OnSide News

Irish Visitors

February 18, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

OnSide was recently joined by special visitors from across the Irish Sea, to learn a bit more about our Youth Zone model.

The Mayor of Newtownabbey Borough Council, Alderman Billy Webb and his colleagues embarked on a journey to Bolton to spend a couple of days with OnSide, to gain a more detailed understanding of how a Youth Zone works and experience the Bolton Lads and Girls Club, which our model is based on.

With two days jam packed of presentations, club visits and group discussions, the team from Newtownabbey were able to take away information about the key principles of developing a 21st Century Youth Zone and what impact it can have on a local area.

Listen to Mayor Billy Webb about why he felt it important to visit OnSide and what he will be taking away with him:

If you feel your organisation would like to know more about the work that OnSide does to support its Youth Zones please don’t hesitate to let us know. Take a look at our services pageto find out how we could support your organisation.

Filed Under: OnSide News

Back In The Swing Of It

February 10, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

CEO at OnSide North West

Dear OnSiders,

I am delighted, over the moon, happy as Larry, even as happy as Harry Redknapp, though not because I have escaped the grasps of the HMRC, but because like a football manager I have made an audacious double signing for OnSide. For an undisclosed fee, I can’t tell you how much, but it’s somewhere between 1 & -1, I have played a blinder and recruited a Dream Team of Warren Hegg (Lancashire & England) and Marc Studholme (Bolton!) to head up our forthcoming Charity Golf Day which will be held at Mere Golf & Country Club on 15th May.

The event will be known as The ‘Warren Hegg Golf Classic’. Warren had a glittering career playing cricket for Lancashire and had the honour of representing England on two occasions. Warren now works for Lancashire CC as a Development Officer and when asked if he would lead our Charity Golf Day he said “I am thrilled to be involved with such a worthwhile charity like OnSide, which is making a difference in the lives of our future generations. I’m looking forward to a competitive, but fun game of Golf in May and hope you can join us”.

I did warn Warren that the last time I asked someone to head up a Golf Day (Francis Lee) it turned into a bit of a life sentence, Franny is still going strong 23 years later and to date has raised over £300,000 for Bolton Lads & Girls Club through his golf day.

So we have a Leader and now we needed someone to pull everything together, a Fergie, a Barberoli, a tournament organiser. I knew just the man, step forward Marc Studholme. Marc is already a friend and supporter both of OnSide and the Factory Youth Zone.

Marc is passionate about our mission to support and invest in young people by simply giving them a safe and decent place to go in their leisure time. He is just the man to put in the “hard yards” and make the inaugural Warren Hegg Golf Classic a success.

So on behalf of everyone at OnSide a huge thank you to Warren & Marc and here’s to a great day. Keep an eye on our Events page as we will be posting details of how to enter a team.

Jerry Glover – Chief Executive

Filed Under: CEO Blog, OnSide News

Building OnSide’s Future

February 3, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

The support of companies and individuals is vital to the ongoing success and development of our Youth Zone network and we are delighted to announce a new Champion has just joined our Futurebuilders programme.

ASC Renewables, a UK based renewable energy company specialising in the delivery of renewable energy solutions to both the private and public sectors, has pledged its support for our Charity. But why do companies decide to support an organisation like OnSide?

Rather than us telling you, we thought it would be better to hear it directly from them. Watch our interview with Stephen Critchlow, Chairman of ASC Renewables to find out first hand what inspired his company to get involved with us.

Click here to watch our interview with Stephen.

Filed Under: OnSide News

Recruiting For Success

February 1, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

Trainee Journalist, Adam Cooper has been out exploring our Youth Zone network this month to meet some of the teams that are making our Youth Zones a big success.

Recently he made a trip to Blackburn Youth Zone to meet Volunteer, Recruitment and Training Manager, Mubashar Khaliq to ask him about the work he does with Blackburn Youth Zone in anticipation of the official launch on Monday 6 Febraury.

What our video with Mubashar to find out what his vision for the future is in regards to volunteering at Blackburn Youth Zone, within the first year of opening and why the local community in the town are so integral to this.

Click here to watch the video interview in full.

Could you be part of our Youth Zone network? OnSide is currently advertising for several jobs across the North West find out more by Visiting our Vacancies page.

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Latest Views

January 28, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

Last night OnSide had the privilege of giving some special guests a preview tour of The Factory Youth Zone, now that building work has officially completed.

We caught up with a couple of the guests to find out what they thought of the new Youth Zone, which will be opening its doors to young people from across North Manchester later this month…

Visitors on the night included:

Alison & Daniel Rees – OnSide Futurebuilders
Fiona & Andrew Tyrer – OnSide Futurebuilders & Founder Patrons
Chris Dee, Trading Director, Booths
Richard Bailey, Rothschild
Hilary Bailey

If you would like to know more about any of OnSide’s Youth Zones click here or you would like more information about getting involved in OnSide please contact Janet Dunnett on T: 01204 369299 or E: janet.dunnett@onsidenorthwest.org.

Filed Under: OnSide News

Bruntwood In FYZ Challenge

January 21, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

Employees from commercial property company, Bruntwood got a unique opportunity recently to explore, en masse, The Factory Youth Zone (Manchester) before its doors open to young people.

Over 60 employees came along to the new youth facility in Harpurhey to put their creative, team and sports skills to the test, as they took part in over ten different challenges with the Youth Zone’s staff and volunteers.

