RHYL YOUTH COMMUNITY HUB

A Company Limited by Guarantee No. 8377526

Having No Share Capital

Business Plan 2013

Prepared by:

David Evans

Director

March 2013

Revised July 2013

Website:

Contact:

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Mission Statement

Background

Project

Products/Services

Market

Outline of Market

Market Research

Market Segments

Promotional Strategy

Customers

Future Plans & Developments

Legalities

Key People

Administration/Systems

Premises

Costing/Pricing

Financials

Risk Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Exit Strategy

Appendices

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Rhyl Youth Community Hub is a new Not-for-profit Company Limited by Guarantee, with Charitable aims, managed for the benefit of the young people of Rhyl and the surrounding area, with the specific aim of creating on-going generations of young community leaders and the empowerment of young people to take positive action in their community through innovative education, participation and empowerment.

We will deliver innovative projects and will work to; improve health, confidence, education and employability, in one of the most socio-economically deprived electoral wards in Wales (Currently number one in the latest WIMD).

RYCH will strive to meet the important social needs in Rhyl in a modest and altruistic way, and has the potential to become stronger and to make an even more positive impact on an area of North Wales that has identified need for support and change.

RYCH will work in partnership with a number of organisations such as the Princes Trust Cymru, WEA, WCVA, DVSC, Children in Need, Local County Councils and the Welsh Government and, expects to receive funding to develop its aims, from a variety of sources.

RYCH will focus on the long-term sustainability of the organisation, rather than having a total reliance on grant income, through income generation projects that will enable us to provide additional services and facilities to our service users. The aim is to make RYCH 75% self-financing within 10 years, and 100% self-financing within 15 years whilst continuing to provide the free services to our beneficiaries/service users.

The company will initially focus on purchasing the proposed operational premises at 1 Elwy Street and 69 – 75 Wellington Road, Rhyl and the completion of the building work on the premises required to make it fully useable.

The building, known locally as ‘The Hub’, is now virtually completed and transformed to provide new project opportunities which could, potentially, include the provision of training facilities, to offer opportunities to the youth of West Rhyl, an ‘Information Shop’ – where members of the community can ‘drop-in’ to access a variety of information on community and other services, The Youth Café which will offer a centre for the youth of Rhyl, the space will also offer the opportunity to enable RYCH to offer a Training Café facility to train young people and to offer a facility for the use of the local community.

The building, when completed, will also offer a number of office/training rooms over two floor, which will be leased/rented by a number of organisations which may include: Want2Work, Princes Trust Cymru, Scope, Jobcentre Plus, A4e and local community groups and agencies and, as a centre for RYCH, where people of all ages are able to access a variety of information, training services and employment opportunities which are available in West Rhyl and the local area.

There are also 3 self-contained flats within the building, which are currently being leased to Nacro, as move-on accommodation for their service users, and have the ability to generate income for RYCH. We would continue to work with Nacro to offer this provision.

RYCH has the potential to become a flagship organisation, not just in Wales but across the world, offering the opportunity for visits from other organisations both, from the UK and World Wide, with the opportunity for local politicians like Chris Ruane, the local MP, and Ann Jones, the local AM to promote the project and generate interest to show how the RYCH project works and how it could be used and/or adapted, to meet similar requirements in other areas and other countries, giving us the opportunity for working in partnership and forging new links.

By working with local groups, local employment services and employers, we will be capable of creating opportunities for employment, training and education and by doing so we will provide the supportive environment; for turning around the lives of young people suffering through social exclusion.

RYCH will draw on the support of the local young people, who will form the main beneficiary group. The young people, who will be able to access the youth project, will be aged between 11 and 25, with a particular focus on the 11-18 age range and targeted groups within that age bracket.

We will look to provide a variety of formal and informal training programmes, enabling people in the development their social skills and through teaching them how to undertake basic meal preparation and nutrition, we will also provide the opportunity for the service users to access hot nutritious meals during the evening sessions;

We will be able to create a number of fulltime and part-time jobs through; the Information Shop, training staff, workers in the Youth Café as well as an Administration Assistant, we will also provide staffing for the delivery of a ‘Home-work Club’ to give help, support and advice to individual service users with their homework.

Through our strong Directorship and senior management, RYCH will prioritise and implement programmes in a coordinated manner ensuring that funding is in place to cover staff salaries and running costs prior to programmes being introduced and to ensure that the programmes are required and not a direct copy of existing provisions locally.

The management team will ensure that its policies and procedures, required in the overall management of the project, are reviewed and up-dated as required and set out in the Policies and Procedures.

David Evans (Chair of Directors)

Rhyl Youth Community Hub Ltd. (RYCH)

NAME OF BUSINESS:Rhyl Youth Community Hub (RYCH)

COMPANY REG. NO: 8377526DATE OF INCORPORATION:28th January 2013

SHAREHOLDERS: RYCH is a Company Limited by Guarantee and not having a share capital.

