News

Youth Community Support Agency
Location: 48 Darnley Street, Glasgow
(project delivery currently online)

Are you passionate about supporting young people to achieve their goals and reach positive destinations?

The Youth Community Support Agency (YCSA) is recruiting a team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers to help deliver the following two projects:

Young People Looking Forward (YPLF) supports young people aged 14-18 most impacted by lockdown, cancellation of exams, and disruption to their education. It is aimed to give them back hope for the future, increase confidence, widen their choices, develop soft skills needed for employability, and help prepare them for positive destinations in life beyond school. YPLF is funded by BBC Children in Need.

Safe Happy Confident (SHC) supports BME young people aged 16-25 who are at risk of homelessness or offending by providing 1:1 support and creative group projects that empower young people to improve their resilience, expand their social network and achieve their goals. SHC is funded by KFC and Comic Relief.

(Please specify in your application which project you would like to support.)

Your Role as a Volunteer:

You will be a great communicator, empathetic listener and have some previous experience working with and supporting young people. You may also have personal lived experience of the asylum, benefits or justice systems which would equip you to mentor and guide others.

The ability to speak an additional language commonly spoken by Scottish BME communities, such as Arabic, would also be helpful.

Both YPLF and SHC are looking for youth support volunteers and mentor volunteers. Details will be discussed further during the volunteer interview.

As a youth support volunteer, you may provide either short-term support to young people or accompany them over a longer period of time as they work towards achieving their goals. This may include supporting young people to:

·   Set goals

·   Improve their CV and prepare for interviews

·   Help find employment, education and training opportunities

·   Practice English

·   Complete official forms such as benefits applications

·   Decide on what they want to do next

As a mentor volunteer, you will provide targeted short-term support to young people in overcoming & addressing issues around Education / Employability Progression. This may include:

·   Exploring Motivation & Blockages

·   Exploring Pathway opportunities

·    Exploring Personal Development Needs & Issues

·   Exploring Expectations & Hopes

·   Exploring Future Personal Outcomes

 Volunteers will need a somewhat flexible schedule and the ability to commit to a minimum of 3 hours per week. Some evening and weekend working may be required on occasion.

During COVID-19 lockdowns, sessions will be held virtually, therefore access to the internet and a laptop, tablet or mobile device will be necessary. YCSA staff will endeavour to provide any training and support needed to assist you in your working.

YCSA requires all volunteers to be PVG certified and will provide the necessary training to work with children and vulnerable adults. Additional volunteer training and supervision will also be offered.

If you are interested please email TiffanyHaraguchi@ycsa.org.uk for more information on how to apply.

Scottish Charity Number: SC026233
Company Number: SC313463

Hate Crime Awareness Week has arrived from 18th-24th October! Remember, Report It if you experience it or see it happening. YCSA is a hate crime 3rd party reporting centre, contact us at enquiries@ycsa.org.uk or 07842 792 843.

See the impact of hate crime on peoples lives here: https://youtu.be/00xVGjwRqcs; https://youtu.be/1n1bkhR3X4c. And see whats happening next week in Glasgow – 18-24 Oct in support of Hate Crime Awareness Week. Get involved by clicking on the link below for free tickets!

#GlasgowIsNoPlaceForHate#ReportHateCrime#HCAW2020#HateCrimeAwarenessWeek#HateCrime

Youth Community Support Agency (YCSA) is the only Black and Minority Ethnic led youthwork organisation that works with BME young people, including asylum seekers, from across Glasgow City.  A Scottish Charity it has been working to support BME young people for over 25 years, helping thousands of young people over that time.

As a BME led organisation it is able to provide a range of faith and culturally appropriate services that support young people, and their families, that other agencies are unable to reach. BME young people from a wide range of backgrounds, who do not engage with mainstream services feel safe, comfortable and supported at YCSA.

YCSA’s bid to the new Glasgow Communities Fund was to continue work with young people aged 15-24 to provide a range of services including Counselling in schools and the community, practical advice, help and referrals, employability support, development work including creative arts and sports, ESOL, volunteer support and work to encourage civic engagement and to encourage BME young people to have their voices heard and achieve their dreams.

This work, formerly funded by Glasgow City Council, has not been recommended for any future funding, as a result of which these services will have to terminate and the future sustainability of YCSA will be in doubt. This will create  a huge gap in support for BME young people as no-one else provides this range of services  for this age group.

 This is devastating news for YCSA and the young people it works with, especially at this time given that it is widely recognised that BME young people have been particularly impacted by the COVID19 lockdown. While BME unemployment is already significantly higher than the overall population, in any downturn the gap grows, and with the COVID downturn this is hitting BME young people’s life chances.

Examples of young people we have supported recently include:

• asylum seekers who were moved into hotels during lockdown and were caught up in the Park Inn stabbing incident – practical help and counselling has been provided;
• young people Not in Education, Employment or Training, who lack confidence, do not understand systems and do not feel comfortable or confident initially, have been able to develop confidence and skills and move onto education or employment;
• those with limited English have been able to engage in innovative ways to improve their language skills while also making new friends and developing other soft employability skills;
• homeless young people have been supported though their trauma and guided to appropriate support services.

This decision seems particularly ironic in the light of the recognition of the impact of racism highlighted by the Black Lives Matter campaign.

YCSA urges the Council to reconsider before the decision is taken at the meeting on Thursday, and asks that funding is made available to be able to provide these valuable services.