The success of detached youth work (June 2022)
We are consistently told by young people across Essex they want safe activities to participate in and safe places to meet, alongside adults they can talk to and trust. For the past 18 months we’ve worked with Essex Council of Voluntary Youth Services (ECVYS) and Active Essex to fund detached youth workers in areas of […]
Changing Lives through football
Changing Lives FC is a football team with a difference. It is a football team created for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers from around the globe who want to come together to enjoy and play football and create a better life for themselves. Based in Harlow, the football team brings together teenagers and young adults […]
The work of UTurn
On our travels around Essex to see the projects the VVU helps fund, we visited UTurn in Tendring. UTurn offers support and practical help for young people aged 10 – 18 years old who may be experiencing personal and socially challenging life situations as consequences of violent crime. The project integrates sport and physical activity […]
Using nature for therapy
Hidden away in the Chelmsford countryside is the Wilderness Foundation, an organisation that offers nature based therapy and outreach programmes to vulnerable children, young people and adults. The Wilderness Foundation runs projects that support vulnerable groups, including projects that support young people who are at risk, those who have experienced trauma or have behavioural issues […]
Understanding best practice in anti knife teaching (April 2022)
Essex Police, the Essex VVU, the PFCC for Essex and The Ben Kinsella Trust are teaming up to raise awareness of the dangers of carrying a knife. We are offering a teachers, youth workers and practitioners in greater Essex. the opportunity to tour the award-winning Choices & Consequences anti-knife crime exhibition and learn about best […]
The Power of Gaming
On a sunny Thursday in half term we visited the fabulous Power of Gaming project in Maldon. Power of Gaming is run by Jay Gaffney who used to own a computer shop in Maldon. Jay realised the benefits playing computer games can have on young people. Everything from improving logical thinking, hand eye coordination, problem […]
