The purpose of the model is, to not only foster cooperation between youth organisations in the Triax area, but to develop partnerships, across the North West and beyond, that work toward Cross Sectoral co-operation in order to share resources, combine our knowledge and develop the skills to innovate and improve our practice, thereby enhancing the life chances of our children and young people.
The consultation process revealed a desire to move forward and identified key areas of support needed.
Support organisations to develop practices that provide best outcomes for young people and advocate the sectors strengths.
Give advice on areas of curriculum, finance, partnership, collaboration, engagement, reflection and interagency knowledge sharing.
Provide a presence in communities to support individual organisations, showing leadership and empowering the sector to be innovative and grow.
Support operational delivery on best practice models that enhances the workforce and ensures progression.
Communication – Articulation of best practice, it’s outcomes and the impact the sector has on wider society.
Benefits of a New Model
· Single point of contact to enable co-design with YWA and EA for each area
· More sustainable voluntary sector models to align with Priorities for Youth
· Faster crisis response through coordinated efforts
· Cost savings from consolidated back office functions
· Better consistency and standardisation in policies and procedures
· Stronger support to organisations that are struggling to meet standards and acquire funding
· Greater accountability and visibility between individual organisations and the broader community
· More youth-centric model that enables organisations to collectively optimise outcomes
· More efficient sharing of resources (facilities, personnel, etc.)
· Better relationships across organisations through increased collaboration
Roles & Responsibilities
Within the new model, responsibilities are distributed to create benefits for the broader organisations
North West Advisory Board
· Bring a wide community perspective to the codesign process
· Act as liaisons to respective groups to ensure mutual benefits for youth work sector and the community
NW Management Team
• Senior practitioners and YWA Regional Support Organiser act as a support body for all affiliated Programmes/Centre’s, providing expertise, guidance, and support in the strategic decision making and approval process
• Affiliate groups contribute to Administrative staff to perform consolidated back-office administrative work for the centres
• Ensure that youth centre organisations and local community stakeholders have shared accountability in achieving outcomes
• Consolidate metrics and reports for satellites under per view
• Distribute standardised documents and templates for reporting, processes, policies
• Support satellite organisations through sharing resources and advocating on their behalf
• Communicate any issues and metrics upward
• Support local area goals with various targeted services
Benefits to the Education
Authority
• Increases effectiveness to distribute funds to fit for purpose organisations
• Enables clear communications and more efficient crisis response due to single point of contact
Benefits to the Youth Work
Alliance
• Creates more holistic view for YWA to know which organisations they need to provide more support
• Provides governance, consistent quality assurance and standardised tools/templates across organisations