Cumnock: Yipworld charity offering community support

We had such a busy summer period with our ever-popular Scunnered Playscheme for primary aged children.

An abundance of activities was on offer three days per week over the full seven-week period with an average of 75 children attending per day and we certainly had a multitude of play and recreation within our brilliant venue on the Barrhill Road.

We also welcomed the fantastic GE Aerospace apprentices who provided the most wonderful S.T.E.M. activities for our young people – these young men and women are a credit to their employer.

Our bike initiative ‘The Bike Hoose’ is now managed by Debra Driscoll – we will feature this in our next monthly column along with information on our fabulous outreach service Strong Connections funded by Scottish Government Investing in Communities Fund and our Social Prescribing initiative funded by C.V.O. Communities Health and Wellbeing Fund.

We organised a fantastic trip this month to the Scotland England game through the Tartan Army charity who provided free tickets, a Scotland polo shirt and spending money.

The outcome wasn’t quite what we wanted with scoring, but we think we scored some fantastic memories with this group – Certainly Robbie; Skye and Stephanie had a ball – pardon the pun.

We are currently preparing for our winter programmes and getting ready for the Autumn and Winter period with the dark nights and cold weather.

Please remember yipworld is here to help families in need.

We will be introducing our duvet warm packs at the end of September providing families with hot water bottles, duvets and duvet covers to help with the high cost of utility bills. Look out for our announcement on Facebook and Instagram.

Youth work is at the heart of our organisation and as much as we provide so much more it is important young people have a safe space to visit and enjoy activities to the max.

We are running our MOVING ON UP service on Wednesday evenings from 6.30pm until 9pm for children attending P6, P7 and S1 (up to Christmas for this age group). The main purpose is to help them engage in activities promoting confidence and building that friendship and inclusion needed before moving on to secondary school.

Thursday evenings from 6.30pm until 9pm, costing £1, is our senior drop-in service for S1 up to age 15 years. Our ever-popular Friday Fun for P1 to P5, from 5.30pm until 7.30pm, costs £2 per session.

You may also know that we provide so much help and support to individuals aged 16 years plus through our employability support staff Kellie and Anne.

Through our Inspiring Scotland Our Future Now Fund operating since 2009 – we are so excited about introducing our new Skills Shop pre-employability pipeline programme offering a basic introduction to Hair and Beauty; Groundwork and Gardening; Office Administration; Bike Maintenance and Upcycling Furniture.

A partnership with Regency Facility Management, thanks to an introduction from Shire Housing, will see young people enjoy the benefits of environmental projects and how to reduce waste in landfill sites. Any business wishing to be involved please get in touch with Stephanie on 01290422364.

We received two lots of good news this week. The first is that we are now an accredited Living Wage Employer – what does this mean?

For us as an organisation, it gives us credibility for applying for grants and contracts and a duty of care for our employees to be paid at the national living wage rate. For employees it means they are earning the national living wage which is for 23 years plus £10.90 per hour.

We want to note that we are already paying above the living wage rate already.

Meanwhile, we were nominated during Scotland Loves Local week by a member of the public, as a local business or organisation that they really love.

Staff were over the moon to receive this recognition from the people who use our services. We strive to provide continual improvements to ensure we offer the best possible service to all families in Cumnock and surrounding areas.