Kidderminster District Youth Trust reaches 60!
WCF was delighted to be invited to the Kidderminster and District Youth Trust (KDYT) birthday celebrations on Friday 14 July, marking the incredible milestone of 60 years.
KDYT was founded in March 1966 by local Mayor Charles Talbot MBE. Headquartered in Kidderminster, the registered charity aims to support and empower young people across the Wyre Forest area through community youth work, open-access clubs, and specialised mentoring services. The range of activities and opportunities is incredibly broad, including UK and overseas residential trips, as well as weekly sports, music, cooking and other fun and educational pursuits.
Everything provided at KDYT is co-produced with young people, and to this end they run a successful Young Leaders project which has seen one young person receive a Diana Award for their work and another participant supported to become a fully qualified Youth Worker.
The organisation owns Youth House based in the heart of the community, which has a sports hall, recording studio, boxing gym, music room, youth zone, 1-1 rooms and a kitchen. These facilities attract over 1000 people from across the community to the building each week.
KDYT services engage over 200 young people on an average week, with considerably more during the Easter and summer holiday period.
The organisation operates a ‘No Wrong Door’ approach; if a young person accesses KDYT for support they will be heard, and specialist staff and volunteers commit to going on the journey to support each young person in whatever ways are needed.
Appreciation Awards Event
The event was held at the spacious Youth House’s premises in Kidderminster, where they offer so many group activities to local young people. During the course of the evening some stunning performances were made by KDYT members, including a magician, singers and a dancing group, showing confidence and maturity.
There were presentations from key staff and the Chair, Terence Anthony Denslow, of KDYT on the history and achievements of the organisation; awards were then given to some incredible young people who had proven themselves to be a major asset to the Trust through their willingness to support others and engage with all that the Club has to offer.
WCF were also proud to receive an award for our funding services to KDYT over the years – not a common occurrence since we are always busy giving out awards ourselves!
Lord Lieutenant Bea Grant gave a speech and congratulated award winners, whilst High Sheriff Maynard Burton handed out the awards.
It was very gratifying having the opportunity to meet with and talk to young people who had benefited from KDYT’s support over the years, including a young man now aged 30 who had arrived there homeless at the age of 12.
He said that what drew him to the organisation was the warm and non-judgmental reception he received, and the ways in which the staff were so different in their approach to school staff and other adults he had had contact with. He now has two young children of his own and is looking forward to bringing them to KDYT to experience it for themselves.
For further information on KDYT go to: https://www.kdyt.org.uk/about-us
