COG Youth Services Ltd – A volunteer led, Leicester based, not for profit, social enterprise that supports young people by putting them at the heart of the organisation
OUR AIM
is to provide high quality youth led volunteering opportunities for 13-17 year olds in thier communities and extra curricular projects for young people in schools. We also aim to give young people the skills needed thrive in post-school life as they transition from dependence to independence. All the work we do is underpinned by the values and principles of youth work.
HISTORY
The organisation was created in 2009 in responce to youth service cuts. Over the last few years we have seen, the vast majority of youth services across the country, close or near closure as funding in the sector diminshed. This meant many centres, projects and provisions struggled. The organisation began as a partnership of 2 Leicester youth workers that were keen to keep youth work running in schools after local authority cuts meant all provision in Leicester school was stopped. In 2011 we started our first volunteering action group. A group of 35 young people aged 13-17 met at the now former Vista Blind headquaters were created audio newspapers and supported their radio station. This proved to be a huge hit with service users, by 2012 this group ended as further cuts meant the charity could no longer support us. As the organisation grew and demands on our services in schools and communities increased we incorporated as a limited company on 12th March 2013 and built a board of volunteer directors.
LIMITED BY GUARANTEE
In accordance with our constitution, that the organisation is limited by guarantee and 100% of all profits go back into our aims. This means that directors and investors cannot profit from any gains made by the organisation. So you know, that your investment is supporting youth work.
WORKING WITH SCHOOLS & COLLEGES
We use passionate workers to deliver a range of activities, projects and workshops in your school or college. We charge for our services and use 100% of the profits, we generate, stay in the organisation and used towards achieving our organisational aims, such as our volunteering opportunities. Opportunities will be strategically placed in locations accessible locations for your students to show our thanks for your support. All our projects come with certificates upon completion and all our prices are subject to negotiation, depending on what is required.
We can deliver projects like Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Adventure Service Challenge Scheme, Dance and Drama Clubs, Sexual Health and Drugs Awareness workshops, Mental Health and Black History projects, just to name a few of the things we can do.
We work exclusively across Leicester and Leicestershire. So, whatever you need, take a look at our website and give us a call to see how we can help and make sure you have #therightCOG for the job.
YOUTH WORK IN ACTION
To show our support to you, the schools that invest in us, every penny we make goes back into developing social action opportunities for young people within the schools local community. This means that not only does your school benefit from us, but so does the wider community. As this opportunity will also be led by young people, only will be it be a great way to build and develop bridges but also an amazing opportunity for your young people to have some positive ownership of their community.
WORKING WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES
We are a young person led organisation. One of the great things about this is that all our community actions groups have been chosen by young people, developed by young people and maintained by young people in the places those young people live. This means we have created some unique opportunities that no other youth organisation in the country has ever tried.
WORKING WITH COMPANIES
As a not-for-profit, we seek to partner each of our projects with a private organisation. This would give us some financial stability, for that project, and would give you, the partner company, some great CSR opportunities such as giving your team opportunities to volunteer in the community, having community projects named after you, having your logos placed on the uniforms of our volunteers and given opportunities to be part of the events we run, for free. We are very thrifty and so most of our projects cost only a few hundred pounds a year to run, so the value for money aspect is amazing. To become a partner of COG Youth Services just email us through our Contact Us page
