As a former coalfield village, Horden and its residents have seen a lot of change over the last thirty years. Following the closure of the colliery in 1986 over 1300 jobs were lost, leaving many struggling to cope. Horden Youth and Community Centre has worked hard to provide support over the years to local residents and deliver services, such as job clubs, education support and training, as well as leisure activities. Over 40% of adults in Horden have no formal qualifications and unemployment rates are high. HYCC manager Steve Clark says the services they provide offer a vital lifeline to many in the community:
“People tell us that if it wasn’t for our help, they’d be stuck in the house doing nothing. We know that social isolation is a big problem and we’ve also seen a rise in the number of mental health issues - we are expecting that to get worse.
In the last year we have seen an increase in people needing welfare advice after being caught out by the bedroom tax. We’ve also seen a lot of demand for help with basics, such as food, and we’ve been connecting people with food banks. What’s surprised me is that these are people who you wouldn’t ordinarily think need help but they’ve lost their job and just can’t cope.”
HYCC applied to the Weston Charity Awards after funding from The Big Lottery came to an end and they faced cutbacks. Local authority spending cuts also meant that they lost some of their support staff and the charity needed to make significant changes. Although the funding on offer through the awards was helpful, Steve says it was the access to business coaching and mentoring that really appealed.
“You find that as a small charity you develop a silo mentality; you deal with the day-to-day and don’t have time to put your head above the parapet and look at the bigger picture. We applied to the awards and Pilotlight because we needed that extra voice and new insight that would challenge us, ask questions and help us plan for the future.”
As part of the award HYCC are now working with their team of business mentors provided by Piloltight and Steve says that is already having a positive impact.
“Our first few meetings with our team of business mentors have been great. They have made us reflect on what we do, how we run the centre and how we operate. We’ve found that we are already looking at things with a different mentality – we can see the bigger picture.
Our goals are to operate more effectively and make better use of our resources. We want to have a real strategy for funding the work the centre does, looking at the services that are needed both now and in the future.”
