Working together to help change lives

YMCA Derbyshire has been at the heart of the local community for 177 years, providing support for individuals and communities who have experienced challenging circumstances, including those at risk of homelessness, social exclusion and low educational attainment. Over the past 18 months the charity has seen a significant growth in its provision – with two local charities, Derwent Stepping Stones and Padley Group, becoming part of the YMCA ‘family’. We caught up with Grace Harrison, director of youth and community development at YMCA, to hear about the positive impact it is having – and how the merger of Padley Group into YMCA will impact the city.

When I joined YMCA Derbyshire back in 2012, we had 88 bed spaces – today we have a housing portfolio of 225 bed spaces, which will grow to over 300 by the end of 2024.

Each day we are ensuring individuals and families who need support can access; therapeutic counselling, daily activities including sports, arts and crafts, horticulture, wellbeing, warm hubs, vital food provision, accredited and non-accredited training courses, volunteer opportunities and work placements programmes.

All these things share one common aim – to support those we serve to move along their positive pathways.

Alongside our traditional housing, youth, and community work, lifelong learning is now firmly embedded in all we do.

We believe that early education is the foundation for lifelong learning and through our wholly-owned subsidiary Derwent Stepping Stones we deliver childcare across two nurseries in our city.

We also work in various schools across the city providing wraparound care, high quality PPA provision and ensure children in receipt of free school meals get a warm meal and high quality play schemes during the school holidays.

Through our YMCA Key College, we provide accredited vocational training courses to young people aged 18-19 or up to 24 with a ECHP where mainstream education has not been suitable for them.

We also work with numerous schools providing alternative provision and deliver a wide range of adult education supporting upwards of 150 students each year.

It was a big year for our YMCA in 2023 and a big part of this was our merger with Padley Group.

I now have the privilege of leading the Padley@YMCA Derbyshire team as part of our expansion and I have been completely blown away by the reach and impact Padley has on those who need its support most.

Padley has been supporting people at risk of homelessness and poverty since 1985, supporting and empowering those affected by homelessness to improve their lives.

This is done through offering safe and supportive environments, meaningful activities to improve health and wellbeing, confidence and self-esteem, providing support advice, training and volunteering opportunities, all to enable individuals to improve their independence.

Padley fulfils a need not only to the people it serves but to partner organisations across the city, distributing thousands of toiletries, clothes, and basic needs parcels to those experiencing poverty.

In the last 12 months over 800 individuals have accessed Padley’s services, over 20,000 warm meals have been provided and over 2,500 food parcels distributed.

Padley and YMCA have partnered on various projects over the years and back in 2022, YMCA was approached by Padley’s trustees to discuss the possibility of a merger.

Following this, a process of due diligence was conducted and many conversations between YMCA and Padley took place to see how a potential merger could benefit not only those we serve but our city.

Work was then undertaken with the Padley team, local stakeholders and both charities serve to develop a plan to shape services post-merger.

A significant element was that Padley needed to move from their current Day Centre, in Liversage Street, due to development in the area.

YMCA has spent the last six months working closely with the team to find Padley’s forever home.

Padley@YMCA Derbyshire will be based at Parcel Terrace, which will become a new Community Hub.

Here, it will continue to offer and grow its traditional services for individuals; warm meals and activities to combat loneliness and isolation.

But it will also develop its provision to meet the evolving needs of our city.

New services will enable members of the community who are unable to access food provision to have a place to use community kitchens to cook their own food for their families, have access to a laundrette alongside opportunities to learn through training and education and volunteering opportunities.

The Hub will be a place for not only Padley@YMCA but for partner organisations across the city to deliver vital services.

We are very much looking forward to opening our doors at our new Community Hub this summer.

The merger between our two organisations is very much complimenting what we do.

At Christmas we joined forces alongside the Food 4 Thought Alliance to ensure over 500 individuals received a gift and that 300-plus people were delivered a festive meal.

Our two teams worked side by side to ensure those who needed support most knew they were thought of and cared for.

The merger has also enabled Padley to strengthen its housing provision.

Its 18 housing pathways have become part of YMCA’s portfolio and within this its residents get access to a wider amount of personalised support, counselling, positive activities, and work-placement programmes.

YMCA has been able to grow the support it can provide through food provision, including our own YMCA Community Pantry, serving our 225 residents and 150 students through the help of local supporters and Padley@YMCA.

Our two organisations see this merger as very much a partnership.

Padley has become part of YMCA Derbyshire’s group structure but still very much holds on to its founding mission.

Its dedicated staff team remains predominately the same, although they now have a wider range of colleagues to turn to for support and can share best practice across both our teams.

It’s been over six months since the merger and we very much all see ourselves as one team.

Together we continue to grow what we do to meet the increasing demand on our services.

Unfortunately, the issue of homelessness and use of bed and breakfasts continues to increase in our city.

Our vision at YMCA Derbyshire is to continue to grow and develop as much as funding and social policy allows us to do so.

Our housing portfolio will grow significantly, but with this so does the need for our youth and community services to be funded to meet the needs of those we serve.

Our new Community Hub at Parcel Terrace will enable us to meet the diverse needs of our communities and help those individuals and families living in bed and breakfast and temporary accommodation.

Our housing portfolio is also diversifying to meet the evolving needs of those we serve.

We are currently in the middle of a major capital project; Our Foundry Point development will provide 60 affordable self-contained flats on land that once formed part of the Rolls-Royce estate in Cotton Lane.

The project was initiated following an extensive piece of work undertaken by YMCAs who looked at the housing market from a young person’s perspective and found that young people entering work or on low wages face considerable barriers to accessing the housing market.

Affordable and social housing is in short supply and the private sector requires references, deposits and rent in advance making this sort of housing beyond the reach of the young people.

The flats have been designed to be economical to rent and run and the scheme is targeted at young people (aged 18-30) who are entering into their first independent tenancy.

This month sees us launch our Foundry Point Capital Partner Appeal, which seeks funding from individuals and businesses for the ‘fit out’ of our flats.

Each unit costs £5,000 for the white goods, flooring and blinds. This enables the units to be ready for our young people.

We have secured £100,000 towards our £300,000 capital appeal and are now seeking 40 supporters at £5,000 per unit to enable our young people to gain the vital support they need.

Working at YMCA Derbyshire is a privilege. It’s been 12 years now since a joined our charity and, hand on heart, I can’t image myself working anywhere else.

I am so passionate about what we do and the people we support.

I’ve seen first hand the positive impact our work has on young people’s lives. People who have arrived at our door having experienced trauma and chaos leave with their bags packed for university or onwards to work.

Or for some people leaving to live independently when they arrived thinking that would never be possible is also such an achievement.

Last year, out of 272 people we housed within 12 months; 88 moved on to live independently, 61 entered formal education, seven went to university, 74 were supported to gain a job interview and 59 gained employment.

At this time of year, I always start preparing for my annual all-nighter – I’ll be once again bedding down for the night at YMCA Derbyshire’s Sleep Easy event.

It will be my 14th Sleep Easy – but it honestly isn’t easy. I really should think about changing the name of it!

However, it’s extremely rewarding and whenever I think ‘Can I do this for another year?’ I look at the number of lives that have been changed because of the funds we raise at events such as Sleep Easy and quickly press that button to sign up.

So, if you could spend one night sleeping out to make a lifetime of difference to other people’s lives or become a Foundry Point partner please do get in touch.

You can find out more by visiting http://www.ymcaderbyshire.org.uk or e-mail me at grace.harrison@ymcaderbyshire.org.uk.

Thank you – together we are changing lives.