Making a difference to the lives of young people

In the latest edition of Marketing Derby’s Innovate Magazine, we meet Gillian Sewell, the chief executive of YMCA Derbyshire, a charity that has been serving the county for 175 years.

Innovate sits down for a Q&A session with Gillian in which she not only charts the history of her YMCA but explains why the charity’s work is more important today than ever.

YMCA Derbyshire is an independent Christian charity. Its mission is to enable young people and communities to belong, contribute and thrive.

The YMCA does this in a number of ways, including providing supported housing and ‘move-on’ housing to enable independent living.

It also provides vocational, accredited training through its YMCA Key College, supporting young people aged 14 to 25, and recently introduced lifelong learning opportunities to support adults.

It is involved in food projects with its own allotments, which provide home-grown produce for an on-site community café and the local community.

And it provides school holiday provision for working parents who cannot afford childcare, a host of services to primary schools in the form of breakfast, lunch, and after-school clubs, along with physical education lessons.

Gillian told Innovate: “The path to homelessness has many tracks – it may be abuse, addiction, neglect, moving on from local authority care, poor mental health, relationship breakdown, or even escaping war and seeking asylum.

“Thus, homelessness is only a small fraction of the overall experience and young people often arrive having no other support network, no status and with nothing to belong to. They are, in essence, experiencing a loss of identity.

“Our key role is to be a catalyst to enable individuals to reflect and recognise what they want for their future.”

YMCA Derbyshire’s work is making a huge impact on the lives of young people – and for Gillian, seeing them overcome adversity is her reward.

She said: “I have yet to meet a young person who, with the right opportunities, support and attitude, doesn’t achieve results.

“Time after time the individuals we support overcome adversity and reward us with the knowledge that we’re making a difference.”

To read the full Q&A with Gillian, visit here.