Brayne News - Guildford YMCA

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:33:00 +0000

It feels as though a growing number of younger people are exepriencing homlessness.

“One day the arguments at home just got too much. I packed a bag and walked out. Later that night I found somewhere to sleep behind a supermarket. It was uncomfortable but at least it was quiet. I was 16.”

This is not an uncommon story and many more are at risk of becoming homeless in the next few months. This winter Guildford YMCA is again asking people to make a sacrifice for one night to help end youth homelessness in Guildford.

Guildford YMCA not only offers a home to young people, but projects at Plantation in Market Street can offer timely intervention in the lives of those for whom things are spinning out of control.

Guildford YMCA needs to raise vital funds to support such projects. The ‘Sleep£asy’ Campaign involves a sleepout at Guildford Cathedral on Saturday 30 January. Could you give up your bed for a night and sleep under the stars?

Entry costs £10 and there will be hot drinks and food to keep hunger at bay that night, with a welcome breakfast early the next morning. And cardboard boxes will be provided to offer some protection against the cold. People taking part are asked to raise sponsorship from friends and family – the YMCA is hoping to attract around 100 people to sleep out and raise £30,000 from the whole campaign.

If you’re interested in taking part, please visit www.lifechangefund.org.uk/sleepeasy.htm to download an entry form. You can also call Lorraine, the event organiser, on 01483 448796 to request an entry form.

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:52:00 +0000

I was incensed when I watched the BBC News recently. There was a report on the rising number of young people who are unemployed. For some reason they decided to show video footage of young people, all dressed in hoodies pulled over their heads and some even with face masks! Presumably the editor felt this was a reasonable portrayal of unemployed young people. I felt it was outrageous stereotyping!

There is a strong, human urge to label people; to group them together as if identifying a biological species; to put them in a box and attach vague generalities – often in a discriminatory way. It seems to make us feel safer. We now know what we are dealing with.

We do this with ‘league tables’. Do we naively think that a school’s performance can be judged on how many students pass 5 GCSE’s grade C and above? In fact, do we really believe that a child’s intelligence can be assessed by how many qualifications they attain? But it’s easy, isn’t it? At least, it’s easy for those making the judgements. It becomes quite different when you are the one being judged!

Some of the young people that we support at Guildford YMCA have been labelled; homeless, chaotic, young offender, drug addict, stupid, etc. They’re identified by their problem and if we’re not careful our relationship can be characterised by that problem.

As a Christian organisation, our starting point is a belief that everyone is part of God’s creation and therefore, undeniably, has unique gifts and abilities. Our starting point is to find what these are and then encourage and support them to develop them. It takes time and patience and sometimes we fail. But when young people do succeed, and discover their true, real identity, it’s the greatest buzz in the world!

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:32:00 +0000

Is it just me, or is life becoming more and more complicated?

I was reading a recent exchange of emails regarding the Church’s annual Good Friday walk of witness and was amused to come across a rather sober risk assessment about carrying a wooden cross up the High Street and securing it to the railings outside Holy Trinity Church. I couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened if the Roman authorities had required a rigorous risk assessment of crucifixions 2000 years ago.

I spent half a day reading the Core Strategy of Guildford’s Development Framework – a most worthy 134 page document describing how Guildford might change in the period up to 2026. It’s a very important piece of work and I greatly admire how the Council has managed to weave its way through an extremely complicated set of statutory requirements. But it is a breeding ground for TLA’s (Three Letter Acronyms)! Although we all invited to respond to the document, I do find myself struggling to find an entry point into which I can inject, what seems to me at least, some common sense.

Things such as; if there is a stipulation that all new developments should comprise at least 60% affordable homes – that is small, single living room dwellings with, at best, a tiny garden, “where will the children play?” (quoting Cat Stevens from the 60’s). Also, how can our planning foster a strong community spirit so that we build ‘social capital’ into our town?

There is an understandable tendency to focus on bricks and mortar. But it seems to me that the one thing that can either make us either deliriously happy or inconsolably miserable is relationships. Relationships are inherently risky - difficult to do a risk assessment on! Although we can’t guarantee a healthy community spirit in our future planning we must ensure that we include places where young people can ‘hang out’ safely and receive the support they need to negotiate this ever complex world.

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:21:00 +0000

There is something truly magical about lying down to sleep and looking up at the stars. My wife and I, and fifty other brave souls, did just this on the night of 31 January. At around 3 in the morning we looked up and there, perfectly framed by the roof and buttresses of the Cathedral was the Plough – that saucepan shaped constellation which if you pick the right two stars will point you to the North Star, a rather faint speck of light but which fortunately has little competition and so can be fairly easily picked out.

