2022 was a transformative year for Paisley YMCA. Following the re-opening of our space in 2021, we continued to develop our space and expand our youth work and support even further into the community. We developed a youth work schedule consisting of our free youth work clubs with a significant increase in registration and plenty of new faces!
We introduced new equipment for our space including podcast microphones and soundboard, printing and mug press, vinyl cutter, new craft materials and gaming equipment. We also began exciting new projects including collaborations with Paisley Museum and other Paisley youth groups, hosted our first hackathon, grew our very own food on our smart gardens in the window of our space, our Summer of Fun programme and many of our older young people becoming volunteers. We also added new elements to our existing clubs such as the addition of Dungeons and Dragons to our Saturday gaming club, STEM and coding projects to develop new technical skills and expansion on the activities young people can access in our space, as well as expanding our social media reach gaining new followers and traction.
We also developed a group for adults in Paisley to develop their technical skills and spend time with others called Connecting Communities. Our priorities are primarily youth work and young people but we view this club as another step of reaching out to the Paisley community to offer free support and care to those in need. As we reflect on the year, we look back with the perspective of how much we have developed since re-opening our doors following the impact of the fire that destroyed our makerspace in 2020 and the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. We approached this year as one of healing and growth and we intend to carry that energy forward as this year comes to an end and another new beginning opens up.
We would like to thank our staff, members, funders, collaborators and most importantly our young people for helping us to rebuild and expand upon what we can offer to the community of Paisley and East Renfrewshire. As we begin our journey into 2023, we intend to continue our projects and ambitions to make Paisley YMCA a safe, welcoming and fun place for all to visit. We can’t wait to see faces old and new in our space in 2023!
Happy New Year, everyone!