Weekly Meeting - Young Gloucester (Karl Gwilliam)

Young Gloucester (Karl Gwilliam)

Young Gloucestershire is a charity based in Gloucester who are currently based at Greyfriars House (although fingers crossed they have new premises to move into in the summer). 

What do they do? They work with disadvantaged young people in the county providing them with the confidence and skills to improve their own lives.  The ages of these young people range from 11 to 25.  Ultimately, Young Gloucestershire provide inspiration to get these individuals ‘back on track’ with their lives.  This may mean education (be it college or school) or employment.  Everybody has a different story or background, but the charity has the skills to help them in one way or another.

Last year Young Gloucestershire worked with 1,800 individuals on a variety of programmes and schemes, some of which are in their own local communities.  They accumulated an impressive 41,200 hours work providing support in their own communities.  Some schemes raised funds for other charities and again £65,000 is an impressive amount raised by ‘disadvantaged’ individuals for the benefit of others. 

This is all done through training and development, practical support and finally community involvement.  They run the Prince’s Trust and NCS programmes (12 and 4 weeks respectively) which are there to benefit and help grow these individuals, and start to help grow the skills they need to develop.  Sometimes it is basic skills such as reading and writing, but sometimes it’s work experience and mentoring to get an understanding of what is involved in the working environment. 

Karl gave us some individual stories about a handful of individuals with some terribly unfortunate background stories that have left them without any support network - be that from friends or family. 

Mental health is also a big growing issue.  We all assume that alcohol has a big effect on the lives of these youngsters but it’s not the biggest – it’s drugs, which are far cheaper and easier to get hold of.  Incredibly, some families think that it is okay to sit and take drugs all day long in front of their youngsters.

Young Gloucestershire work with some of the poorest areas in the county, Karl talks to a variety of potential funders and sometimes it’s hard to convince people that the ‘affluent Cotswolds’ has some very deprived areas.  And what is worse is, if you are in poverty within the Cotswolds, statistically you can’t get out of it. 

There is no doubt that Karl and the team at Young Gloucestershire have a massive task ahead of them with the number of issues that are facing the youngsters of today, but we wish them all the best as we know that they will make a difference. 

Nick Bishop