As I looked up I remembered my father introduced me to the Plough, and to Orion, Cassiopeia and my favourite, the Pleiades, a small question mark hanging in the winter sky. My father loved the stars and took great joy in describing the different types, where and when to find them, and especially the amazing distances involved. I suppose it was the first time I can remember having a strong sense of awe – an overwhelming feeling that I was so tiny in comparison with the universe and yet, in the very attention my father gave to me, very significant.

So why were my wife and I, and fifty others, sleeping under the stars on a freezing January night at Guildford Cathedral? We were trying to raise the profile of young homeless people, as well as raising a load of money!

1 in 14 young people are likely to experience homelessness and we house quite a few at Guildford YMCA. But as I looked up at the stars and wondered how many young people were doing just the same – because they have no choice - all I could think about was my father and the focussed attention he gave to me. The sadness is that many of those homeless young people have probably never experienced that kind of attention from a father.

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:11:00 +0000

Why are we more concerned about people being homeless at this time of year?

I guess the cold weather raises the stakes. In fact Guildford Borough Council is required to make special housing provision if the weather forecast predicts 3 consecutive nights of zero degrees or less.

I suppose we also have an image in our minds that at this time of year people should be warming themselves by a blazing fire in the bosom of their family, opening presents around the Christmas tree whilst supping mulled wine.

Perhaps some also recall the Christmas story where there was ‘no room at the inn’ for Joseph and a heavily pregnant Mary. Could we still be paying some kind of corporate penance for our lack of hospitality afforded to the Saviour of the World?

Whatever the reason, I am always happy to make the most of a seasonal opportunity! I like to remind people that whatever noble aspirations we might have for young people none of them are achievable if they don’t even have a roof over their head. Guildford YMCA provides a home for many young people every night of the year, and a growing number of them are growingly younger! We house around 70 homeless young people over a year and about 30 of them will be 16-17 years of age.

To raise awareness of youth homelessness we are delighted that the Dean has agreed to us holding a Sleep Out at Guildford Cathedral on 31 January 2009, the night before Homelessness Sunday. We are calling it Sleep £asy and as the typo indicates we’re aiming to raise a good deal of cash too! It won’t be warm or comfortable but you can help us make a difference to the lives of young people by joining us. To sign up please contact Lorraine Galliers on 01483 448796. If sleeping out isn’t a practical option but you would like to make a donation you can either send a cheque payable to Guildford YMCA, to Y Centre, Bridge Street, Guildford GU1 4SB or you can donate online at www.lifechangefund.org.uk/sleepeasy.htm.

As you make your final preparations for Christmas, do please spare a thought for those who don’t have the same advantages or family support. And most of all, sleep well this Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:42:00 +0000

I hope my friends and colleagues who work for charities and community organisations won’t be too offended if I say that sometimes we are rather a whingeing, moaning bunch of people!

There can be plenty to complain about. Our greatest concern is probably that the demand for our services is growing. A commercial company would rejoice at this! But unfortunately most of our young clients can’t afford to pay for them, and so we need to find our funding elsewhere.

Most charities get some form of grant from local government but more recently these have been turned into ‘contracts’ which, we are told, are better as they provide more security – I confess I don’t hear that argument echoed by fellow voluntary organisations. Especially as we now have to ‘bid’ for these contracts. This favours larger charities, or private companies who seize the chance of getting a slice of the action.

There is also a huge concern that in a climate of bank bailouts and possible tax cuts, there’s not going to be much money left in the public purse! Which means less funding from statutory organisations. Add to that losses on the stock market which means that Grant Making Trusts won’t have much to distribute – the financial outlook is bleak!

But thankfully there is a third source of funding to support the growing demands for our services – the Great British Public! Guildford YMCA is to benefit from a concert being performed by the Guildford Chamber Choir on 29 November at Holy Trinity Church. We’re also running a Christmas campaign to raise awareness and funds, for youth homelessness. Our Sleep £asy (typo intentional!) campaign will culminate in a ‘sleep out’ at Guildford Cathedral on Saturday 31 January. All these and more events can be found on our fund raising website http://www.lifechangefund.org.uk/

Although times are hard, the YMCA has been serving young people for over 160 years through two world wars and harder times than these. And we’re planning to be around for a lot longer yet!

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:39:00 +0000

I will never forget a phrase used by the President of Guildford YMCA some years back in addressing a group of local church ministers. It was the smallest of changes to our name but the simple adding of an apostrophe ‘s’ completely changed the way I viewed our work and, most importantly, the ownership of all that we do. He referred to us as Guildford’s YMCA.

