Case Study

Ali's Angels

Alice, David, Scott and Daniel

Alice, David, Scott and Daniel, from Darlington College, overseen by their angelic facilitator Ali, are real Keyfund fans. In their latest project they gave up their time to brave a wet and windy Lake District for the benefit of other people. Their personal development has been extraordinary.

After evaluating their first two stages, Ali’s Angels met to decide what to do next. They knew they wanted to help their community but couldn’t quite put their finger on what to do. Then they came up with the inspirational idea of getting a local YMCA worker in to ask what help they could really do with. They were put in touch with Chris from the YMCA’s Lakeside Outdoor Activity Centre where Ali’s Angels decided to put in some incredibly hard graft.

Amongst other things they made a new compost heap and cleared paths. While there, Ali’s Angels had the opportunity to interview some workers from Stockport Youth Service to find out how Lakeside YMCA benefitted them. Very cleverly, the young people recognised that by making the place look better this was more likely to attract local businesses to use the centre which would make it more money, which could then be used for the benefit of young people and the community.

The group received a YMCA award for their efforts at a special volunteers’ ceremony at Teesside University, and they were also featured in the Northern Echo. Not only that, they have inspired others – some of the young people who had seen their hard work came to visit them at college to tell them that because of Ali’s Angels example they were going to volunteer too.

Here’s what the Angels had to say:
Scott: “I fully enjoyed it even though we worked hard, also I enjoyed the change from home life. I don’t usually sleep well but I was so exhausted I slept like a log!
David: “I think we made a difference to the look of the place. We bonded more as friends.”
Daniel: “I fell asleep at 9.00pm with my clothes on and didn’t get up the next day til the light went on. I worked really really hard and I was pleased with the results.”
Alice: It was fandabbydozy!!! Our volunteering was excellent, it felt good and we did a good job to help other people. The work I did also helped me with a preparation for work unit at college and I enjoyed working as part of a team.

They said the only Keyfund skill they didn’t use very much was ‘settling disagreements’, because they worked as a team and didn’t have any disagreements whatsoever! We think we’ll let them off!