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Recent activities and achievements at Caxton Youth Organisation

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As part of the charity’s Independence Programme, the young people of Caxton Youth Organisation have been enjoying cooking in the kitchen at the youth club in Pimlico and then eating together.

Caxton Youth is working with Change4Life, who are training their staff to lead sessions in healthy cooking. Each week, one leader and two volunteers shop for ingredients with a £10 budget and then prepare a meal in the kitchen. Then all members sit and enjoy the food together around 8pm. All dishes are vegetarian and menus to date have included tabouleh, mushroom carbonara, pizza, pasta and lentil shepherd’s pie.

At the end of last year, the young people elected the Caxton Government, which is similar to a school council and provides valuable feedback on everything that happens at the charity. The candidates held hustings where they made speeches and then members voted in polling week to elect four representatives – known as Youth Ministers – to serve for a year. The Youth Ministers meet monthly to discuss various topics. For example, the charity has a new strategy in place to enable more young people in Westminster to access Caxton Youth. This involves growing the team, upskilling staff and refurbishing the building – the members are very excited about this and want to repaint the club in yellow!

Some really brilliant partnership work has been taking place as part of CY’s Employment Programme. The charity is forging links with a number of organisations including the Design Museum, London Zoo, Disability Sports Coach and NJC. These partners feature in a booklet that Caxton has put together to explain clearly to the young people who they are working with.

The charity is currently interviewing for a new youth worker to run this programme.

The focus of the Social-emotional Wellbeing Programme in recent weeks has been transitions and change, continuing the charity’s work around friendship and emotional development. This included the involvement of Tender, an issue-based drama and art group with a focus on relationships, and Caxton made a ‘support tree’ to show who members can go to for help.

Caxton’s Christmas party was a great success and the young people thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Due to the pandemic, this was the first Christmas party held since 2019, so many of the new members were very excited to attend for the first time. The event was held in the upstairs room of a local church, with plenty of space for dancing. There was also an art table where members could make Christmas decorations.

In terms of the Sports and Art Programme, CY has continued to work closely with Disability Sports Coach, an external organisation that organises various fitness activities two nights a week. On a third night, Chelsea FC’s foundation sends a community coach called Dan – he comes in full Chelsea kit and the young people love him. The charity has access to a football, tennis and basketball court nearby on the Tintern Estate, so the young people can get involved in fitness activities outside as well as doing dance and other games inside the club.

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