The role of Chair at CYZ had been held by Chris Holmes DL since 2013, during which time the Charity has reached in excess of 11,500 young people aged 7 – 25yrs. As part of succession planning for the conclusion of his 10-year tenure, Chris and the Board of Trustee’s, alongside newly appointed Chief Executive Caroline Taylor-Beswick, are delighted to welcome Professor Julie Mennell DL to take forwards this pivotal role from April 2023.
Between 1st December 2022 and 31st March 2023 we provided 12,000 free club entries, 7,000 free hot meals, and 800 free memberships through our Winter Warm Zone programme.
With thanks to St James’s Place Charitable Foundation, Intermediate Capital Group, and Burberry PLC for making this possible.
Young people from CYZ joined Tess Hart MBE and volunteers from Susan’s Farm to plant a very special tree gifted to us from the Queen’s Green Canopy, Tree of Trees Sculpture.
The Tree of Trees Sculpture was the centrepiece outside Buckingham Palace during the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend celebrations in 2022, and CYZ are just one of two organisations in Cumbria to have been selected to receive a tree from the original sculpture.
Carlisle Youth Zone (CYZ) are delighted to announce the appointment of Caroline Taylor-Beswick as their new Chief Executive.
Caroline is passionate about Children’s Rights and in particular working with and for young people to increase youth participation and leadership opportunities.
CYZ opened in 2011 – meaning this year is our 10th birthday! During summer, we hosted parties for a full week so that all our members could have the opportunity to attend one, even with the limited numbers in club due to covid restrictions.
During lockdown, while we were unable to have members in the building, some local artists donated their time to add a splash of colour to our building. The finished pieces add an amazing amount of colour to our club areas.
After Christmas 2020, the UK went into a 3rd national lockdown. All on-site sessions had to cease again to move online and only targeted Inclusion and Mentoring sessions could continue in the building.
We ran our biggest online offering so far, with a variety of sessions for members and families to choose from each night.
The second national lockdown came into force on the 4th November 2020, and yet again, we had to close our doors and move back to online-based sessions.
Online operations continued for 6 weeks with a variety of cooking, arts and crafts, fitness, challenge and quiz sessions running via Zoom.
When the lockdown finished, we resumed limited on-site operations with a small selection of sessions available for members to attend, but we continued online sessions for those who preferred to remain at home.
Members had to sneak past the chained zombies to get to the ‘Hall of Doom’ for some spooky games and fun.
Behind every door on the way we had a different spooky challenge – it may be a vampire who wants you to taste his blood (parents – fear not – this will be red slush puppy!). Another door had a nutty professor with an experiment to show. Every experience also had sweets for your goody bag.
With prizes for the best fancy dress, photo booth images and sweets galore it was an amazing free community event!
Over 100 days after closing our doors, we were given the go-ahead to implement new safety systems and procedures, and gradually & safely reopen to give young people the sort of face to face support and connection they need following many months of isolation.
Lots of sanitiser, masks, posters, barriers, and tape later, we were ready to open sessions up to small, pre-booked groups.
The limited numbers and strict safety measures meant we continued our Zoom and outreach based sessions for members who weren’t ready to come down just yet.
At the beginning of June, as restrictions were being gradually relaxed, we launched #CYZOnTheRoad outreach sessions. This was done in two phases, in line with safety guidance.
- We visited different communities to carry out check up’s / catch up’s with our members – a safe space for any child to chat to a youth worker about the impacts of the last few months both positive and negative.
- As the restrictions were lifted, and only when safe to do so we started to bring everything good about the Youth Zone to the member’s local areas. That means a safe space, fun, a range of activities, food, music, sports, challenges, a space to meet friends, advice and guidance along with much, much more. We wanted to make the summer of 2020 one to remember for all the right reasons!
Yet again, disaster struck meaning we had to temporarily close our doors – but this time it was global. We wouldn’t let that defeat us. Now more than ever the young people of Carlisle needed us.
We launched #CYZTV, and across the OnSide network, #YZatHome was launched – to give young people great activities from familiar faces to try while stuck at home.
Not only did we publish online activities, host youth worker takeovers, and share our member’s achievements, but we were there as a listening ear for our young people – We were happy to receive messages and offer support where we could during these difficult times.
Later on, as the lockdown was gradually relaxed, we launched #CYZOnTheRoad – heading into our member’s local communities to make use of outdoor spaces in a safe way.
It was the community sporting event many feared would never happen….
But against the odds the Carlisle Half Marathon, 10km, and Fun Run went ahead as planned on Sunday 15 March 2020, giving hundreds of enthusiastic competitors what may be their last chance for months to enjoy a community running event that took them through the heart of historic Carlisle.
Along with several other cities across the UK, the popular Sunday morning event defied the nation’s coronavirus fears and went ahead as planned.
On our last day before Christmas, we served around 200 Christmas Meals to our members – Inclusion Club, Junior Club, and Senior Club members all LOVED the day, having a fresh Christmas meal with their friends.
Two of our wonderful members were nominated for an OnSide award – they travelled to London for the ceremony at The Royal Albert Hall – and we mustn’t forget Ben’s solo!
They even got to meet Prince Harry!
Carlisle Croydon – 500 Miles.
A team of dedicated cyclists from across the whole OnSide network embarked on the mammoth cycle, averaging 100 miles a day all the way from CYZ to Legacy in Croydon. Our very own Julie took part, and a combined £50,000 was raised across the network!
Thursday 19th September was the opening of LifeLines, an intergeneration project linking CYZ members with care home residents and Tullie House, funded by the NLHF.
