@theyoutrust: Last Friday one of our homelessness services recieved some vi… 2 days ago

Local school smashes fundraising target for hostel

Posted by Nick on July 20, 2011

I’ve just had some lovely news which I need to share with you all.  A couple of weeks ago, Oakridge Junior School in Basingstoke held a sponsored silence to fundraise for their local Direct Access Hostel, May Place House.  You may have read the press releases on our news page.  We’ve had an amazing relationship with the school this year since they decided to support May Place House and raise awareness of homelessness issues amongst the pupils.  There have been competitions, fundraising events and even a summer fete where we had a stall!   

We’ve just heard from the school that, they have raised £876 (so far) from the sponsored silence, far exceeding their target of £500, and bringing their total this year to a whopping £1187.  Oakridge are extremely excited as this is the biggest amount they’ve ever raised for a charity!  We’re over the moon too!  Deputy Head, Katy Thompson has said “I feel this truly says that the children have engaged with the concept of homelessness in Basingstoke.”
 
In addition, the children have decided that next year they will continue to do their harvest festival to collect food pacakges for May Place House and will also do another fund raiser.  They are hoping, in the …

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Charity and Hotel team up to reward Excellence

Posted by Nick on July 13, 2011

Local charity, YOU and the Portsmouth Marriott Hotel teamed up in July for an afternoon of awards and celebrations for staff who have gone the extra mile over the last year.  YOU’s annual Staff Excellence Awards recognise and praise teams and individuals working with some of Portsmouth, Hampshire and Dorset’s most vulnerable people with awards being nominated by both colleagues and clients of the services.  The Portsmouth Marriott provided the venue and afternoon cream tea and General Manager, BJ Schureder, presented the top prize and a bouquet of flowers to Samatha Slydell, winner of the top ‘Employee of the Year’ category.

“This is an opportunity to recognise and say thanks to staff who have lived up to YOU’s ‘can do’ and ‘excellent’ values,” said proud Chief Executive, Nicola Youern, “and it was wonderful that the Portsmouth Marriott have sponsored the event by providing a venue and refreshments.  Hearing some of the stories and poems about what our staff do really touches your heart strings.  We have some truly wonderful people in our organisation.”

The annual, Oscar-style event, saw staff, volunteers, workers and teams recognised for their work over the last year with some heart-warming stories about how individuals had transformed …

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Dorset Bake Off is the icing on the cake

Posted by Nick on July 13, 2011

Wednesday saw people gather from all over Dorset for the first West Dorset Cake Bake off – a fun competition for clients and service users of YOU’s West Dorset services.  In all, there were 31 entries from six different services with prizes being awarded for ‘most attractive looking cake’, most awesome cake baked by a young person’, ‘most scrumptious cake from a service’, ‘most fabulous cake baked by member of staff’, ‘most effort put into baking a cake’ and ‘best overall cake’.

“We didn’t think we’d be doing this today,” said Mr and Mrs Ballard, neighbours of the service, who helped judge the competition “it was a really difficult choice as there were such a lot of good cakes.  We’re both very grateful for being a part of it and for the invite.”

“The standard was very high and everyone took the competition really seriously,” said proud manager, Andy Cosma, “this event encompassed everything that YOU is about and really encouraged our young people to be the best they can be.”

“I’m really pleased I won,” laughed ‘most attractive cake’ winner, Seychella, “but I’ve definitely eaten too much now!” “There was loads of beautiful cakes,” said another resident, Laura, who …

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