Category: Youth & Community

Period poverty is very sadly on the rise in the UK.

According to research by Plan International, 1 in 10 girls between 14 and 21 have been unable to afford sanitary products. 49% have missed an entire day of school because of their period.

There is still too much stigma attached to periods and sanitary products and unfortunately, for those with limited income, they are unaffordable.

Missing out on opportunities because of a lack of sanitary products is unacceptable. In the Spring Statement, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced Government funding for free sanitary products in all English secondary schools. This is a huge step in the right direction.

Here is the BUT!

There are many sections of girls and women in our society that fall through the gaps in new and existing schemes.

Here at the Y, we are 100% committed to providing free sanitary products to our young female residents (aged 16 to 24) to ensure that they do not miss out on any opportunities while we are helping to get them engaged with education, training and employment. We are ensuring none of our young people have to choose between essentials like food and sanitary products. We are making absolutely sure our young women never have to go without or use unsuitable, unhygienic and unhealthy alternatives. We provide all of our young women with free sanitary products for the duration of their stay.

Exactly the same stands over at The Y Support Project. The homeless women that use this service also receive sanitary products whenever they are needed.

This is not a new initiative for us; we have been doing this for a while because we passionately believe that these products should be accessible to all.

Our supporters

We couldn’t do this without the support we have received from the community of Leicester in various ways and our thanks must also go to them. Here are just a few.

De Montfort University students: We received a fabulous donation from a group of students who chose to support The Y in this way as part of one of their modules of study this year.

Christmas Shoebox donors: Christmas shoebox supporters very generously donated sanitary products and female specific shoeboxes to The Y during our December appeal.

Elisha Mukri: Elisha drummed up support and awareness amongst her friends and contacts to provide another generous donation of sanitary and hygiene products.

Want to get involved?

We’ve told how we help and what we are committed to. If you would like to help end period poverty in Leicester, please do get in touch. You can make a donation of sanitary products or you can make a monetary donation specifically for this cause. The Y houses 101 young people at any one time across our two sites and our move on houses. We also provide homeless adults through Y Support Project. Your support would mean these vulnerable girls and women will not miss out on suitable sanitary protection because it is unaffordable. To find out more or ask about getting involved, please contact [email protected] or call 0116 204 6208.

We are delighted to announce that Berkeley Insurance Group have nominated The Y as their chosen Charity of The Year. This year The Y will be working closely with the city centre based insurance firm and we look forward to exciting opportunities and events together across the year.

“Young homeless people face massive challenges everyday and hopefully our taking part in the zip wire challenge is a small contribution towards supporting them. The Y is an amazing organisation and we are really proud to be working with them.” Tim Maxted, Chief Executive of Berkeley Insurance Group and the High Sheriff of Leicestershire.

Last week, the team from Berkeley Insurance took on the Zip Wire Challenge at Victoria Park to fundraise for The Y. We are very gratefully to the team for raising over £1400, a brilliant achievement!

Click here to see more photos of the Zip Wire Challenge

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We are delighted to announce that NatWest Leicestershire Business Banking Team have nominated The Y as their chosen Charity of The Year.

Earlier this year, NatWest invited The Y and Twenty Twenty along to the Women in Business Network Event. Profits raised from the night were kindly donated to both charities.

We were equally excited when the team joined us at the Zip Wire event in Victoria Park. At a height of 31m and 200m across, the brave NatWest team enjoyed marvellous views of Leicester’s sky line before taking the leap for charity.

Working with young offenders is an important area of focus because these young people have a high chance of becoming homeless and increasingly marginalised.  We work on projects that give them the support to change their lives and also share our knowledge with prison staff.

In September we agreed a contract with G4S in partnership with YMCA England to provide mentoring support to 13 young people both during their period in custody and then on release. The project was specifically focused on providing additional support to resettle the young person back into their community during the first critical 4-6 weeks post release and concluded in March 2017.

The Y’s Youth Mentor has been able to build positive relationships with each of the young people she has met with. The work has been based on the individuals own needs, as identified by themselves and the professionals working with them. It is clear so far that this project is playing a key role in supporting young people who require this service. – Amy Bruce, G4S

Prison Staff Training

As part of the Young Adults Project (YAP) The Y was commissioned to train prison staff on the rights of care leavers and looked after children within the criminal justice system, ensuring they have right and proper access to their statutory entitlement. This work has also enabled us to gain access to Leicester, Glen Parva and Peterborough prisons and begin a process of implementing change as to how they work with this vulnerable group.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]14^th October 2016

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Today we welcomed our former President Iris Watson to open our 4^th move-on house. These houses provide an important last stepping stone for young people who have been in our higher support accommodation, giving them greater independence but with the stability of knowing we’re still on hand for advice. The house, based in the Queen’s Road area of Leicester, will provide accommodation for 5 young people.

Iris was a star of the stage and was an important part of the YMCA Musical Society, based at The Y Theatre, for 40 years. She was The Y’s first female Trustee, joining the board in 1975.

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28^th July 2016

The Y are delighted to announce that BBC Children in Need has awarded a grant of £118,909 to fund The Y’s Flat 108 Enabling Independence service over 3 years.  The Y had feared that the service may close as current funding came to end, having already made a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people here in Leicester.

Based in Leicester city centre, Flat 108 is a purpose-built training flat where young people aged 16 – 18 with physical or learning disabilities can spend time developing their independence skills, building strong self-belief, confidence and aspirations for their future. BBC Children in Need will fund a small staff team who work with each person in areas such as travel training, personal safety, budgeting & household bills, shopping, cooking, personal care and cleaning.

In 2011, The Y developed 7 self-contained flats to be accessible for disabled young people, Leicester City Council’s Disabled Children’s Service supported The Y to develop a small project to work with young people with a range of special educational needs and disabilities. The service offered opportunities to develop living skills and apply them to take control over day to day decisions and choices at a crucial stage of transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Some of those young people will not be eligible for support from social care services which can lead to crisis at later stages in life.

Anna Maudsley, the Housing Director at The Y said; “We could not have continued to offer this specialist service for young people in Leicester without the support of BBC Children in Need. This grant will go on to change the lives of so many young people and give them the support they need.”

Brad’s Story

 Brad is a young man on the autistic spectrum whose life was changed dramatically through the support of the Flat 108 team in 2015.

“For a long period of my life, from like six years old, I wouldn’t go out to socialise or leave my house. I just wouldn’t associate myself with the real world. I would watch the world go by outside my bedroom window.

Prior to coming to Flat 108 I was aware of the concept of doing chores but needed to gain the ability to do it myself without the support of my father. I came here to learn two things, which I didn’t know how to do before: travel training and cooking. My fear of fire came from abuse when I was a kid. The training helped me lessen my fear of being burnt in a kitchen, it’s also shown me how to cook certain things and do chores without the support of my father.

The one-to-one support explained everything clearly and I really liked speaking to my support worker. I feel I can travel around more which will help me when I go to university. The service helped me to leave the house which I never knew how to do before this experience and helped me feel confident about being able to live independently in the future.”