A grant from the Youth Investment Fund is making the Sheffield (High Green) Scout’s 100th Birthday dreams come true.
105th Sheffield (High Green) Scout Group has a long history of supporting children and young people to reach their full potential, have fun and develop skills for life. The Group will soon be celebrating their 100th birthday and have a special birthday dream! Their Scout building is falling apart; it’s over 60 years old, has a timber frame, cold, has no insulation and is very expensive to heat and insure. It has long exceeded its lifespan. The Scout Group is very popular, and there’s a long waiting list. Having a small and dilapidated building means they just can’t support all the young people who are eager to join.
105th Sheffield Scout Group have previously struggled to secure enough funding to make a real difference to their run-down building. So, they couldn’t quite believe their luck when they first heard of the Youth Investment Fund, as they had been dreaming of a new facility for over 20 years!
A Youth Investment Fund grant of £1,826,492 will make their dreams come true. The grant means they can grow the number of 11 to 18-year-olds using Scout headquarters from 69 to a potential 267, by increasing their Scout and Explorer Scout section sizes and through other local youth organisations who will use their new space. This will be in addition to another 70 young people aged 4-11 years in younger Scouting sections (Squirrels, Beavers, and Cubs).
The Youth Investment Fund is the biggest opportunity we have ever seen for funding of this scale. When we heard about it, we grabbed it with both hands. We support so many young people from deprived backgrounds in our surrounding area of North Sheffield and we have a long waiting list. The Youth Investment Fund will not only transform our building, but it means we can reach more young people, and it goes much further than this with many other local community groups benefitting too. It will enable us to grow and be sustainable, long into the future.
Tom Hague
Assistant Group Scout Leader and Project Lead
Young People have been at the heart of the Scout Group’s funding bid. Their bid was designed for young people, by young people. The Scouts and Explorer Scouts created a film to showcase why funding was so desperately needed, and to share their hopes and dreams for the future. Their ask was simple, saying:
“Help us to grow, help us to flourish, help us deliver skills for life, help us to support the next generation, help us secure our future.”
With the funding secured, the existing Scout Group’s building can be demolished and rebuilt. It will be bigger, sustainable, and is designed to be Net Zero carbon building and won’t burn gas. The new build will include a vast solar panel array, a heat pump, excellent insulation, and air tightness, meaning the running costs will be minimal. The new facility is laid out so they can run parallel sessions, hosting different groups at the same time. The build includes a new outside area to help young people hone their outdoor skills.
Having more space means they can open their doors to more local community groups, such as breakfast and after school clubs, band practice space and facilitate more local clubs, like a local remote control car club.
The project will be a fast-track build. Work is due to start in late July and should complete within 34 weeks! The Scout Group will continue to flourish while the build is underway, making good use of the summer weather for outdoor skills and badge work, and using another local indoor space, until their new dream building is ready.