All too often we get so caught up in the complexity of our business that we forget the real reason we are working so hard; we can loose touch with the very people we are aiming to benefit. We now have a Youth Council, a Café Council (from our youth café, Plantation) and hold regular Residents’ Forums. We have just conducted a Stakeholder Review and gained feedback from 60 people, many of whom represent key organisations. But the ownership goes much further than this.

A local historian discovered that Guildford’s YMCA goes back to at least 1870, probably earlier. It is clear that its longevity and sustainability is due to the commitment of a long chain of groups of people, the people of Guildford; citizens concerned about the welfare of young people in their town, who worked together to try and solve the town’s problems.

This is still true today. We have large band of volunteers. Our Board, who oversee all our work, are 12 good citizens of Guildford. They are supported by 5 sub-committees, all volunteers. We have a growing band of local supporters who give much time, and money, to the cause of young people in Guildford. We are, still, Guildford’s YMCA.

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:59:00 +0000

Oh dear! The other day I actually heard myself describe Guildford YMCA as “providing 133 units of housing”. I had slipped into industry speak! Now I'm not naive enough to think that we provide 133 young people with a home, at least not as I would understand the term 'home'. But neither do we treat our residents as 'units'. It might be that some Housing Associations refer to their work this way but not the YMCA!

We have a diverse group of young people living here. Most of them are under 25 years of age; some are here because they have no other home and a growing number are under 18. Some need a lot of support, others not much at all. Some stay for a few weeks. Most stay for several months. Some for 2 to 3 years.

James (22) has been with us for 9 months. He has Aspergers Syndrome - a form of autism that affects how a person makes sense of the world and relates to other people. Social situations can be a source of high anxiety.

He says, “I was absolutely petrified when I first moved in to the Y. It seemed so big with so many people around but my key worker helped me a lot. I saw her every day to begin with, sometimes twice a day, and she really fought my corner to make sure I was in contact with all the right people.”

James then joined the YMCA’s Prince’s Trust Team; “The worst day ever was the Monday morning of the third week when we left Guildford for Dartmoor. I was absolutely dreading it. Things didn’t get much better when we arrived, and by Tuesday evening it felt as if the whole thing was falling apart. But then on Wednesday we suddenly began to work as a team and I started to push myself. We did all sorts of different team challenges. By Friday I was exhausted. The final challenge was really demanding and I could hardly believe what I’d achieved. That week was the real turning point for me.”

James went on to stretch himself in many ways as the course progressed and when it finished he leapt at the chance to become a volunteer at a youth café in Park Barn. Since then he has also been accepted as a volunteer for the FISH (Fun In the School Holidays) scheme for three weeks in August.

How could I ever refer to James as a ‘unit’!!

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:58:00 +0000

I am so chuffed to be part of charity that makes a real difference in young people’s lives. My role requires me to attend lots of meetings, preparing papers for the Board and Committees, and trying to raise funds. To be honest, it can sometimes be quite tedious and I wonder whether all this talking is really achieving anything. But then I meet one of the young people we have supported and suddenly it’s all worthwhile.

Just recently we celebrated 7 young people completing a 12 week Prince’s Trust Team. I love these events because we all dress up quite posh, including the young ‘graduates’ and they tell us in their own imaginative way what they got up to. It’s not long before you realise they are a group of interesting characters. A guy with Asperger’s Syndrome, a lass had become quite heavily involved in drugs, another who kept getting in trouble with the police, another with a learning disability and so on. All very different and yet somehow they not only managed to stick together in a very intensive programme, but had grown to really value each other’s strong points and, more importantly, tolerate their weaknesses!

I particularly loved the story of Laura (not her real name) who had to appear in court half way through the course for something she had done before she started the programme. We advocated for her, asking the magistrate to allow her to finish the course, which he did. But before she left she managed to get 30 quid out of the magistrate and the prosecutor towards their community project. You have to be sharp to live in their world – turn it to good and you’ve got something really special.

Thanks to these sorts of young people and many, many more who Guildford YMCA support, I will endure meetings and papers, and will unashamedly plead for money to do more!

PB 13Jun08

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:06:00 +0000

Can this hunk walk 24 miles?

This is probably my biggest challenge yet - walking from the YMCA at Redhill, along the North Downs Way to Guildford YMCA.

But it is not as big a challenge as some of the young people face who are supported by the LIFE CHANGE FUND. They confront enormous hurdles in turning their life around, and the stakes are high. If I fail, it will just be a bit embarassing. If they fail, it could cost them their life!
Please give generously so the LIFE CHANGE FUND can change the lives of more young people.

