Shropshire charity’s call for help to meet exciting growth and development plans in 2022

A Shropshire charity committed to helping young people develop and maintain their physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing is asking for help and calling on companies to name them as their charity of the year for 2022.

SYA (formerly Shropshire Youth Association) has exciting growth and development plans for next year but needs support in delivering the invaluable services it provides to a growing number of young people across Shropshire.

The charity engages with about 6,000 young people each year, helping to provide the opportunities and skills needed to meet future life challenges and enabling them to realise their full potential.

Richard Parkes, SYA Chief Executive Officer, said: “These are exciting times for the charity and news of our growth and development plans for 2022 is a perfect time for the wider community to get to know SYA better.

“SYA who are ‘All About Youth’ has never been stronger than it will be next year. With the launch of a new website, increased youth activity and a fresh focus on media and communications, we are set to hit 2022 running.

“The work we do supports youth activity across the geographical county of Shropshire enabling young people to build life skills, improve their wellbeing, build stronger communities, develop employability skills, and also helps reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

“We seek to achieve this by working to fulfil our vision that “Every young person in Shropshire (both unitary council areas) has access to appropriate, affordable and quality leisure activity”.

“This might be via a local youth club, scout group, youth project, or mental health drop-in centre - all good examples of how and why SYA is engaging with about 6,000 young people across Shropshire each year.

“We need help to keep this essential work going and to meet our goals of expanding the service we provide, so we are looking to build relationships with companies and individuals who are interested in supporting us in the development of young people. 

“Would it suit your company to be aligned to SYA in 2022 by choosing us as your charity of the year? Could you offer a leisure activity to be delivered at a youth club?  Are you able to sponsor an element of our celebration event in March? Could SYA help you with safeguarding training if your work involves young people? If so, we would love to hear from you.”

Mr Parkes said cash donations to the charity can be used in many ways for the benefit of the young people SYA is supporting.

“£5 provides the refreshments at a youth club for a week or the night’s hire of an encaustic art set with all the materials,” he added.

“£10 pays for fabric pens for an arts activity or squash for a youth club over the course of a term, while £20 covers the cost of ingredients for a youth club cooking activity or the BBQ coals and food for an outdoor event.

“£50 helps us buy sports equipment to get young people more active or would pay for a coat a young person could borrow for an outdoor activity, £100 pays for a computer tablet for use at a youth club or a voluntary youth club’s annual insurance premium, and £500 would help a young person deliver a health-related piece of social action as a Young Health Champion, or provide an inter-club activity such as a day’s fishing at a lake.

“£1,000 would provide a residential experience for a youth group or fund the hire of a village hall for a youth club over the year, £4,000 allows us to run two holiday activity clubs for SEND Young People or provide a qualified youth worker to run a youth club with community volunteers for a year.

“£10,000 pays for a fully-staffed youth club for a year or would run a Heads-Up Health & Wellbeing project for a year in a school setting, while £12,000 covers the leasing of a nine-seater vehicle for three years or pay for the running of a fully-staffed youth club for a year including holiday activities.”

For more about how to get involved in helping SYA with the work it is doing in Shropshire, contact Emma on fundraising@sya.org.uk