Volunteering and social action opportunities for young people in Harehills

CATCH, which stands for Community Action to Create Hope, help young people reach their full potential by ensuring they have access to the tools and resources they need to pursue greatness. We caught up with them about their Pears Youth Fund grant, and how things are for them as a Community Organisation at this time. 

 

Can you tell us a bit about CATCH?  

CATCH is a volunteer-led charity creating a safe space for young people, to help develop their confidence and skills, and support their needs. We have a reputation for innovative collaboration to deliver effective programmes, which benefit children and young people and the wider community of Leeds. Our Youth Programme reaches over 1,000 young people each year, with our doors being open 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. CATCH has just one full time and two part time workers. Our team of volunteers underpin all our work. CATCH is a 97% volunteer led organisation, allowing young people 11 years+ to volunteer with us.  

In 2023, our young volunteers collectively logged over 17,000 hours (this doesn’t include adult volunteering hours). 

 

What has funding from Pears Youth Fund enabled you to do? 

The grant provided us with much-needed volunteer development coordinator capacity. This role is pivotal, as it links into all the volunteer-led activities, the volunteer team leaders, numerous external agencies and the schools which young people attend. This in turn has helped us grow our provision to meet demand in the face of increasing need in Harehills. 

It also funded three social action projects which were created and driven by our CATCH Union, the youth committee set up with this funding, which provided budget for the young Union members to turn their ideas into social action. The social action projects: 

• • • • • Bring a spade day: bee apiary construction & polytunnel work including raised beds  

• • • • • educational farm expansion: researching, designing and building space for alpaca, rabbits and guinea pics  
        • CATCH Union, youth voice, and volunteer support 

 

Lastly, the fund has helped us to update our Super Stars volunteer programme. This comprises our volunteer development programme, online platform and app (all developed with support from a previous Pears grant) – collectively, these help us link volunteer progression to skills and competencies, volunteer coordination and task management for team leaders, and volunteer activity tracking. 

 

Can you tell us about the impact of what you do on the people you work with? 

Local schools have commented on how their pupils using the Super Stars volunteer system are ‘miles ahead’ of other young people in terms of personal confidence and communication which they can directly attribute to Super Stars and the opportunities this gives them to grow their skills. 

“S” has been a CATCH member and volunteer for several years. He turned 17 in 2023, and – with no qualifications – his parents wanted him to work in a factory, i.e. a zero hours contract/insecure work. However, through his volunteering at CATCH and a local school, he showed amazing practical aptitude, combined with a helpful attitude. We worked with S and with his parents to suggest other opportunities that would lead to more secure and fulfilling work for S. This has involved our ongoing engagement with his parents to help them understand the skills and progress S has achieved. His father does not speak English, so this included arranging for interpreter support. S was offered facilities work at the local school on a trial basis, for which he which was reimbursed by arrangement between the school and CATCH. In September, he successfully secured a fixed term, full time contract at the school.  

Like most 17-year-olds in living Harehills, S has experienced ups and downs during the past year. Although he now works full time, S still volunteers at CATCH, and we continue to provide coaching and mentoring for him, which has improved his ability to keep his job and do it more professionally. 

CATCH also helped S apply for his driving licence. Because he can now drive, one of S’s regular volunteering roles is to help with our Healthy Holidays food collections, which has alleviated the pressure on the staff and adult volunteers. 

His ongoing volunteering makes S a great role model for other young people at CATCH, who can see the skills, confidence and support that have helped him find more secure and better paid work he enjoys, while providing further opportunities for him to develop his skills and experience. 

We’re so proud of S, and delighted that his working life is off to the best possible start. He knows we’ll continue to support him, and we’re glad that he wants to continue to give back through continuing his volunteering at CATCH.  

 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as an organisation? 

Some of our biggest challenges are faced by other charities in Leeds: working to secure sustainable core funding, managing the huge rise in recent years of operating costs, and coping with the rising demand for our services – demand which is compounded by deepening poverty and more complex needs.  

We also face other challenges more specific to our way of working: our successes stimulate a lot of interest from new potential partners. We can innovate really fast and really effectively now, but managing partnerships, capturing impact evidence for multiple partners and building sustainable programmes take a lot of time, particularly when you have so many organisations and businesses that want to work with you or when contracts/grants are short term. We also need to ensure we can scale up our volunteering to meet increased demand, without compromising the quality or safety of the volunteering experience for our young members: – the Pears Youth Fund grant has really helped us with this. 

We’re extremely fortunate to have benefited from the Pears Youth Fund: the recognition and encouragement from Pears is also incredibly helpful for our motivation in what have been very tough times. The relationships that the Pears and Leeds Community Foundation teams have developed with us over a number of years has given us the confidence and stimulus to be ambitious for our local community and to really put our young people at the heart of what we do. This is a much more satisfying way of working than with a transactional grant making approach. 

 

How is your organisation preparing for the future, and what kind of funding is needed? 

The Pears investment into our volunteering model and the Super Stars system that enables us to run well and scale up is key to our preparation, and means that we can make grant funding go a lot further. 

Funding that supports core costs, and enables longer term planning more than one- or two-year grants always makes a big difference. 

We always appreciate the development support offered alongside some grant funds, too. More relational grant making, that understands just how tough the environment we operate in is always welcome. 

We’ll continue to maximise our income from commercial activity, too – do check out our fantastic venue facilities for hire, café and first aid training courses, and please spread the word!