GOYA-UK : Golden Opportunity Youth Association

GOYA is a local Organisation based in London Borough of Ealing that was founded in 2003 by a group of young people. GOYA works with mainly disadvantaged people in West London and in particular but not exclusively, young people from Black, Minority Ethnic (BMER) and refugee communities. GOYA’s main aims and objectives are;

To contribute substantially and support the integration of disadvantage people and in particularly but not exclusively children and young people from Black Minority Ethnic and Refugee communities into becoming good citizens and responsible individuals.
To develop comprehensive programs that can enhance the lives of children and young people.
To bridge the divide and fill the gaps in service development and provision to young people and children by main stream youth/children service providers.

GOYA has extensive experience working with young people in the West London borough of Ealing and Hillingdon and it was the effort of one NEET individual who decided with the help of others to set up the organisation over 10 years ago. GOYA has established itself locally to be an organisation that radically engages young people, regardless of their social or economic standings, to initiate and come up with projects that specifically meet their needs. GOYA understands that project beneficiaries should not be dictated to on what is deemed fit for them, but rather they (beneficiaries) should dictate to organisations what options/projects best meet their needs. GOYA will sight successful projects where individuals were helped access training and some securing employment or seek further education/training;

GOYA has extensive experience of successfully delivering projects for a range of funders and organisations, as follows:

Accredited Employability and Skills for Life Project (LDA Jan 2009 – August 2010)

This project was delivered in partnership with Tribal Education; The Project started in January 2009 and is still ongoing. The programme is a two week programme designed to provide practical based skills to help unemployed people in west London. By the end of the 2 weeks participant gain 2 qualifications: ASDAN Level 1 employability award, as well as Skills for Life qualification (either literacy or numeracy). Participants take part in different activities which include. This project has worked with 150 people since the start of the programme.

Individual action planning and Accredited IAG
Support with CVs and interview technique
Job search support e.g. sourcing vacancies, support with completing applications, 'dummy' interviews
Non-accredited training focussing on softer skills e.g. confidence building, communication skills and Team working.
Access to work placements and volunteering opportunities

For the first time this year GOYA has launch the Annual Employability Award Ceremony for Learner who have successfully completed and achieved their training with GOYA. This year we have seen 120 participants receiving their award on a ceremony held on the 5^th May 2010 at Resource Centre, GOYA will continue to present this award annual as a continue appreciation of the achievement of our learners.

Fast Forward Fund (LDA 2008)

The project targeted 15 BME individuals 16-24 years who were on welfare and not working to train as PC Maintenance technicians (A+ PC Technician Course). By the end of the project, all participants were equipped with the tools and skills to build a new PC from scratch and trouble shoot main PC problems. 5 Individuals were able to successfully set up PC maintenance and repair business. 7 went on to secure employment; 3 are still coming to our centre for internet and other assistance and volunteers once in a while in some of our projects.

Partners' Outreach for Ethnic Minorities (POEM DWP 2007 -2009)

This programme ran as a pilot from March 2007. It was initially funded for one year, and later extended to run for a second year to the end of March 2009, following GOYA’s success in meeting outcomes. POEM was designed to support partnered people of working age who were not in contact with Jobcentre Plus services and who were neither working nor claiming out of work benefits. Support was targeted towards non-working partners in low-income families, from ethnic groups (specifically from Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Somali backgrounds) who faced particular barriers to employment and who were living in areas of high disadvantage and high ethnic minority population, with a particular focus on women from those communities, as they have some of the lowest rates of economic activity in Great Britain. GOYA successfully recruited and trained 200 people to the POEM program and out of the 200, 60% gained employment, 20% went for further education and 20% volunteered with local organization.

GOYA recruited and delivered Intensive and high quality employment focused training for 8 weeks and assisted client in making the transition into employment by providing them with direct Job search skills and tools such as CVs writing and interview techniques. This is complemented by employment focused ESOL support which helps with the language skills need within a job role.

