Sian Jenkinson @ Youth Shedz

Youth Shedz Cymru , which was founded almost 3 years ago, is a values led charity, aimed at providing a safe place for young people to explore who they are, to develop pro-social relationships with suitable role models, develop and learn new skills.

The ethos of Youth Shed is that it is planned and facilitated by the young people that it serves in the area that they live.

I joined the team in 2020 through Covid, and whilst I had some experience around volunteer support, the role of compiling volunteer roles, registering on the volunteering platform and the work on volunteering policies was all very new – CVSC took me through step by step, advising and guiding me along the way. CVSC has provided key support around recruiting suitable volunteers for the project and have supported us in making sure that the safeguarding, policy and procedures are in place, so they give us the peace of mind that we need to keep our young people safe, and as a result we have already recruited a couple of amazing volunteers.

The team at CVSC are all so very helpful and experienced in what they do; they give me the assurance that we are operating safely and professionally as a small charity and it is good to be part of a larger network for training and information sharing – they are invaluable!

The van which was gifted to us to be used as an Outreach Shed - in response to the adaptations of Covid , we want the bus to maybe become a space where we were hoping to plant a Shed, so that we are still able to talk to young people face to face safely, as we know that the isolation of not seeing others face to face has been tough on this generation.