Paisley YMCA is part of the Renfrewshire Youth Work Network, which was set up to advance and support the development of youth work in the authority, to share practice skills and promote the community learning and development competences that underpin youth work approaches shared by Community Learning and Development partners.

At the end of 2020, after a year which had serious downsides for young people, the Network formed a new approach, to organise our youth work services in four youth academies:

• the Community Empowerment Academy, led by Renfrewshire Youth Services;
• the Cultural Academy, led by Create Paisley with Right2Dance and Renfrewshire Youth Services;
• the Digital Academy, led by Paisley YMCA with Create Paisley; and
• the Outdoor Academy, led by Renfrew YMCA with Renfrewshire Youth Services.

This development was enabled by the Scottish Government’s Youth Work Education Recovery Fund, established late 2020 to enable the youth work sector to support in some of the country’s most vulnerable communities young people to engage and re-engage with vital learning opportunities.

The Network is using the stimulus of this short term recovery funding to reorganise ourselves along the lines of these and perhaps other youth academies to strengthen and better target provision, to develop complementary youth work programmes which avoid duplication; and to further develop as a network which collaborates on training for staff, qualifications for young people and funding.

The Renfrewshire Youth Work Network is a collaboration between voluntary sector youth work agencies and Renfrewshire Youth Services who provide organisational and digital infrastructure support.

As the Academies develop, we’ll bring you updates in our News section.