A U T U M N 2 0 0 9

the

GE YouthBank Newsletter

Welcome!
Welcome to the first GE YouthBank
newsletter. We hope you find it
useful, informative and most
importantly – interesting!

We have been involved in a huge

amount of work lately – so much so
that we can’t squeeze it all into this
newsletter, so keep your eyes
peeled for future editions were will

We are getting Bigger and hear about: how GEYB are

supporting young people from East

Better!
Glasgow to shape and deliver
services locally, city-wide and
nationally; Yong Movers – our new
Thanks to funding from Awards for All GEYB is now youth empowerment project; our
work with partners to involve young
working across the whole East Glasgow area. This means people in Community Planning
we will be able to change the lives of over 3,000 young processes and the globe trotting
YouthBank Piggy Bank!
people over the coming year. We are working closely with
PEEK to raise the profile of GEYB in Shettleston and to We can’t wait to tell you all about
it!
establish a new YouthBank in the East Centre and Calton
areas of Glasgow. We are currently in the process of GEYB Young Grant Makers
applying to the local area committees to help us do this,
and we are looking for stakeholders who would be willing
to provide funding for our grant pot – fingers crossed!

Decision Dates!
October: November: December:
th th
Monday 5 Monday, 9 TBC
So please get So please get But please get
your application your application your forms to
into us by the 28th into us by 2nd us before the end
September. November. of November.
 GE YOUTHBANK NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2009

Make it Happen!
We fund loads of brilliant projects led by young
people that benefit their community, here is just a
snapshot of what we have funded this year:

Cash for Candidates

GE YouthBank provided £500 to enable the
candidates running for a place in the Scottish Youth
Parliament to work together to hold a Hustings
Event and to produce campaign and promotional materials for the new Members of the
Scottish Youth Parliament so that young people from across the Shettleston, Baillieston and
Greater Easterhouse areas know how to contact them.

Eco Mummies
Five young mums were awarded £400 to allow them
to create an eco garden with their children at St.
Claire’s Nursery. Whilst children learned more about
their environment by planting and growing flowers,
parents were able to learn how to maintain a garden.
60 children benefited from this project and 10 young
people were able to access new volunteer
opportunities thanks to this project.

Connecting Carers
Young people from the Glasgow North Carers
Centre were awarded £200 to attend a carers
conference and to participate in a range of leisure
activities and spend more time with their friends as
that they often are not able to attend as they are too
busy looking after a member of their family.

Changing Steps
A group of young girls received £350 to run a ten
week dance class that would not only encourage girls
to participate in exercise, but also help them
manage the transition from primary school to
secondary school. Over 30 girls benefited from this
project and four secondary schools were involved in
the project.
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 GE YOUTHBANK NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2009

GEYB: It started with grants but now goes a lot

further – have a look yourself!
YouthBank is more than just about giving
out grants – it’s about supporting young
people to develop their own skills,
knowledge and confidence whilst developing
their community. This may be through
setting up a community project,
volunteering at their youth club or getting
involved in Community Planning. Over the
past year GEYB has taken a leading role in
developing young people’s literacy and
numeracy, providing a range of accredited
training for young people who have missed
out on those opportunities at school,
providing personal development and active
citizenship opportunities for young people,
supporting young people to get involved in
their Community Planning structures
through INFO and RYPI, working with
partners to improve services for young
people… and much, much more!
In the past year we have supported over
2,000 young people, funded 40 youth
groups, provided 14 accredited training
opportunities and engaged 112 young
people in active citizenship activities!
It’s a lot of work for one group in one year –
we think we’ve done quite well!

Measuring the Magic!

GEYB is five years old this year (hooray!) and in
recognition of this the Big Lottery Fund has
provided us with the resources to commission
those lovely folk over at the University of
Strathclyde to evaluate the impact GEYB has had
on the lives of young people and their
communities.

The University will interview a range of people including current and previous young grant
makers, people who have received grants and partner organizations. We are really looking
forward to hearing what the University find out – it will help us improve how we run our
YouthBank and how we help young people make the East End of Glasgow a better place to
stay!
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 GE YOUTHBANK NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2009

They do it – we accredit it!

GEYB works closely with a range of partners including YouthBank
Scotland, YouthLink Scotland and Adam Smith College to accredit all
the hard work and learning of our Young Grant Makers – we’ve listed
just some of the training below:

Introduction to Grant Giving

This training course runs for 10 hours and is taught
by a member of staff from YouthBank Scotland.
Young People were involved in identifying the needs
of their community, and to look at how the
distribution of grants could help address these
needs.

Grant Giving Level 2

Young people also have the opportunity to develop
their grant giving skills further by learning how to
priorities grants and make sure funding and
monitoring has the maximum impact it can have.

Developing Decision Making Skills

This course enables young people to explore decision
making, identify a number of decision making
processes and their strengths and weaknesses.
Young people also get the opportunity to use their
new skills in practice and decide for themselves what
style works best in different scenarios.

Developing Leadership Skills

Young people get the opportunity to identify the
characteristics of a good leader, the relationship a
leader has with the rest of their team and how this
can be used to motivate others and work
together as a team.
Young people also get the opportunity to
reflect on times when they have been a
leader and what went well and what didn’t

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 GE YOUTHBANK NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2009

YouthBank brings the Youth Achievement

Award to Glasgow!
WHAT IS THE YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT WHAT DO YOUNG PEOPLE GET OUT OF
AWARD? IT?
The Youth Challenge and the Lots!!!!! The awards recognize and
Youth Achievement Awards accredit young people’s achievements,
are activity based approaches encourage ownership and responsibility of
to peer education. The awards their own projects, encourage
are designed to support youth participation and social inclusion and let
workers engage young people more effectively young people learn from one another.
by encouraging young people to progressively The awards enable young people to:
take more responsibility in selecting, planning
and leading activities that are based on their  Enhance their self-awareness and
interests. The peer group model encourages self-esteem
the development of a wide range of life skills  Develop communication skills and
through a flexible and informal approach. resolve differences by negotiation
The Youth Achievement  Get on with and work well with
Awards were introduced others
nationally in 1997 and are
 Explore and manage feelings
already well established in a
wide range of youth  Understand and identify with others
organizations, schools and educational  Develop values
projects across the UK – but not in Glasgow.
 Plan ahead
Therefore GE YouthBank has
If you would like more information on how
teamed up with a number of
YouthBank and it’s partners are
partners including John
implementing the Youth Achievement
Wheatley College, F.A.R.E.
Awards please contact Linda McGlynn
and Urban Fox to test how the
using the contact details overleaf.
Youth Challenge and Youth Achievement
Awards can be used in the Glasgow East area
with voluntary groups and will work closely
with Culture and Sport who are rolling out the
award to be used within Youth Services.
Once we have piloted how
well this project works, we
hope to provide an award for
all the young people who apply
for a YouthBank Grant, plan
and deliver activities in their community.
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 GE YOUTHBANK NEWSLETTER AUTUMN 2009

Home Sweet Home!

We have moved! GEYB is now based within the Save the
Children office in Shettleston. They are a lovely bunch and
have made us feel right at home! You will find our new
address below, and our new telephone number is 0141 778
7181 – so go on, update your contact list before you forget!!!

Thanks for
reading!

GE YouthBank
Save the Children Offices, 647 Shettleston Road,
Glasgow, G32 7EH

The work of GEYB would not be possible without the valuable support and funding from the following sources.

GE YouthBank is an unincorporated charitable organization (SC038030) registered in Scotland.