REGISTERED ADDRESS:26 Llanelian Heights, Old Colwyn, Colwyn Bay, Conwy. LL29 8YB

BUSINESS MOBILE NOS:07809701167

BUSINESS FAX NOS: n/a

BUSINESS YEAR END:

ACCOUNTANTS:

PAYROLL:

SOLICITORS:

Mr Rob Salisbury, Senior Partner, Gamlins Solicitors, 31-37 Russell Road, Rhyl, LL18 3DB

OTHER ADVISORS:

John Watkin, CEO, DVSC, Naylor Leyland Centre, Well Street, Ruthin, Denbighshire. LL15 1AF

PERFORMANCE DATA:

None Available at this time.

Note: RYCH are a not-for-profit organisation.

RHYL YOUTH COMMUNITY HUB’S MISSION IS TO:

Work to make Rhyl a better place in which to live for its service users and the local community in general, working with statutory authorities, voluntary organisations and the local community, in a common effort to advance education, promote facilities and ensure genuine meaningful involvement of young people in the towns’ decision making process.

The pursuit of these objectives shall be undertaken within the framework of Community Development and in line with National Youth Work Curriculum.

OUR OBJECTIVES ARE TO:

  1. Establish, Manage, deliver/provide social, leisure activities and Formal and Informal learning opportunities for our service users and staff.
  2. To be a self-sustainable, youth led, project that encourages youth to actively participate in project’s decision making process and to express their views.
  3. Improve the prospects of young people, by offering training, volunteering and work experience via our programs.
  4. Work closely with local and national groups, with the same ethos, and share good practice and help develop new skills
  5. Promote young people in a positive light to the local and national media, residents and other stakeholders.

OUR KEY PRINCIPAL’S:

RYCH embraces the Welsh Joint Education Council, Curriculum Statement for Youth Work, which identifies Youth Work as being:

Educative: Enabling young people to gain the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to identify, advocate and peruse their rights and responsibilities as individuals and, as members of groups and communities, locally, nationally and internationally.

Participative: Through voluntary relationships, in which young people are partners in their learning process and decision making structures which effect their own and other peoples’ lives and environments.

Empowering: Enabling young people to understand and act on personal, social and political issues that affect their lives and the lives of others and the communities of which they are a part.

Expressive: Encouraging and enabling young people to express their thoughts, emotions, aspirations and cultural identity, through creative and challenging activities, particularly those which increase their understanding of the bilingualism and, the heritage and culture of Wales.

Who are we?

RYCH is anew ‘Not-for-Profit’ organisation set up for the benefit of the young people,aged between the ages of 11 and 25,living in Rhyl and the surrounding areasof North Wales.

We will identify and highlight gaps in local provisions;

  • Education
  • Constructive Leisure
  • Health and Well Being

We will then take action ourselves and/or with partner organisations, to fill these gaps.

BACKGROUND

To put RYCH in context, there needs to be an understanding of the town of Rhyl itself, its historic decline into stagnation and deprivation, and the efforts which have led to the ‘Rhyl Going Forward’ report and strategic plan, whereby

“Rhyl will by, 2015, seek to become an enjoyable place to live and work – a town supporting a balanced, permanent, stable and self-assured community within a prosperous and sustainable local economy”(Source: Rhyl Strategic Plan)

The strategy emphasises the importance of health and social well-being, and the wider “care economy” that supports it as a significant component of the development process for Rhyl.

Rhyl is distinguished for its microcosm of the many health and social care problems that are widely associated with major cities.

Although the number of people in Rhyl who suffer the effects of social exclusion is small by comparison with any major city, the percentage levels of exclusion and the pressure that these difficulties place on the town, is highly significant.

The West End of Rhyl is the most socio-economically deprived electoral ward in Wales on the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivations(WIMD), and this has a powerful impact in both the way the town sees itself and how outsiders see it.

RYCH will work to become one of the largest ‘membership based’ youth group in Denbighshire and to have over 100 active members by the end of its first year of trading, and one of the largest in Wales within the first 3 years, it will also be fairly unique in Wales in that it will have the opportunity for Service Users to be involved in the decisions made by the Directorship.

The need for the RYCH’s proposed operational premises, ‘The Hub’, has been identified in a number of consultations and polices:

Firstly, Rhyl City Strategy– an initiative aimed at bringing community, training providers, voluntary groups, government and business together to ensure that agencies work together to improve the area. Sitting on Rhyl City Strategy Board, are groups/representatives from local and National government, local community groups, college’s & training providers, local health board and local businesses all working together, have identified the need for a Youth Café/Activity Provision, an “Info-shop” along with support agencies and groups, with access to room facilities to enable the delivery of training and/or education in the community.

