On 17th October we celebrated our fifth birthday with friends, partners, colleagues and young people.

Over forty of you turned out, letting us know, as we mature from start-up to fully formed, that we are not alone.

Never one to fail to see the analogy, young people move into adulthood too. As part of this process they naturally and unnaturally move away from the services, people and mentors that have supported them. We want them to know that these people aren’t simply going to fall away overnight. You don’t have to be a child, in crisis or a start-up to need help from time to time!

Happy Birthday YOP!

So this is what we’re currently working on. Following four years of evolution, it’s clear that whilst our current offer is good, we can do more. So TILS plus will offer new workshops as well as see digital skills overarching everything we do.

Maintaining our current unique delivery style and engaging facilitation, we’re adding shiny new modules to the offer.

Our customers will be able to buy an off-the-shelf three day course or build their own from a menu.

The customer knows best what they want, so for us this makes perfect sense. They will know that they get all the same great interactive fun covering exactly the modules they require.

Your Own Place has been chosen as one of only six organisations nationally to be a part of a digital skills accelerator programme. The award comes from the amazing Carnegie Trust UK.

This will involve workshops over the next six months in Manchester. We will start to scope out how we can bring digital skills development to our offer for young people.

Since setting Your Own Place up in 2013 we have seen a cohort of young people that are socially excluded (and financially excluded) as a result of digital exclusion.

We will be developing new tools, piloting them with groups of young people and then applying for the next round of funding from the Carnegie Trust to mainstream them in our provision.

As we finish the accounts for another year at Your Own Place we’re proud to report a small profit.

Many people, more attuned to the charitable sector, still struggle with the notion of profit in a mission-driven enterprise.

And that’s the point. We’re an enterprise. No, we don’t exist for our employees. Yes, we do exist for our young people. And we can only only achieve our mission with highly skilled employees. People and infrastructure cost money.

Our profit is 100% invested back into the business. It allows us to try new things, be flexible with young people, invest in young people and achieve our mission.

It’s been a good year!