This page gives further details about YMCA an organisation that was funded through the Partnership Grants Scheme.
YMCA works nationally providing a range of support services to young people including supported accommodation, education, community health and youth programmes.
- visit YMCA's website at www.ymca.org.uk
Claim Your Voice project
The project raised awareness amongst young people not in formal education aged 18–24 of how democracy is organised, enabling them to make connections between their daily experiences and the decisions made by politicians.
The project provided residential training events to young people focusing on how democracy works, the history of the voting system in the UK and abroad, why people vote and public speaking. On completion of the training young people became democracy champions and organised their own local event designed to cascade learning and to encourage voter registration. Our grant funded staffing, residential costs, local events and travel.
Project outcomes
- increase the number of young people who register to vote and the likelihood that they will vote
- young people accessing the project will have increased understanding and raised awareness of how local and national democracy is organised and how decisions are made
- young people accessing the project will have Increased confidence, enabling them to take part in political decision making
- increased opportunities for decision makers to work with young people, and hear their views
Outcomes achieved
Eight residential training events were delivered over the life of the project. The locations of the residential events were chosen to encompass a wide geographic spread across England. A range of local events were run where young people were able to meet with key local decision makers and discuss issues that they felt were important to them. These events were planned and delivered by young people.
A celebration event was delivered each year, providing young people with the opportunity to present their experiences of the project to attendees. YMCA enabled 625 socially excluded young people to have raised awareness of how democracy is organised and decision made. 32 young people either registered to vote or expressed their intention.
Case study
Ryan is unemployed and lives in a YMCA project. He was introduced to the project through YMCA and liked the idea of learning more politics and voting having no previous political participation experience. He also saw the project as an opportunity to pass his learning from the project onto his peers.
Ryan has stated 'Roll on general election, I feel that I can really make an informed decision on how I use my vote'.
