Praise for youth charity with high aspirations
A CHARITY which supports young people has been praised by inspectors.
YNOT Aspire, based at the Hyndburn Community and Voluntary Resource Centre on Cannon Street in Accrington, was visited by staff from Wider Impact Consultancy as part of its funding renewal application bid to the Big Lottery Fund.
The purpose of the inspection was to assess whether the charity has achieved its aims and what impact the project has on young people’s lives and wellbeing.
The charity, set up in 2011 after receiving five years of lottery funding, aims to provide activities, support and opportunities to all young people in the borough and also helps ‘sofa-surfing’ homeless youngsters to get back on their feet.
Inspector Edwin Lewis said there is ‘no doubt that the project is a success’ and a ‘highly successful multi-agency initiative which has a positive and sustainable role to play in supporting young people’.
In his interim report, Mr Lewis said: “Immediate steps should be taken to secure the funding to enable the project to continue for a minimum five-year period.
“It is always a pleasure to deliver such a positive report, which hopefully does credit to all those involved in the development and delivery of the project and the organisation as a whole.”
A final report on YNOT Aspire will be produced at the end of the year to coincide with the end of the current funding.
Sharon Burch, chief officer at YNOT Aspire, said: “Edwin was extremely professional throughout, helped to guide us through the process, kept us informed every step of the way and provided us with a comprehensive report that exceeded our expectations.
“This is a great piece of work and it has been fantastic to have the opportunity to look back over the last five years at all the work we’ve done and the impact we’ve made.
“Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to questionnaires, take part in our stakeholder events and participated in our feedback forums.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Edwin. I look forward to working with him further on our full report and I would highly recommend Wider Impact to anyone requiring a high standard independent report of their work.”