As part of Volunteers Week 2017, Team Clarewood has been nominated for a National Volunteers Week Recognition Certificate.
The certificate will be presented at the Wales Volunteer of the Year Awards night on 5th June at Baglan Community Church. A short film will showcase some of the young people volunteering with CRISIS on a bag packing event at the local Tesco which raised £319.68. It will also show them building on their community group ‘Team Clarewood’ which was first set up in 2016.
Team Clarewood’s certificate will be presented to five of the residents by David Rees AM and Jeremy Miles AM.
The young people who have previously been homeless have since gone on to develop their own enterprising projects including recycling wood to craft products for sale at market fayres. They’ve redesigned and worked on a large garden project which has seen the garden at Clarewood become a place where they can grow their own food.
In May 2017, the young people and staff organised a residential with Llandyssul Paddlers in West Wales. The young people secured Big Lottery funding to ensure 3 days of teambuilding activities that enabled Clarewood clients and staff to build relationships and inspire confidence.
All funds raised by the young people at the project are used ethically to improve their lives with things that support them on a day-to-day level such as funding applications for passports, travel tickets, clothing for job interviews, access to health and fitness gym memberships and sporting equipment.
Team Clarewood’s future plans include developing a large, well equipped workshop space to support further recycling and enterprise projects, and planning the installation of a modern ICT suite with WiFi internet access at the project.