The event was not only a great opportunity to test out the new facilities, which will be available to young people later this month, it also helped raise money for both of Bruntwood’s chosen charities – The Factory and OnSide, whilst giving staff a first hand experience of what their generous donations and fund raising activities have helped to achieve so far.

Take a look at some of the pictures from the event:

Bruntwood has chosen OnSide Northwest as its charity partner for 2011-13. If you would like to find out more information about supporting OnSide please visit the Get OnSide page.

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Important Landmarks

January 13, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

These are exciting times for OnSide as all three of our new Youth Zones get ready to open. In particular The Factory Youth Zone (Manchester) reached an important landmark, as it welcomed its entire volunteer base into the new building, to experience and explore what the facility has to offer the young people they will be supporting. This is a key step towards official opening.

Recruitment, training and induction of volunteers within a Youth Zone is a significant part of the support OnSide offers, and so we met with Andy Jackson, Volunteer and Youthwork Development Manager to get an insight into the level of work goes into this task…

“The volunteering process starts by identifying what people a Youth Zone would need and where they are most likely to live, learn, work or play. It is a different approach from that which many organisations would take, but we believe meeting people where they already are, helps to accelerate the success of a volunteer recruitment campaign.

“By identifying the key roles needed within a Youth Zone enables you to strategically recruit in key locations such as workplaces, universities, housing offices and leisure facilities etc. It is vital that to coincide with this stage of developing a volunteer base, all communications activity provides strong and consistent volunteer messaging.

Key to a successful volunteer base is through involvement with a local business community and engaging employees.

“The next stage is to get your volunteer base, which have been interviewed and CRB checked, trained. Training essentially needs to be interesting and entirely relevant to the role expected of a volunteer. My experience tells me that when volunteers feel passionate about what they are doing they will learn more quickly and feel more comfortable within their role.

Recruitment and training are obviously important, but the critical success factor comes when volunteers move from training into active volunteering… will they stay?

“To ensure drop off doesn’t occur (inevitably some will, so be prepared for that) it is important to give volunteers a taste of the practical experience of being in the environment they will be volunteering within. Introductory and welcome events are a good way to do this. This combined with a supportive staff team, volunteers will easily embed within an organisation. This has already happened in Manchester and I can’t wait to see them in action in a few weeks time.”

Find out more about how OnSide can support your organisation by visiting our Services page.

Filed Under: OnSide News, Uncategorized

The Poverty Trap?

January 12, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

Can our Youth Zones help children escape the poverty trap?

CEO at OnSide North West

The latest Government figures on Child Poverty make depressing reading. Apparently we have a target that says the aim by 2020 is to get figures to down to 10% of all children in the UK living in poverty. Which is an odd kind of target when you think about it!

I suppose we all need targets of one kind or another and it does make us happy when we achieve them. There is a great story that Gordon Brown used to love nothing more than increasing one benefit or another and then calculating that as a result he had “lifted” say 10,000 children out of poverty, and go home beaming because he had done a cracking days work. In reality he had done no such thing, giving a family on benefits an extra £15 a week made no real difference to any of their lives, particularly the children.

OnSide’s second Youth Zone is set to open later this month, it is in Harpurhey in North Manchester. The Government’s figures tell us that 49% of children in Central Manchester are being brought up in poverty (the second highest rates in the country). We can’t give all the kids that come through the door a tenner a week and lift them out of poverty .. so what can we do?

We can help all the Children and Young People who come through the doors to start to feel good about themselves, to start believing in themselves, have confidence become active, engaged, and positive about themselves and others. I’m sure that is the start of the long journey away from benefits and poverty. If the young people that we work with remain on benefits then they will always be poor… even if we trebled the rates and we at OnSide and at The Factory Youth Zone will have failed.

We hope that by this time next year over 1500 children and young people will attend The Factory every week and that after a few years we are determined that those young people will be engaged, motivated, confident, happy and ambitious.

Read more about The Factory Youth Zone by visiting its website, click here for more information.

Filed Under: CEO Blog, OnSide News

Our Chairman Receives CBE

January 3, 2012 By administrator Leave a Comment

Bill Holroyd, Founder and Chairman of OnSide, has been recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours List.

Bill has been awarded a CBE in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of our charity, giving young people somewhere safe and inspiring to go, 365 days per year.

Jerry Glover, Chief Executive at OnSide said today that: “The Board and everyone connected with OnSide were thrilled with the news that Bill Holroyd, founder and Chairman of On-Side, has been awarded the CBE.

“Bill’s drive, ambition and total commitment to young people means that in just three years the charity now has four Youth Zones operating in Carlisle, Blackburn, Oldham and Manchester (Harpurhey) with a further four Youth Zones in the process of being built in Wigan, Preston, Chester and Wolverhampton.”

Commenting on his award, Bill Holroyd said: “This award is really recognition for the extraordinary commitment I have received from our supporters, private sector “Champions”, volunteers, staff and the Local Authorities who have given the Youth Zone projects their total support.

“From the outset I have had an outstanding Board of Directors, all of whom have worked with me to accelerate the growth of the charity. In addition we now have local Boards of Directors in each of the Youth Zones and collectively we share a common vision; to have a Youth Zone in every town and city in the country.

“My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who has supported me and OnSide.”

Click here to find out more about what inspired Bill to develop Onside and what the charity’s vision for the future is.

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Supporting OnSide

December 21, 2011 By administrator Leave a Comment

We recently caught up with Conlon Construction’s Chair Theresa Noblett and Finance Director, Alan Cragg following a recent site visit to The Factory Youth Zone before its imminent opening in January 2012.