With time ticking until the opening of Wolverhampton’s new Youth Zone, General Manager, Alice Davey, has been busy recruiting the first team members, who are to help deliver The Way’s high quality provision come opening in January 2016. The Way Youth Zone will enable positive relationships with young people to develop providing them with inspiring role models. A mixture of 40 full and part-time staff will be recruited as well as 100 volunteers by the time of opening.
The first batch of those roles has seen Development Manager Philippa Gregory join the team. Philippa has experience in community fundraising and events co-ordination and will work closely with the Youth Zone’s current pool of passionate supporters, as well as aim to recruit further support which will help fund the £1m a year revenue costs.
The capital investment for the Youth Zone is underpinned by revenue support from dedicated Founder Patrons, a group of individuals, companies and education providers, united by the same aim; to help Wolverhampton’s young people lead healthier, happier and more aspirational lives by giving them somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to.
Joining Philippa is Youth Work Manager Steven Brown who arrives at The Way following success at both Solihull Council, as well as Hatchford Brook - the largest Youth Centre in Solihull.
Steven has a host of experience in the youth work sector having worked with young people for over 10 years and will be tasked with managing the youth work delivery and quality assurance within the Youth Zone.
Steven will ensure delivery of the youth work offer is of the highest quality, as well as making sure it is fun, safe, challenging, developmental and achieves positive outcomes for children, young people, volunteers and staff.
Andrew Walker is the Youth Zone’s new Volunteer Manager whose aim is to recruit 100 volunteers by the time of opening.
Andrew’s previous roles have been based around education and volunteering. He project managed a schools mentoring programme based in Sandwell where his main aim was to recruit volunteers who were interested in mentoring and train them to deliver specialised mentoring sessions within all Schools in Sandwell.
Wendy Rayner-Hall joins as Administration Manager and will be responsible for HR and Finance. She previously worked for Cambridgeshire Social Services, a women’s rights charity in London and a private IT company at Canary Wharf in London.
The Way’s General Manager, Alice Davey commented on the new team appointments: ”I am delighted to welcome all our new faces to The Way. It is now less than six months until opening, so it is vital we recruit high quality, experienced and dedicated staff who will help us on our journey of giving the young people of Wolverhampton somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to. There will be plenty more opportunities to help shape the Youth Zone and we’re incredibly excited about recruiting more staff, as well as a whole host of volunteers who are vital to the Youth Zone.”
Rajbinder Kaur Wagay and Victoria Flaczynska were both employed as Youth Workers at the Youth Zone back in March and the next step is to fill various roles from a Facilities Manager and Catering Team to Sports and Arts Co-coordinators.
