Ceredigion Youth Service have recently been fortunate to accept an opportunity generously provided by West Wales Holiday Cottages to support young people with a cash bursary.
The purpose of the bursary was to provide young people aged 11 to 25 with the opportunity to apply for £500 in order to help them with their future aspirations. A total of 22 applications were received, ranging from social enterprises to project ideas, community events and training requests.
The applications were considered by the Ceredigion Youth Forum, which is a panel of young people from all over Ceredigion, who access Ceredigion Youth Service provision. During February half term, the Youth Forum members met and spent several hours reading through and discussing each application. By utilising a scoring matrix, the Youth Forum members decided to award the bursary to two successful candidates, for their innovative ideas and the potential impact on their lives and the lives of other young people in Ceredigion.
Paul Jones wanted to utilise the grant to further his training to provide first aid courses for children and young people and also to help purchase equipment for his new Badger Sett and Cadet Group in Lampeter and was awarded £350.
Corey-Jay Wells wanted to utilise the bursary to help launch his own clothing brand and to further promote Downhill Mountain Biking through coaching other children and young people and was awarded £150.
Principal Youth Officer for Ceredigion Youth Service, Gethin Jones said, “We are very grateful and appreciative to West Wales Holiday Cottages for approaching us with this opportunity for young people in Ceredigion. Like ourselves, West Wales Holiday Cottages recognise that many young people living in Ceredigion have limited opportunities to access training, support and social activities due to socio-economic issues. It was brilliant to see the quality and quantity of applications that arrived, which shows that there are young people in Ceredigion who are motivated, inspired and confident to go for opportunities like this. This opportunity was also a very empowering experience for our Youth Forum members who felt proud and privileged to decide on the successful candidates. It was definitely a very tough decision for them to make, but they have decided as a group who they felt deserved it”.
Both Paul and Corey will now be invited to attend Ceredigion Youth Service’s Awards Evening at Theatr Felinfach on Tuesday 17 April at 4pm, where they will be presented with their bursaries by West Wales Holiday Cottages along with all the other young people who will be receiving various awards.
Councillor Catrin Miles, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Learning Services, Flying Start and Team Around the Family and Ceredigion’s Young People’s Champion said, “Ceredigion County Council would like to congratulate both Paul and Corey in securing the bursary. It’s great to hear of opportunities like these within Ceredigion that can enable young people to pursue their aspirations. We wish them all the very best with their ideas and hope that this will give other young people inspiration to pursue with their own dreams and ideas for the future.”
For more information or to find out what opportunities are available to you, head over to Ceredigion Youth Service’s Facebook and Twitter pages at @GICeredigionYS or contact the Team on youth@ceredigion.gov.uk.
12/03/2018