Young people today… we can all be quick to criticise and generalise about young people and their actions within a community. So it was a real pleasure to help fund YoMo’s (Young Movers) Community Celebration awards in Glasgow’s Tollcross as part of our Community Support Scheme. It was also a real joy to see a room full of people of all ages come together to celebrate young people volunteering their time and talents to their community.
Linda McGlynn, Yomo Project Manager told us,
“We are a Youth Led organisation in the North East of Glasgow providing volunteering opportunities for local young people to improve their skills and confidence. Youth people get actively involved in their local community through community engagement activities of YouthBank, Young leaders and Peer Education programmes. Our Vision is “For young people to shape their future by shaping their community.”
“Young people volunteering at YoMo are from the most disadvantaged areas of Glasgow and are disadvantaged through poverty, deprivation, isolation, low attainment and often have parents that misuse drugs or alcohol. YoMo engages young people through these programmes to better their communities and in the process increasing their life skills, learning, aspirations and opportunities. Volunteers are working on many projects in the area, one of which is to showcase the awards night to highlight the work they have done and recognise the skills, achievements and qualification they have gained through volunteering in the area.”
On this night the parents , friends and family of the YOMO volunteers were invited. Yomo wanted this to be a really special event for the young people as these volunteers are often not the high achievers within their school or other aspects of local community. Young people were involved in the planning and also delivered on parts of this event.
On receiving the £500 Community Support Scheme funding Lynda added,
“Our young people were informed of the funding contribution made by yourselves for their community celebration event. The young people wanted to extend their thanks for this and have stated:”
“Thanks so much to kinex for the funding you have given us toward our community celebration event. This will be a great contribution and will help us plan and organise a great event to say thank you to all the volunteers.”
It was a real pleasure to help YOMO, many of the young people there were being recognised for investing 500 hours in their community. By our quick calculation, over 5,000 hours of priceless community activism was celebrated at the event. All of it making Glasgow a better place.