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:28:00 +0000

YMCA CEO's in the South and South East Region of England met at beautiful Dunford House for our first session in 2007. One of the hot topics was how we should work together in order to meet the growing needs of young people. We don't really take advantage of the enormous wealth of experience we have between us! There's some fantastic work going on among some very vulnerable young people. We were encouraged to hear that YMCA's in Kent have plans to work together in delivering work into schools in the county. It was also really good to hear how our YMCA housing initiatives are paving the way in tackling youth homelessness - a growing and serious problem here in the UK. I was particularly pleased to hear that the term 'mixed, sustainable community' is being banded about - something we've been doing really successfully at Guildford YMCA.

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 18:29:00 +0000

Freedom's Orphans has been a welcome distraction for me during Christmas. Subtitled 'Raising youth in a changing world', the report from the Institute of Public Policy Reasearch (ippr) considers whether society's negitivity towards young people has any justification. It is well researched, drawing on a wide range of statistical reports - fortunately lots of graphs for those of us who get lost in detail! Their diagnosis, in very general terms, is that the need for social skills is much more critical than it ever used to be and that we are failing to nurture these in young people. I have to say that this diagnosis really resonates with our experience at Guildford YMCA. Many of the young people we work with who are not in any form of education, employment, or training (NEET) are hugely lacking in broad social skills. They don't really know who they are (although they often adopt a strong 'image' from the shelf of youth culture); they find it difficult to share their problems in a way of owning responsibility to do something about it; and they have little appreciation of other peoples' feelings. A good read, and very sobering (quite helpful at Christmas!).

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 19:09:00 +0000

The history of Guildford YMCA goes back further than we thought! I inherited the belief that we started in 1894, but we were recently shown diary in which a Mr Candlin recorded that in 1877 the then secretary to Guildford YMCA had been in post 7 year - so we must go back to at least 1870, probably earlier. This has all been unearthed by an historian, Helen Davies who has produced a pictorial history of our Association.

It's been fantastic to track the development of the Young Men's Christian Association in our beautiful town, from a reading room in the Congregational Church Hall, through numerous premises and a variety of activities in peace and in war. It makes you realise that you are just one small link in a very long chain, and that something that is so often fragile endures. Perhaps there's someone watching over us. The photo depicts a Guildford YMCA band in the 60's that looks rather like the Beatles!

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:31:00 +0000

Today was my 11th Guildford YMCA Staff Presentation which means that I've been working there for over 5 years! What a great bunch of people - huge enthusiasm, skillfull, and a great value put on being part of the GYMCA Team. It was good to hear from 4 new people, what their 'first impressions' were, especially two residents who volunteered at Day Camps. It was refreshing to hear from Adrianna about the primary school assemblies she is doing. It was inpiring to hear from Tracy about how she helped 8 children transfer from year 6 to year 7 - what a valuable bit of work. Open House Counselling has been running for 6 years and has counselled over 650 young people in that time - I wonder how many lives have been saved... literally!

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:11:00 +0000

The British Urban Group of the YMCA's was another excellent opportunity to meet colleagues, enjoy the great food of Dunford and imbibe a drink or two! I find it interesting that conversations seem to so often turn to how we should be working more closely together - such a change from 2 years ago! Angela Sarkis, the new National Secretary went down very well. I think we appreciate someone, even though new in the job, who is prepared to come back and give as good as she gets. I so much hope and pray that this lady will lead the movement into a new era.

Although I had to leave early, I trust the membership issue was resolved and that BUG will be open to all CEO's. Perhaps we need an annual CEO conference where we can really shape up what the movement needs to become - perhaps link to the APS conference. It would also be an opportunity for Angela to hear from the movement and platform her leadership.

noreply@blogger.com (petebrayne) — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 17:50:00 +0000

It's 24hrs since I left Guildford Cathedral after the YMCA's National Thanksgiving Service - normal service (sic) can now resume! I guess it went OK. But who's going to be rude enough to say "that was rubbish"! Jon Pickerill seemed to be the star - everyone I met commented on how wonderful his poem was and many people asked for copies. The VIP's turned out well and there were around 350 in the congregation - with over 80 performers/crew, at least we got over the 400 mark!

I was delighted the clear up went so well. By the time I got back up to the Cathedral after the reception at 5pm, everyone was done! Even all the banners had been taken down - which I was particularly pleased about because it was a very precarious exercise up the ladder. The steering group did a wonderful job - a great team exercise.