Charity for youngsters in Harborough celebrates a massive £440,000 boost after a tough 14 months for the voluntary sector

An all-action charity for youngsters and young people in Harborough is celebrating being given a massive cash boost topping £400,000.

Harborough District Children and Young People’s Charity (HCYC) is thrilled after being handed the £440,000 grant over the next five years.

The highly-rated Harborough set-up has been awarded the game-changing sum of money by the National Lottery Community Fund to “expand the opportunities it provides for local young people”.

Charity manager Olivia O’Brien said: “We are so grateful for this crucial grant.

“It’s been a tough 14 months for the voluntary sector right across the board.

“So it’s great that we have the support of the National Lottery Community Fund to help us to continue providing these valuable play and youth work activities and projects to improve the wellbeing of young people in Harborough district.”

Olivia said the newly-funded Youth Connect Project will get behind and support scores of disadvantaged and isolated young people in Harborough.

“We will use our new funding to expand the number of weekly term-time drop-in youth clubs for young people in our villages.

“We will also provide a new mentoring service to compliment these sessions for the young people that need additional support,” she said.

“This money will also increase the reach of our long running youth-led, youth-written Speak Out Magazine by drawing in more youth voices and being heard more loudly through the creation of an online Speak Out.”

The cash will also bankroll new job opportunities with the charity to coordinate the Speak Out Magazine and the Mentoring provision.

And it could help to resource new roles for Leaders and Assistants to deliver the clubs.

“This is a great time to join this passionate and creative local charity.

“So we’d encourage you visit our website (www.hcyc.org.uk) to find out more,” said the chair of the Trustee Board, Chris Wood.

Harborough District Children and Young People’s Charity is totally focused on “delivering high quality play and youth work provision” across Harborough.

Staff work flat out and pull out all the stops to cover Market Harborough and Lutterworth as well as a string of villages across 230 square miles of South Leicestershire.

The charity was launched in 2012 by colleagues in the children and young people’s field in Harborough District “in response to recognised gaps in provision and services, especially for the children and young people from isolated and disadvantaged communities in the area”.

“We gained charitable status in 2013.

“We have been delivering projects and services ever since in line with our Charitable Objects and Principles, and following the priorities of our current Strategic Plan,” said Olivia.

“We rely on funding from a wide range of sources, predominantly grants, as well as on income from small contracts, for play and youth work provision with parish councils.

“We also deliver play and youth work support for the district council and other partners.

“Where we can we engage in fundraising activities to further support our work - and all support with this is very welcome,” added Olivia.

“We are a small team of part-time paid staff, with a bank of sessional staff and volunteers.

“We are governed by a small Board of Trustees who are all volunteers and meet regularly with part-time staff to monitor and evaluate delivery levels and quality of performance.”