It was a busy 2024 for YMCA Taunton, here’s some of the highlights of our year.
Youth
Our youth projects provided a safe and engaging environment for young people to socialise, learn new skills, and participate in various activities in 2024. Our clubs and activities are designed to encourage personal growth and community involvement. Our youth work included:
- Weekly youth clubs for young people aged 7-16
- Young carers clubs and parties
- Holiday activity clubs in the school holidays
YIF Building Work
In February 2024 YMCA Taunton were awarded a Youth Investment Fund Grant of £2.1M to improve our facilities. Our building work commenced in July and our new facilities will include:
- Extension to create additional space
- Roof replacement and internal renovations
- Indoor climbing hall
- Training kitchen
- Multi-purpose rooms
- Chill out zone
- Digital, media and music production suite
- Inclusive toilets and a platform lift
Rebecca Pow, MP for Taunton at the time, visited the centre to congratulate us.
Preschool
Our preschool recieved a Good Ofsted rating in 2024 and continues to educate and care for more than 40 children aged 2-4. Highlights of the year included our nativity and graduation ceremony.
Community Pantry
In 2024 we continued to work closely with Open Door, Neighbourly and local supermarkets to help feed the local community. Donations of bread, fruit and veg were available to collect for free from our centre by anyone in need. The free food is usually available several times a week, dependent on donations.
Our Community Pantry event happened 7 times in 2024 and we helped feed 500 people and their families. The event enables those struggling to afford food essentials to purchase 15 items for just £2 from our pantry.
Counciller Federica Smith-Roberts attended our Pantry in May and was impressed with our efforts.
Outreach
We enjoyed working out of the office on several occasions to engage with our local community on subjects important to them and find out how we might help. We were at the Taunton Together event and held a youth event in Puriton.
As a direct result of our engagement with young people at these events we were able to pass questions on to the Avon & Somerset Police & Crime Commissioner at her question time with the Chief Constable in November.
Workshops and Events
We held a free Warm & Welcoming workshop to help combat the the cost of living crisis. The session covered budgeting and signposting for extra support. Complimentary lunch and refreshments were provided along with a pack to take home which included hat/gloves/scarf.
Our first creative workshop was a painting session with True to Your Art. Over 20 people signed up to the art event and painted a beautiful festive donkey canvas to take home.
Christmas came early to YMCA Taunton when we held our Affordable Festive Fayre in November! We were pleased to provide free drinks and mince pies for everyone who attended and to offer subsidised gifts to purchase. MP for Taunton and Wellington, Gideon Amos, attended the fair and kindly helped out serving refreshments. He also took the opportunity to engage with constituents about the issues affecting them. Somerset Council Councillor Caroline Ellis also attended our event and talked with our CEO about the work we do.
Community Groups
Many local groups made use of our meeting rooms in 2024 for a wide range of sessions, which included:
- Education providers
- CPR workshops
- SEN children’s stay and play groups
- Day support groups for adults with learning disabilities
- DJ Workshops for autistic adults
- Arts and sports club for teens
- Talking cafes
- Wargaming group
Sporting Facilities
Our facilities helped hundreds of people keep healthy in 2024 with both adults and children enjoying our space for sporting activities.
Our Sports Hall was well used for weekly sessions of badminton, pickleball, short-tennis and group keep-fit classes for over 50s. Our twice weekly parkour groups and weekly judo sessions also used our sports hall.
The Astroturf 3G Pitch was predominately used by local 5-a-side football clubs who have regular slots each week. Our pitch was also used for children’s parties on a number of occasions, which works really well when combined with using an indoor room too for drink and cake!
Our Dance Studio was been used weekly for table tennis, dance sessions and kickboxing.
The Squash Court is used every day, mostly in the evenings, by our regular visitors.
The small Fitness Suite is perfect for anyone anxious about exercising in a big gym setting and this space was used by educational providers and individuals over the year.
Fundraising & Donations
We do not receive any central funding from YMCA England & Wales, so we rely on grants and fundraising to operate our centre. In 2024 we introduced several new fundraising initiatives:
- enabled JustGiving so we can now take donations online
- enabled giving via Facebook
- signed up to easyfundraising (which has so far raised £65 for us)
- collection tins at the tills in Bargain Buys in Taunton
Our Easter raffle, Christmas raffle and Bags2School collection also raised much needed funds.
Grants: in addition to our YIF funding we were awarded a Festive Fund Grant of £400 from the Somerset Community Foundation to help with our Christmas Fayre.
New Staff
Our YIF funding enabled us to recruit much needed new staff, and we welcomed the following to YMCA Taunton in 2024.
- Jo Morrison – Marketing & Impact Officer
- Claire Porter – Accounts Administrator
- Vicki Phillips – Youth Community Engagement Officer
- Carly Fitzgerald – Preschool
Communication
We improved our communication in 2024 with a redesigned website, the creation of a monthly email newsletter and we are now on more social media channels (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn)
Volunteers
In 2024 we signed up to Sparkachange, a website which matches volunteers to charities. As a result of this we are pleased that we have found some wonderful volunteers that are helping us, alongside our existing volunteers who are very much appreciated. Welcome and thank you to Holly (volunteer videographer), Keith (volunteer IT specialist), Fraser (volunteer archivist) and Dom (volunteer photographer).
Press and Awards
We were awarded a Group Runner-Up Award in the 2024 Community Resilience Awards for our Community Pantry initiative.
We reached the semi-finals of the prestigious YMCA Youth Matters Awards for our Community Pantry.
We were featured in the Somerset County Gazette 9 times.
Video
Take a look at our highlights of 2024 video.
