About Young Lives, Who We Are, What We Do

By now you could possibly wondering what Young Lives is all about! So we have created this page with some general information about who we are and what we do.

Who are we? 

Young Lives Consortium is a membership organisation of Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Groups working with children and young people aged 0-19 years across the Wakefield District. We represent a broad range of services which includes large national charities, play and youth associations, uniform and faith groups and a variety of other groups in the children's sector.

What do we do?

We represent and support the VCS sector across the Wakefield District. Our role is to ensure that our membership, and statutory sector partners, are able to access information on services, developments, funding and training opportunities across the children and young people's sector.  We draw on expertise across sectors to identify priorities and find solutions to develop a strategic partnership for joint working. 

We hope to bring all the children and young people groups together to create new Partnerships and build on the current ones.

We will promote equality and diversity to ensure that all groups and young people are involved.

We support voluntary and community sector groups to ensure that every child in the Wakefield District is able to meet the five Every Child Matters outcomes. All services for children and young people will enable them to:

• Be healthy
• Stay safe
• Enjoy and achieve
• Make a positive contribution
• Achieve economic well-being

Help us to make the Wakefield District a better place for children and young people.

Young Lives Prospectus

Please help us to refresh the prospectus for this year by completing the VCS Children and Young People Workforce impact Survey, which you will find at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QZXY6TP

You can view the Young Lives Prospectus by clicking on the links below:

Prospectus - under 5s
Prospectus 6-11
Prospectus 11-19
Prospectus - Family Support
Prospectus - Information

Why should my organisation join Young Lives?

It is free!

Our role is to ensure that VCS organisations, young people and our statutory partners are able to access information on services, developments, funding opportunities and training across the children and young people's sector.

Government planning for children and young people, applying for funding, finding out what is available, commissioning of services etc are all getting more and more and more complex. It is difficult to keep up to date with everything that is going on, the processes involved, and what is available for your organisation.

However, there are many opportunities out there, as well as threats to the future of some services. You can find out what is going on in the Wakefield District by using this website and signing up for our e-bulletin and magazine.

The website provides information about training opportunities, which are often free, information about funding and the opportunity to network with other organisations to share experience and examples of good practice. You will be able to search our data base for children and young people's groups and services to find out what is available in the areas your service users live.

How can we help?

We have:

- A Manager and Project Worker who drive and deliver the primary function of Young Lives and work across all agencies to provide the most effective service for children, young people and families.

 - A Group Development Worker who can help you to set up a group or work with you to develop your group and ensure policies and procedures are in place.

- A Training Officer who works with the Local Authority and other organisations to ensure that appropriate and adequate training is in place within the district

- An Administrator, who is the first point of contact, looks after the database, website and e-bulletin.

- A Safeguarding Development Worker who can help you with safeguarding matters and policies.

Here are links to a series of leaflets that explain more about what we and the services we provide.