to try something new; we were not able to open the doors of our clubs and activity programmes for large periods of the year. With that in mind, I am incredibly proud of the way that the Young Bristol team adapted its way of working to continue to meet the needs of young people.
The effects of the pandemic on young people are significant, but are not new, and have served to highlight the issues of loneliness, wellbeing and poor employment prospects that so many young people across the city were sadly already facing. There are no quick answers to these issues, but we know the preventative value and long term impact of our work, and we remain committed to providing quality open access provision in our local communities.
Looking to the future, we want to build on what we have learnt from the last year and to invest in our people, facilities and partnerships to meet the increasing demand for our support. With that in mind, I have been really pleased to see the way that the youth sector in Bristol came together through this period and we are looking forward to working as part of the Bristol Voluntary and Community sector (VCS) youth work group to develop and deliver its new strategy.
As we look ahead, I am pleased to share our 2020 – 21 Impact Report, which demonstrates the passion, drive and commitment of the staff team, trustees, fundraising committee and volunteers behind Young Bristol. Thank you for your fantastic and continued support, and I hope you enjoy reading our impact in this year’s report.
Jamie Cameron
CHAIR OF YOUNG BRISTOL
