This month’s Directors chair is brought to you by Victoria, Director of Service Delivery:

“June has been a month of celebration, experimentation and gratitude. Firstly we have been celebrating the fantastic news that Dursley Town and Cam Parish Councils have provided The Door with the opportunity to continue as youthwork provider for another 3 years, allowing us to continue to serve both their young people and their wider community.

In the coming weeks, Kathleen and the team will be hard at work preparing for another great summer of fun as well as taking the time to plan our continued involvement under the new contract, starting with a full review of youthwork in the area.

Our experimentation came with the extension of our support for young parents. Vix and Frankie have been hosting a 6 week ‘pop up’ aDOORables group for young parents in Dursley.  This builds on the existing group for young parents at our Stroud Centre in response to a clear demand for this kind of support in Dursley.  This was made possible by a generous donation from The Peter Lang Charitable Trust and collaboration with Home-Start.  We are very much hoping to extend this to other areas of need in the district later in the year.

Finally, gratitude. June’s theme at The Door was designated ‘Your Next Steps’ focusing on volunteering and new skills. During Small Charities Week we completed a much needed refurbishment of the Cam Youth and Community Centre thanks to a brilliant team of hardworking and committed volunteers from Marks and Spencer, Cam Parish Council and trustees from the centre as well of course the young people themselves. Armed with gallons of paint, brushes, overalls, strimmers, sacks, dustsheets (and plenty of tea and coffee!), this small army of volunteers absolutely transformed the centre.

It was great being able to stand back at the end of the day and admire the freshly-painted walls, neatly-strimmed grass and of course the mountain of weeds and clippings left behind. The centre certainly now has a new lease of life and to quote Maureen, founding trustee of the centre, when asked what having the work done meant to her she replied ‘Everything!’

Directors Chair June

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