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Children and Young People

Children & Young People's VCS Forum

If you work with children and young people and want to keep up to date with what is happening locally and nationally with the Change for Children Agenda (Every Child Matters and Youth Matters) join the Children & Young People's VCS Forum.

We aim to lead the voluntary and community sector in managing change through these agendas and the wide range of current policy developments.

We aim to support the sector through:

  • Representation: To promote and co-ordinate the involvement of VCS groups at a strategic level
  • Consultation: To provide a forum to consider the implications of local and national policies in relation to the Every Child Matters: Change for Children and Youth Matters agenda
  • Communication: To promote information sharing, communication and participation within the VCS
  • Training & Events: We run training and events to support groups around the agenda

The Forum has quickly become a lively opportunity for discussion among the diverse range of VCS providers of family support, childcare, play activity and youth work. The main focus of the group, which meets monthly at CNet, is around a huge agenda for change to children and young people's services following on from the Every Child Matters and Youth Matters green papers and the Children Act 2004.

In order to focus on the different areas of work, the following sub-groups have been established:

  • Early Years & Childcare VCS Group
  • Family Support
  • The Play Consortium

Contact Dionne if you would like to be involved in any of the sub-groups.

Representation

The Forum facilitates VCS representation on the district's Children & Young People's Strategic Partnership together with a host of sub-groups, task groups and other strategic bodies. Currently we have over 20 representatives from VCS organisations who are accountable to the Forum and it's no mean task to keep on top of all the feedback. Contact us if there are any points you would like addressed and our reps may be able to take these forward.

Forum Membership

Membership of the Forum is open to any VCS organisation working in the children and young people's field and the current distribution list has over 30 members who elect to receive the wide range of information and papers that form the Forum's business. One of our tasks is to create a wider network of groups and organisations working with children, families and young people so that they, in turn, can be informed about new developments and from whom we can gather views and opinions.

For further information and details of how to register, please contact Dionne Norman or Kerr Kennedy at Bradford CVS on 01274 722772 or send the Children and Young People's Team an email e-mail.

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Bradford Voluntary Youth Organisations Network

Supporting the Voluntary Youth Sector

What is it?

Bradford Voluntary Youth Organisations Network (VYON) was set up in 2000 to support the voluntary youth sector. VYON is now a sub-network of the Children & Young People's VCS network and is based at Bradford CVS (Community and Voluntary Services). We now have over 280 voluntary youth organisations from the Bradford district. These groups range from branches of national charities to small neighbourhood groups and youth-led groups.

Why?

There is lots of fantastic, innovative and exciting voluntary youth work happening all across the city, but not everyone knows what everyone else is doing and not everyone is getting the support they need - which is why we're here!

Benefits:

  • Up To Date Information
    • Regular e-mail bulletins with up to the minute news
    • Regular forums at which you get a chance to meet other people doing similar work, find out more about relevant issues and get a chance to share your views.
  • Representation
    • Both our staff and VYON members represent the voluntary youth sector on various key agencies and initiatives such as: the Children & Young people's Strategic Partnership; Connexions; the Children's Fund; Bradford and Keighley Youth Parliament; Community Network and many others.
  • Training Support (In-house & External for staff and volunteers)
    • In partnership with Bradford Youth Service, we manage a joint training programme for staff and volunteers to access a wide range of mainly FREE courses relating to youth work
    • A VYON Training Fund can fund your staff, volunteers and trustees to access external training courses relevant to their work with young people up to £150 a time plus expenses (travel, subsistence) and individuals may apply for support up to £300 per person per financial year. You can also use this fund to help with costs for in-house training
    • A Bursary fund for staff to attend college to obtain a nationally recognised youth work qualifications at degree or diploma level

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How To Join?

The network is FREE to join and the registration form should only take 5 minutes to complete! Just get in touch with Dionne for more details and a form.

VYON Contact Details

Dionne Norman
Children & Young People's VCS Network
Bradford CVS, 19-25 Sunbridge Road,
Bradford BD1 2AY

Tel: 01274 722772
Fax: 01274 383839
Send Dionne an email

Training fund

Training & support for people undertaking youth work activity in the voluntary youth sector

A fund is available for people who work in the voluntary youth sector and wish to undertake a training course or seminar that has cost implications. Applications can be submitted at any time but will be considered on a monthly basis.

Download criteria (PDF document)

Download application form (PDF document)

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