Hertfordshire Young People in Action (HYPA)
HYPA in full detail...
HYPA is all about helping young people aged 14 – 25 get into volunteering in order to boost their employability prospects and support their wellbeing:
HYPA Conservation and Environment
- Green Gym days – group trips for young people to try out Watford’s Green Gym; activities can include anything from hacking back jungles of weeds, to building paths and benches. The Green Gym’s aim is to use conservation work as a way to increase people’s fitness and wellbeing.
- Cuffley Camp – group trips for young people to Cuffley Camp (near Cheshunt) to undertake site maintenance work. Cuffley Camp is a youth camping and outdoor centre based on 90 acres of woodland; activities can range from making woven fences and clearing undergrowth, to sprucing up camping areas and pitching tents!
- Woodcock Hill – group trips for young people to Borehamwood to help out in efforts to manage the Woodcock Hill site, which is an area of land that has recently been awarded Village Green status. Activities range from clearing scrub and planting trees, to building pathways and picking up litter.
Employability and Personal Development
- I:Feel Peer Education project – following on from the very successful i:Feel conference around self esteem and confidence (November 2010), they are funding up to three young people to take an Introduction to Counselling course with West Herts College. Following completion of the course, the young people will be supported in devising a workshop for schools and youth groups around listening as a friendship and study skill.
Community Development and Youth Leadership
- Young Pride in Herts – a youth-led group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young people; see main Young Pride in Herts, click here for more details.
- Tasty Café – a group of young people with learning disabilities has come together to start up a social enterprise at the Orbital Community Centre site by providing a community café on Thursday afternoons during term time. The young people bake every item fresh on the day, learning valuable life skills in cooking and food hygiene but also gaining employability skills, and increased confidence and self esteem in the process.
- Global Youth Work – HYPA have received funding from Y Care International to provide global youth work education around gun, gang and knife crime for hard to reach and vulnerable young people; this project will run between September and December 2011.
For more information about HYPA contact Rosemary Willis, HYPA Development Manager, at rosemarywillis@watfordymca.com or 07800654518