NABGC KICKSTART MAKING A REAL DIFFERENCE
The NABGC Kickstart scheme continues at a pace with local youth organisations providing fully paid six-month placements through the government’s £2 billion programme aimed at helping young people gain valuable work and life skills.
The NABGC scheme is predominantly focussed around helping young people gain experience in youth work, sport leadership and administration amongst a range of other charity related roles.
And there have been some great stories about the work that the Kickstart employees have been doing.
Recently we received the story of Tom Reede who has been working at Burnley Boys & Girls Club.
Tom tells us how he got involved at the club through the Kickstart scheme, what he’s been doing and what the future holds.
“I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to work with Burnley Boys & Girls Club (BBGC) through the Kickstart Scheme in April 2021, following redundancy due to Covid. Although I knew that there was a profession called ‘Youth Work’ I had absolutely no idea what it entailed so really, I was going into it blind. All that said, the support and advice I received from the amazing team I work with, made it really easy to get stuck into things. Initially I was primarily employed to help with the IT for BBGC which coincided with the launch of a new, sister-club in Whalley, where I helped create and manage the database for the new club and which now has over 200 members! Whilst this was going on I was helping run evening youth sessions for the young people at both clubs every weekday evening, which is the best part of the job. I work with some amazing young people, and it is great to see them gaining something from the work we provide and seeing them develop, even over a short period of time. You also learn so much from them. It really is the most rewarding job I have ever had.
In the summer of 2021, I was entrusted with managing the Holiday Activities & Food Summer Club at BBGC, whereby we provided a full day’s worth of entertainment as well breakfast and lunch, supporting 307 young people aged 5-16 – this is my biggest achievement in my life and something which I’m immensely proud of. I averaged 9.8km walking (chasing after kids) a day throughout the month of August, which was actually a little annoying as it was just shy of 10km! I now manage the open sessions at both the Burnley and Whalley Clubs where we see around 150 young people a week and I’m underway with completing my Level 2 in Youth Work. This is undoubtedly going to be my career moving forwards and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
This is a great to hear these story!! And, well done Tom and all at Burnley Boys & Girls Club. If you have a story like Tom’s and Burnley Boys & Girls Club that you would like to share, please feel free to do so and send the details over.