Lancaster youth charity shortlisted for national award for work with refugee teenagers

Lancashire Youth Challenge’s RESTORE programme is in line for the Youth Work Award at the 2024 Children and Young People Now Awards to be announced in London later this month.

LYC’s RESTORE programme aims to provide young people with the tools, skills and resources to rediscover their purpose, build resilience and develop a greater sense of self-awareness through a series of workshops and activities.

The shortlisted programme involved LYC working with 12 Sudanese males and five Ukrainian females in Preston from December last year until May 2024.

They were encouraged to try new sports and leisure activities including climbing, trampolining, and engaging in community cohesion events at local venues, before sharing their life stories in creative ways.

The boys worked with a spoken word artist to produce a poetic film and the girls worked with a professional producer to make a music video.

“None of the young people had done anything like this before and it provided a platform for them to share their thoughts, feelings and lived experience of migration in a safe and supported environment,” said LYC chief executive, Guy Christiansen.

The films and are now being shown in school as part of the Escape to Safety project run by Lancaster-based Global Link, to raise awareness of the difficulties and challenges faced by young, resettled refugees, while celebrating their ambitions and aspirations for the future.

The films can be viewed on the Lancashire Youth Challenge website at https://vimeo.com/960372897?share=copy and https://vimeo.com/960348847?share=copy

If LYC win the award on November 28, it will follow their Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service which they received in 2021.

The Children and Young People Now Awards, now in their 19th year, showcase innovation and outstanding practice across the children's services sector.

They also provide an all-too-rare opportunity to champion the vital work of services supporting children, young people and their families across the UK.

LYC, which is based in Lancaster, run an exciting year-round programme of active movement and emotional wellbeing programmes, creative arts activities, nature-based projects and outdoor expeditions for young people.

For more information on LYC and how to support it, visit https://lancashireyouthchallenge.co.uk/