Fitzrovia Youth in Action – Young People creating a better community
Fitzrovia Youth in Action (FYA) is central London’s leading youth action charity that empowers children and young people to overcome the barriers they face, fulfil their potential and create positive change in their local community. The charity does this through offering children and young people a broad range of youth-led volunteering and employability support.
For nearly 20 years FYA has been supporting disadvantaged children and young people (aged 8-24) to overcome the barriers they face in everyday life. Since FYAs formation we have supported over 5,000 young people through our youth volunteering, outreach work and employability programmes; helped young people gain over 900 AQA qualifications and organising over 100 community events including street parties, healthy living festivals, football tournaments, inter-generational programmes, film showcases and community events.
As part of the projects that young people are involved with, FYA collaborates with the Jack Petchey Foundation in a partnership that recognizes young people’s efforts and awards them as well. This is through the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme which currently operates across 2000 different schools, groups and organisations within London and Essex. The Achievement Award Scheme aims to enable schools, colleges and youth organisations to recognise, reward and celebrate the achievements of their young people. Furthermore, Jack Petchey CBE wants young people to raise their aspirations, believe in themselves and make a contribution to their society, thus sharing the same vision with FYA. The success of the Award Scheme arises from empowering young people to nominate their peers and select the Achievement Award winner. The award winner also chooses how their award money is to be spent.
To date, several young people working with FYA have received this award. Most recently, Sean Burke received the Jack Petchey Award. Sean has been with FYA for over 3 years as a participant but for the past 6 months he has been volunteering as a young ambassador football coach and has been excellent. When he joined FYA, Sean was very shy, kept to himself and lacked confidence. Initially he was reluctant to engage to in any FYA youth activities. After seeing most young people engage with FYA, Sean decided to give it a go and got involved in FYA’s young people’s voluntary activities that are designed to develop various skills. He has since been involved in the football programme and community events planned by young people. Since he started, Sean has shown commitment, passion and enthusiasm for the role. He inspires the young players he coaches and encourages them all to engage. He has been very responsible and professional as a coach and the team are proud of him and his achievement and development in such a small amount of time. It is against this background that Sean received the Jack Petchey Award.
If you are interested in engaging with us and learning about how you can support a young person please call 020 7388 7399 or email insight@fya.org.uk