Reaching Communities (Big Lottery 2008)

GOYA delivered the Crime and Drugs Diversion Scheme which directly benefited 301 children and young people, in additional 8 local organisation made use of our activities. The project targeted children and young people residing in the London borough of Ealing. The project started in June 2007 and ended May 2008. The project activities constituted the following; Weekly drug and crime awareness education; Monthly Prison Visit to Codingley Crime Diversion scheme; Personal development training; Weekly football training sessions; Youth club activities twice a week, Production of drug and crime awareness information resources;
The project was delivered through; partnership work with organisations that included educational institutions, third sector organisations with a mandate to work with children and young people; outreach work where youth workers went out to target young people and offer them services and attract them to the project and; classroom situations where young people were provided with training on personal development issues and awareness training on drugs/crime issues. The project was strictly monitored by the funder. Some of the outcomes achieved by this project included; enhanced knowledge about addiction, crime and related issues and the impact on young people; a reduction in re-offending by young people for first time offenders; an increase in 'insight' planning for young people through personal development initiative; enhanced chances for young people to say ‘NO’ to drugs and criminal activities ; greater knowledge spread among young people on addiction, crime and related issues.

Free Employability Support (Unfunded) At GOYA’s Featherstone Resource centre in Southall Ealing. GOYA provides free twice/month pre-employment training to up to 15 young people and 20 adults on CV writing, filling job applications and interview techniques. GOYA also has a suite of 10 Internet ready computers available freely to young people and adults Mondays-Friday throughout the year. These computers are used for job search and other purposes such us conducting academic research or completing school/college work for those that do not have computers/internet access at home. This service is used by up to 15 young people and 20 adults/week

Weekly sports/gaming activities at Jasmine community centre: This project is attended by over 60 young people aged between 8yrs to 19yrs from deprived communities twice a week throughout the year. Young people get a chance to come unwind and enjoy varied sporting and gaming opportunities ranging from table tennis, snooker, table football, air hockey, darts to Play station gaming competitions.

These activities are at the heart of what GOYA does and it has been GOYA’s stance on sustainability in community engagement that these activities will always remain in place with or without funding. GOYA is lucky to have been given free use of a community centre in Southall and this is where some of our activities are based. The following activities are currently being provided for young people in Ealing and Hillingdon.

Partnership Working

GOYA in partnership with SCA organised and delivered 3 Prevent Violent Extremism (PVE) workshops with adult and 3 with young people from February 2009 – January 2010 in Ealing, The workshop were delivered with the support of Ealing PVE Team, The PVE lead officer Louise Cornwel and Salah Uddin Prevent Engagement Officer attended some of the workshop to talk about the government agenda on PVE, its History and the government’s stance on terrorism, and discussion on the pros and cons of the prevent agenda, Safe and open dialogue of Myth bursting question and answer session and Round table discussions that included taking questions from the audience. In total we have engaged with over 30 young people and 40 adults on the 6 workshops.

During the last 1 year GOYA has developed amongst other things a robust and unique employability programme for those of refugee background and especially refugees from East Africa. West London has one of the highest numbers of refugees from these communities in London. The majority of individuals from these communities are unemployed and on state welfare.

In the past 1 and half year GOYA has been working in partnership with Tribal Education in delivering a monthly two week Programme designed to provide practical based skills to help participant get employment. By the end the participant gain 2 qualifications: ASDAN Level 1 employability award, as well as Skills for Life qualification (either literacy or numeracy). This Programme equip individuals to progress to other qualifications and to employment so far 150 disadvantage unemployed individuals have accessed the training.

During this change period, GOYA has been able to;

1. Secure funding to work with 30 young people who are not in employment education

or training (NEETS): 5 of the young people have already secured sustainable work and the rest are still engaged in work experience with a mixture of voluntary and commercial organisations.

2. Restructured the organisation and received the Matrix quality mark award specifically for the delivery of Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) on employment and career development and become a Accredited to deliver Employability Courses.

3. Registered the organisation as a provider on the job centre pluses' website (LMS).

4. Put in an ESF bid with Acton Action to deliver a cross borough employability project for Somali, Pakistani and bangladeshi individuals

5. Put in and secured consortia bid for a pan London employability project (LDA's Youth Fund)

6. Has secured working relationship with Work Direction on the work programme.