VYON
VYON is the key voluntary sector group within the YWU and focuses on strategic policy developments affecting the voluntary youth sector. Currently as with LA colleagues, this includes Children's Trust arrangements, Integrated Youth Support and delivering high quality positive activities to meet ECM outcomes.
Membership is open to:
- Umbrella voluntary youth groups in each local authority (CVYS, VYONs or similar)
- Regional/ Y&H sections of National Voluntary Youth Organisations
- National Voluntary Youth Organisations bodies based in the region
- Regional Voluntary Youth Organisations
- Large voluntary youth organisations & deliverers
VYON holds a combination of quarterly meetings, as well as conferences and focussed events and briefings. Meetings are usually held at the YWU in Leeds, where a variety of resource and information is also available to support colleagues, some of which are below as downloads. Those who currently attend are a creative mix of network co-ordinators of youth, or children and youth networks, along with workers from large Voluntary Youth Organisations such as the YMCA, Clubs for Young People and The Princes Trust.
Agendas reflect member's needs and issues as well as recent legislative and LA changes. Issues that VYON have addressed in recent meetings include:
- Commissioning – what is happening and how should it be done
- Having confidence in what your organisation can provide and repeating the message loudly and often!
- Representation – how best to organise voluntary representation on multiple LA boards and steering groups
- Extending services to young people with disabilities and how to make organisations effectively accessible to all
- Training opportunities available and national developments - NCVYS
- Youth and Community training opportunities available from Open University
- Current Prince's Trust Schemes available to young people
- Local Play strategies – Play England
- Promotion and roll out of the Club for Young People Quality Mark
VYON seeks to support a youth focussed infrastructure umbrella body in each LA or where it is a broader C&YP's focused organisation, to assist in it's youth focused work. VYON Y&H sends out regular information, and offers advice and guidance to strengthen both the infrastructure bodies as well as the smaller delivery organisations. Through VYON members, information, consultations requests, etc can flow out to the 15 areas and to some 3000+ small voluntary youth organisations; and more importantly views can come back in and representations be made to regional and national bodies.
Additionally, development work has focused on areas determined by members to improve their sustainability in delivering within IYS arrangements. In particular this has included sessions on commissioning, on Contactpoint and the piloting of the Clubs for Young People Quality Mark. Past work has included producing a Start-Up Pack for such organisations, and advocacy work in LAs to support establishing or strengthening existing structures. The Cardigan Centre in Leeds held an event that highlighted the considerable benefits to youth organisations of undertaking the Quality Mark process.
In the coming year work on quality standards will continue but there will also be a focus on training and commissioning as well as a mapping of the larger regional voluntary youth organisations across the region and a push to involve them much more.
The group has elected joint Chairs - Detty Tyler from East Riding Voluntary Youth service (ERVYS) and Phil Pearce from Hull Council for Voluntary Youth Service (HCVYS). Together they chair meetings, help set agendas and progress work between meetings. Phil is also on the YWU's Board as one of the two voluntary sector Directors; Ken Montgomery, Northern Regional Manager for YMCA being the other. VYS members can directly influence the YWU's work via these Directors but individual members are also voting members at the YWU's AGM again providing a means of shaping the organisation and the work.
Latterly, the VYON group has collaborated with the VCS Engage programme, a DCSF funded project, managed by Children England which is seeking to ensure representation of VCS at the various LA Children's Trust and other C&YP's bodies. The VCS Engage regional grouping overlaps with the VYON grouping and meets in the afternoon of the same day to focus on broader C&YPs issues while the VYON morning meeting retains a voluntary youth sector focus.
See www.vcsengage-yorkshire.net
Bill Eve is the part-time Development Officer for VYON and can be contacted at the Youth Work Unit on 0113 270 3595 or 07767 318123. Bill's core working days are currently Thursdays, Fridays and every other Wednesdays.
VYON Terms of reference
Start-Up Pack Grow your own VYON
NYA report on current state of commissioning of Positive Activities for Young People
Emerging Good Practice: Y&H
Quality Mark GS Leaflet
Quality Mark Overview
Quality Mark Briefing at The Cardigan Centre, Leeds
NCVYS Introduction to Youth Work and getting started