Our plans to broaden our reach and put young people’s employability at the heart of Your Own Place came a step closer this week.  We have been funded by the Big Lottery Awards for All Fund to take the next step in our growth – to develop more Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) training capacity.  We’ll be providing comprehensive training to eight current and future youth workers who want to work for an innovative, inspiring and aspiring social enterprise.  We will be looking for youth workers that share our values and fun-filled approach to supporting young people in the transition to adulthood. We will start recruiting in December and the training will be early in 2017.  The paid one-week training will be delivered in partnership with The Participation People.  The funding also means we can further develop and improve our training resources, an integral part of our TILS training package.  More trainers mean we can reach more young people all over the county and beyond from 2017.

That got your attention!  It’s not quite true, however, the truth is just as fabulous.  We were contacted last week by a local artist and Marketing Coordinator from Us2UConsulting, Kerwin Blackburn, who offered to paint some art for The Training Flat (in brand colours naturally!).  When he said that it would be inspired by Jackson Pollock, we had to jump at the opportunity.  Kerwin identified a large space on the generous staircase and is now busy creating our masterpiece.  We hope to hang it at the start of September and all those at the launch on 27th September will get to see it.  I can’t wait.

We’ve been informed by Norwich City Council that we’re being ‘signed up’ this Friday.  We’ve been planning this moment for a long time and it’s a fantastic milestone in our development.  It’s the moment that a small social enterprise gets its first premises.  And it’s not just any premises.  It’s a uniquely innovative Tenancy Training Flat in which we’ll be changing lives forever.  Before our Autumn Programme gets underway in September, we’ve got to kit it out.  On Friday I will get the keys to an empty two-bedroom shell.  Next week will be a flurry of activity of press visits, donor visits and decorating.  If you’ve yet to make a donation and would like to, we’d love to hear from you.  Even a small donation will make a difference, for example a pack of tea bags, bin bags, loo roll or light bulbs.  We want to stock up for future delivery.  We’ll be receiving visitors on 11th August in the afternoon, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th August.  We’d love to see you especially if you can lend a hand with any painting!  Tea, coffee and refreshments will be non-stop!

SAVE THE DATE:  Official launch 29th September.

As part of our mission to reach more young people and increase our social impact, we’re working with more partners than ever.  We’re told all the time that this is the best way forward, particularly when times are tough, as now.  However, as a small organisation it’s time-consuming and we have to be honest that it doesn’t always work out.  However, I’m confident that our new partnership with Stacy Bradley from The Smile Organisation will.  You may recall that Stacy worked tirelessly for us last year, supporting young people into work opportunities – with some outstanding results.  This week Stacy will be undertaking 1-2-1 Tenancy & Independent Living Skills (TILS) training for Your Own Place.  She’ll be out and about, meeting young people face-to-face to understand their tenancy needs and anxieties.  Over five sessions she’ll answer their questions, help them to find their own answers and allay those anxieties resulting in better and more confident tenants in our communities.  With The Training Flat up and running, Stacy will be able to use this bespoke space to bring those words of wisdom alive and reach even more young people.