The Year Ahead

With Christmas and New Year celebrations over, we all turn inevitably to prospects for 2014, and this should be an exciting year for SYF. Our current and wonderful Chairman , David Hypher will be standing down on 4 February ...to be succeeded by any equally wonderful new Chairman Designate, Lesley Myles. The three of us are working closely together to ensure a smooth transition.

 Our new colleague Natasha Parking starts work today as Workforce Development and HR Adviser. Tasha is a a highly qualified HR expert and her role is to devise templates on HR policies (Equalities, Health and Safety etc) that will then be stored on the Members only part of the website, and be available to all. These will be available in the next couple of weeks on the website.She will also be handling our links to Business in the Community and promoting volunteering Additionally she'll be working on safeguarding policies and practices, and developing opportunities for three workforces:

• young people into apprenticeships, youth work as a career, and running our "How to workshops " on setting up in business; 
• youth workers; cpd and developmental opportunities
• adults; through our successful "Youth work the basics" course   

The CommUniLAB project manager post is currently advertised (see website) . Closing date 10 January and there is every prospect of making an a very good appointment, which will bring us to six staff.
I met with our charity lawyer before Christmas to discuss the form of social enterprise to undertake the property management of Woking Youth Arts Centre, which I need to get done in short order so that we can take up the running of the centre from 1 April.

Good luck to Daisy Chater who starts work as our first Apprentice with Surrey Youth Enterprise CiC in Leatherhead on Monday!

Delighted to have won some funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner for The Youth  Consortium to train up their staff (through Yes +) in the early identification of behavioral issues that could lead to criminality.A key task today is to progress further grant bids for the Consortium, and also to complete an innovative paper about the future management of the youth centres that is to be the subject of a workshop with Surrey CC on 14 January.

Looking further forward, the process for recruiting a  new CEO is being put in place, and involves the ad. being out in March, and interviews in early April. I will not be playing any part in the interview process -it's about the right person for the future, not the present or the past.

From my point of view the key date is Friday 29 August, and the need to prepare from my 500 mile Camino Santiago walk starting on Monday 15 Sept....then the book(which I have started) ...then the social enterprise...so exciting times in all respects!