It has been a busy month for the SFH Youth Forum. We have five youth workers currently working with us, providing support and advice to local young people.

We have our youth forum meetings running every two weeks at 17 Sydenham Road (inside the Here for Good Centre).

We’re busy putting together plans for our Honey Pot community fund. This is our campaign asking local people to give a couple of pounds per month towards improving the current youth provision for Sydenham, Perry Vale and Forest Hill.

We’re also helping Christine Thompson, who was awarded £2k by the Sydenham Assembly to become available for local youth to apply for small awards of £50 to £500. The money can be used for anything that is of benefit to your lives. If you would like to apply, then all you have to do is contact me via my webpage or email mel@sfhyouthforum.org.uk for more details.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year from the team here at the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum!!

Here’s to an exciting New Year!

You may have received a leaflet through your door or heard the news about the beginning of a local fund that will be accessible to young people in the areas of Sydenham, Forest Hill and Perry Vale.

Here at the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum, we are working on setting up a Honey Pot – a pot of money that will help improve the lives of young people in the local area. 

In 2010, the Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum will begin our campaign asking local people to invest a small amount of money per month that will be placed into a bank account that becomes the Honey Pot. The Honey Pot is a public fund.  This means that the money inside the bank account belongs to the public and is therefore accessible to you to spend on things that will improve the lives of local young people and the local area.

Why create a Honey Pot?  The Honey Pot works slightly differently to current grant practices.  We want to minimise paperwork, and maximise outcomes.  We don’t want to frustrate you with long waiting times, nor do we want to disillusion you with small changes that have nothing to do with the things you initially ask for. 

For communities to significantly improve, we strongly recommend that the community be given the resources and opportunities to become more actively and directly involved.  The more ideas local people create and put into practice, the bigger, and better, and faster, the improvements. 

The more people give money, the more provision. The more volunteers to sit on the fundraising committee, the faster the applications are processed.  The more the applicants post and publicise their successes, the more people will want to apply and to invest in the Honey Pot.  The more investment and applications, the bigger the Honey Pot and the stronger the community.  

It’s up to all of us to make the vital difference.  Just £2 per month could build up to thousands of pounds.  Just two hours a month of volunteering could mean that a dozen applications get looked at and approved, marking a hugely significant achievement of your time and effort.

Why invest in the Honey Pot?

The Honey Pot is fast.  If approved, you get your money straightaway. Gaps in provision are dealt with immediately and young people are able to improve their talent while the inspiration and drive is bubbling away. 

The Honey Pot is local.  This means that the improvements happen in the local area, which means the whole community benefit from your positive actions.  Without realising it, just by doing a positive activity, you help make the local area a more positive place; boosting local business and increasing the provision currently on offer to young people.

The Honey Pot helps.  We hope that this local fund removes some of the financial pressure from families, small organisations and local services set to get worse over the next financial year.  It would be a tragedy to see wasted potential, so let us make the steps now to reduce the impact the recession will have on the lives of our local community. We as individuals cannot afford to fix the problems we see in our area, but as a community of £2 per month funders we can collectively set out to tackle some of these problems by providing secure and regular resources.

So how can we make this Honey Pot work?

To make this work we need the help of the whole community.

We need people to fundraise.  We need people to sit on the panel, and distribute the funds.  We need IT and website support.  Most importantly we need young people and youth providers to apply so we know what activities and services are missing and begin improving the lives, talents and skills of our young people. Right here. Right now.

So, what do you do if you want to apply for money?

If you have a talent that you want to improve, or a hobby you want to pursue, or if you are a youth provider that wants to improve things for your young members and the only thing standing in your way is money, then the Honey Pot is what you have been waiting for.

Soon you will be able to download an application form, fill it out, send it off and get a reply asap! You will have to show that the activity you want to do is currently unavailable to you in your area.  Once approved, part of the deal is that you let us know how you got on.  To make this easy, we’ve set up a website where you can upload photos and add a few sentences about how you spent the money and what impact it has made on your life.   Providing photos or writing a blog will show the people investing time and money that the Honey Pot is working.  It will also encourage your peers to apply for things that they want to do. 

You can apply for anything, from a football coach, to recording studio time.  You can apply for training courses or evening classes.  You can apply for equipment for your youth club, community hall, or youth group.  Whatever it is, as long as you think it will help you, you can apply for it.  Terms and conditions apply, and will all be outlined on the application form which will be available in 2010.

If you are interested in anything to do with the Honey Pot, please get in touch by emailing Melissa Knight at mel@sfhyouthforum.org.uk or call me on my mobile on 07886 116 055.

Want a great way to kick off your c.v. and gain some valuable life and work experience?

We are pleased to announce that Lewisham is recruiting full time volunteers aged 16 -25. You’ll be involved in weekly volunteering projects from March 2010 until February 2011. You’ll meet new friends, gain loads of skills and most of all have fun!

Please email sarahjane.forrester@lewisham.gov.uk for an application form.

You can find out more at these special information events:

Monday 30th November 4pm – 6pm; Room 1 Civic Suite, Lewisham Town Hall, Catford Road, Catford

Tuesday 8th December 2009 2.30pm – 4.30pm; Connexions Building, 1st floor, 209 – 211 Lewisham High Street, Lewisham SE13 6LY

Contact Sarahjane Forrester on 020 8297 3340 or 07710 349 295 for more information. You won’t regret it!

The Sydenham and Forest Hill Youth Forum now run a weekly forum where young people can meet and discuss issues that affect them.  The sessions run every Thursday from 6.15pm to 7.30pm at the Here For Good centre in Sydenham. 

The group discuss what things they can do to improve the local community as well as planning a residential where the young people will plan a focus group on ways they can improve the local community.

If you would like more information on the weekly forum, including how you personally can get involved, then please get in touch by calling Melissa on 07886 116 055.