Prince’s Trust team programme makes positive impact across Midlands in festive period

As the country prepares for Christmas, young people enrolled in The Prince’s Trust’s (@PrincesTrust) team programme have been making a positive impact on communities across the Midlands.

WCG is the largest provider of programmes for the Trust in England and has seen groups in Birmingham, Derbyshire and Warwickshire all complete work on important local projects recently.

Each project has helped to create a valued new resource for the community in which each team is based and given an early Christmas gift to those who live there.

The team programme students in the Rugby area have been working around the clock to create a valuable community church garden in Brownsover.

Christ Church Brownsover will now be able to welcome families, the elderly and members of the church to visit the safe space for outdoor recreation.

The students built decking, planters, walls, benches, bird tables, planted plants, built a wildlife area, completed landscaping and created raised beds for the garden – all of which was greatly received by the church.

Liz Hopkin, secretary of the church council, said:

  “If the Prince’s Trust hadn’t done the work, we would have had a blank space until spring. The young people have been an absolute joy to work with and the church community has been very impressed.

“They came up with some brilliant ideas and we hope that we have supported them in terms of learning new skills, and boosting their employability for the future.”

Meanwhile over in Derbyshire the students enrolled in the area’s team programme created a new forest school to support alternative education in the community in Ilkeston.

The new education area will be used to support young people in the surrounding community and by a range of other social groups.

Work carried out by the students included clearing self-set trees and shrubs, securing a perimeter fence and digging the fire pit. They also built natural habitats for wildlife and built a ‘fairy area’ for visitors to the school to enjoy.

Sarah Briggs, who will be managing the forest school, praised the students for their hard work.

She said: “Thanks to the Prince’s Trust team we now have an outstanding Forest School learning area for local children to visit and enjoy.

“They researched and designed creative ideas to make the space more welcoming and to encourage children to explore and tap into their imaginations. Ideas included fairy castles to nautical symbol bunting. The group worked as a great team and we have missed them not being on site.”

And finally, in Acocks Green, Birmingham, The Prince’s Trust team programme has transformed an allotment and the community now has a new outdoor space to enjoy.

It will be used by Fox Hollies Children’s Centre, which is managed by children’s charity Barnardo’s and provides a valuable outdoor space to families that live in sheltered accommodation.

Students involved created six raised beds, built benches, created a sheltered area, and cleared out and painted the shed on site.

Evette Clarke, Community Development Worker Yardley District at Barnardo’s, said:

“The Prince’s Trust and the young people stepped in to help and they have been fantastic.

“During the short time they’ve been here they’ve made a real connection with our community and now the area is fully operational and ready for us to start using. They have gone over and above what we expected of them.”

The successes bring another great year for WCG’s work with The Prince’s Trust to a close. A year in which WCG has further expanded its footprint and will now be running programmes in the Digbeth area of Birmingham, in partnership with West Midlands Police.

To find out more about The Prince’s Trust and programmes available through WCG, visit wcg.ac.uk/page/25/princes-trust