Secondly, ‘The Hub’as it currently exists,has been used in a number of consultation documents, reports and studies undertaken in our area, to identify that housing for young people is a critical problem in Rhyl, this is highlighted by the Rhyl Going Forward programme, Communities First and by the latest Wales Index of Multiply Deprivation (WIMD) document and is identified in the area plan drawn up by Denbighshire County Council which lists West Rhyl as the most deprived area in Wales.

Finally, we have gathered information, from a variety of consultations, undertaken by other organisations, in which they consulted with their Service users to gather information whichhave enabled us to decide where RYCH should be based and what services we should offer.

Our goal is to create on-going generations of youth and community leaders and, the empowerment of young people to take positive action in their community.

We will do this in partnership with other organisations suchas the:-

  • Princes Trust Cymru
  • WEA
  • WCVA
  • Youth Inclusion Programme/Youth Justice Board
  • CWVYS
  • Communities First
  • West Rhyl Young Peoples Project
  • Welsh Government Youth Work Strategy Branch
  • Rhyl City Strategy
  • DVSC
  • North Wales Police
  • Funky Dragon, etc.

To enable us to provide; services, facilities, education, training and development opportunities, we will undertake innovative projects that focus on social and leisure activities, accessing local training providers, to provide both, formal and informal education and training and citizenship activities.

We will ensure that young people have the ability to help steer our organisation in a direction that will produce the best results for our service users.

We will enable our service users to enter into an environment of peer-mentors, positive role models and dedicated youth/community workers. The young people of Rhyl will be encouraged to participate in decision-making, formal and informal education, and volunteering activities to help build self-esteem and confidence and when trained, to present themselves as positive role models to their peer groups.

We will endeavour to create a “can do” culture for our young people.

KEY STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES ARE:

  • To work to ensure the long term financial sustainability of RYCH through income generation projects that provide services and facilities to our service users, to make RYCH 75% self-financing within 10 years, and 100% self-financing within 15 years.
  • In the interim, to research identify and secure grant funding in order to sustain and develop current projects over a 3 to 5 year period and to enable us to work on our main goal of withdrawing from grant-dependency to self-financing sustainability.
  • To provide sustainable social projects, with minimal or no cost to the beneficiary groups that we have identified.
  • To identify new ways of creating income while providing free services to our beneficiaries/service users.

To achieve these goals, we will need to set long term and short term achievable goals:

INITIAL SHORT TERM GOALS:

  • We will, immediately, undertake the identification of potential funding organisations, i.e. The Big Lottery (Awards For All, People and Places Funds), Comic Relief, Children in Need, etc. and will, with support from other organisations, e.g. DVSC, WCVA, etc. put together funding and grant bids to enable us to deliver the provisions identified below.
  • We will secure premises and complete the building work required within the first 3 – 6 months; this will enable us to start to fulfil income generation vision for RYCH and will make the building in-keeping with the Townscape Heritage Initiative for Rhyl.
  • We will work to attract a number of local groups and agencies into using the available facilities at RYCH, establishing ‘The Hub’ as a centre where people of all ages have the opportunity to train, learn and develop.
  • Within the first 3 months, we will open the Youth Café provision to ensure that we can provide our primary aim, to support the young people of Rhyl, to provide the opportunity for service users to access; nutritious meals, social interaction, leisure facilities and a variety of support opportunities on the evenings the project is open
  • Upon completion of the building work, we will develop the Youth Café area into a ‘Training Café’ during the day, which will enable us to offer training for service users in food preparation, customer service, etc. this activity will also provide a further source of income for the project.
  • The Hub has, due to its construction, two Shop-fronts, which could offer the opportunity for our service users to undertake retail activities which can be developed to provide training in sales, etc. and, the opportunity to develop entrepreneurship skills in which the service users can see how and if they could open and run their own businesses.
  • By expanding the training activity facilities for Rhyl young people, and providing, facilities in which young people can be trained in those specific areas to increase their own skills.
  • Within the first 12 months we expect to access funding to provide a ‘One-stop Info Shop’ based in The Hub, where all members of the local community can call in and access information on a variety of subjects.
  • We will continue to work in partnership with Nacro, providing ‘stepping stone’ accommodation, in the form of the three self-contained flats for young people, combining housing with training and mentor support to motivate the young people before they move in to their own or other supported accommodation this will maintain a funding stream providing a source of unrestricted funding.
  • By working in partnership with a variety of Rhyl Programme/organisations and a number of training providers over the initial months, we will work to develop formal and informal education projects for young people not currently engaged in formal and/or informal education.
  • We will undertake to re-invest any/all generated income into RYCH, to enable us to maintain and develop the existing programmes we have identified and, to offer new programmes we have and will continue to identify, which meet the local need.
  • We will work to undertake a social audit, to identify areas of need and support for our service users, with a view to identifying funding for the implementation of the results of the audit, to meet the identified needs.

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