Amar Abass – Youth Action

I have 10 years of experience of working in the voluntary sector both in the UK and Internationally. I have been with Youth Action since its creation. As the Chief Executive it is my role to provide overall strategic management for the organisation and to liaise with Board Members on the direction and the work. I am working with a staff team and over 120 volunteers on engaging young people in various areas including issues such as substance misuse, ill health, literacy to name a few.  I have worked on developing Youth Action to become an accredited training centre, and developing new areas of work that our clients want.

Youth Action evolved from a small informal group in a neighbourhood Blackburn in 2001. We began from a very small office and ran a weekly youth group for young people and provided them with opportunities to learn new skills and access to training. It has now grown and has over 5,500 members who remain up to date with the work that Youth Action does through monthly e-newsletters, SMS and Social Networking. Now as a developing large organisation with a 5 story building, it has enabled us to reach out to more young people then when we began and we now have the reputation and capability to provide high quality projects across Lancashire and further afield.

As an organisation we work with young people from ages 8 to 25 by providing them with opportunities through various means. We work closely with other organisations to provide the best services for the young people through regular youth groups, training courses, volunteering opportunities, residentials, enterprise development etc. In 2010, we received the Matrix award in recognition of the high quality information, advice and guidance that is given to the young people who access our services. By providing this service this motivates, educates, makes productive use of time and improves the quality of life for young people in the community.

However, we do also work with people out of this age bracket. As a community organisation we work with all members of the community and this can be seen in projects like our My Guide training which provides support and training for anybody over the age of 18 in computer skills. In addition, Youth Action also works with other organisations and professionals through training courses to highlight key issues facing young people and in order to share best practise.

The work we do engages children, young people and families and looks to engage in them in a range of activities. Essentially all of our activities fit into our 3 core areas of work; they are:

1. Positive Activities – usually fun activity that may encompass some learning and promote positive themes like community cohesion. An example of this could be a summer football coaching project.
2. Training & Development – includes accredited and non-accredited programmes that would aim to develop service users in different ways.
3. Youth Voice initiatives – promoting opportunities for youth consultation.

All these opportunities are brought together through our Personal Development Plan (PDP). The PDP allows each service user to progress on an individualised journey of support including one to one support, IAG, target setting and a range of activities that would enhance that young persons’ development. The PDP would be reviewed regularly to ensure progress & development.

Youth Action has achieved very much in the past 12 months, and it is these successes that have enabled us to move forward as an organisation and reach out to more young people across Lancashire on a diverse range of issues.

In the past 12 months young people who are part of Youth Action have won a number of awards, and many have gone on to achieve great things in their communities, through education and through employment. Some of the key projects that we have delivered this year include, fundraising appeals, community fun days, youth democracy project, promotion of volunteering to young people, young carers project, holiday activities, risk taking behaviour project, developing work skills and much more. The key highlight for us has been that we have managed to sustain all our core activities as well as many others. This has been difficult at a time where resources and funding is scarce; it has been possible through effective partnership working.

The Lancashire BME Pact came to our attention through a number of avenues. Youth Action became aware of the work done by Lancashire BME Pact through attending various events and through networking with organisations that had come across the Lancashire BME Pact and had heard positive feedback.

The Lancashire BME Pact has given us an excellent opportunity to network with organisations that are in a similar sector and this allows for greater partnership working that has helped the organisations in the Pact by being able to share resources when running a project. It has given us the chance to avoid the duplication of a project by being able to work closely with similar organisations.

The Pact has also given us the opportunity to market our projects to other organisations and for ourselves to share the work of others to our service users. It has helped to raise our profile amongst other groups who work with the BME group and has given us the opportunity to consult with other groups and their members on potential projects and their practicalities. Most importantly it is a forum where we can share examples of best practice.

Youth Action is continually looking to expand its member base and to further increase it services in order to help the maximum amount of young people. We want to continue our work within the local communities and to continue to deliver a high standard of information, advice and guidance in order to remain a front runner in providing excellent provisions for young people.

A future in the Lancashire BME Pact will allow for us organisations to develop an excellent working relationship that will help to develop the work that we do.