Together we’ve made an exhibition which was on display in Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery Trust‘s Community Gallery until Sunday 6th October.
We had a wonderful time taking part in Carlisle Puppet Pageant 2019. We designed a puppet and banners in club to push through Carlisle town center as part of the parade!
As part of the Carlisle Half, we had a 2k fun run – loads of members attended and it was a great day for all!
Thank you to Kingmoor Park for sponsoring the race and donating tickets for our members!
#KingmoorCup2019 – We had the best day.
Businesses and young people joined forces to compete for the Kingmoor Trophy. An event that celebrated 20 years of Kingmoor Park and the close relationship between Kingmoor Park and Carlisle Youth Zone.
10 teams competed in challenges which included a giant inflatable obstacle course, a bush tucker eating challenge, a music quiz, and even poop the potato.
So many laughs and so many memories created. Thank you to the teams, young people, and all staff and volunteers involved in making the day so worthwhile.
You can see the full image gallery here
As part of a Children In Need funded project, a new diary room has been installed at CYZ – and who else would be better to open it than Pudsey himself!
What another unforgettable President’s Cup! Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but a huge congratulations to The Way Youth Zone for taking home the trophy for the second time and to Wigan Youth Zone for being such amazing hosts!
We had over 400 young people come together from across the network, making new friends, having fun, and taking part in a contest filled with friendship and sportsmanship.
On Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th February, we held part of the Culture Bazaar in CYZ. We ran a variety of activities for the visitors and had a “chill out zone” upstairs for teenagers.
The Cumberland sponsored the “Great Carlisle Youth Zone Bake Off”. WE managed to serve almost 100 young people cake, and 8 participants took away prizes!
Freiraum is an art exhibition celebrating the start of an international art exchange project funded by the Gothe Institute and is a part of a 42 city project to bring together young people from across Europe to explore aspects of freedom and isolation.
We were nominated for the Carlisle Living Awards 2018 – this year for “Best Place To Work” and “Best Arts or Cultural Initiative”. Unfortunately, we didn’t scoop the award this year – but there was some tough competition!
We had a group of young people & staff attend Carlisle Pageant – it was great fun.
Prism Arts organized the event and supporting workshops at CYZ to help make our displays
In 2018 a team of amazing volunteers helped to transform our outdoor area into a bright and fun space – adding colour to our building and games to the floor!
In 2018 our CYZ members travelled to The Way youth zone in Wolverhampton to participate in the annual president’s cup with 11 other youth zones – Carlisle’s Youth Zone team included members from Senior, Junior and Inclusion Club, aged 8 to 25-years-old. It was six young people from Inclusion Club who were the winners on the day.
Almost 2 years after the floods, we finally have our catering facilities back – meaning we can offer delicious, nutritious, and affordable food to our members while at CYZ.
We had to take the decision to move our kitchen to the first floor, which means should another flood strike, all of our catering equipment will be safe. The focus was initially on getting the ground floor back in business, but once that was done, we were able to transform our old gym into a brand new cafe & training kitchen.
Named “Desmond’s Diner” – a reference to storm Desmond – it was officially opened in late 2017, and our members LOVE it, as do we!
2017 also saw Beaumont College move in. They are an inclusive further educational organisation offering programmes for young people aged 18-25.
Based in Lancaster, with satellite services in Barrow, Blackpool and Carlisle, they chose to have their Carlisle programme based in CYZ for the fantastic facilities that we can offer – and we are delighted to have them!
More information about what Beaumont College offer is available from their website.
We won the public vote in the People’s Project 2017. The money enabled us to turn our ‘Xpressions’ music & multimedia dream into a reality – we now have a state-of-the-art music studio, right here at CYZ!
In 2017 we hosted the 5th annual OnSide Youth Zones Presidents Cup right here in Carlisle!
It engaged over 280 young people from 11 Youth Zones, travelling to Carlisle from all over the country to participate in a day of challenge and competition.
From graffiti designs, wheelchair basketball and gym challenges, to mascot designs, dodgeball and an epic dance-off, the day had it all.
Seeing young people from all different areas and differing backgrounds come together in an overarching celebratory event was amazing
Official Highlights
We’re back downstairs – with the exception of the reception area, the ground floor is back in business – and we LOVE it!
Everything is shiny and new, there are big TVs in the rec area, a new 3G astroturf. The sports hall is back in business and everything is coming together again!
With our shiny new ground floor though, we need to make upstairs match – the gym is now to move into the old blue room – which had been our main rec area for the last year – and we are still without catering facilities. The old gym is to be turned into our new cafe.
As part of our recovery from Storm Desmond, we rearranged our ground floor. This involved creating a new reception area, and a new front door!
Everyone was up on their feet when we were announced as the winners of the Best Team in the Carlisle Living Awards 2016.
We were delighted to win. After the floods, it had been a really hard year working with greatly reduced capacity – but everybody was in it together and by working together we would pull through and come out the other side stronger, all the time being there for our young people.
Not only did we win in the “Best Team” category, but our Get A Future project was a finalist for the innovation award; Lynsey, our Development Coordinator was a finalist for the leadership award; and Murray, our CEO was a finalist for the Best Boss award!
Even the floor needed to be replaced after the flood – there was water that was still trapped 7 months on, and the only way to remove it was to dig up the floor. This meant, along with the greatly reduced space we had available, there would be noisy and dirty construction works going on. It wouldn’t have been practical to run a holiday club from CYZ – but we didn’t want to let our members down.
Instead, we organised to run our popular HITZ club from Carlisle College instead – All the usual activities still went ahead, and we had a great turn out!
We launched our “Get A Future” project, in partnership with Armstrong Watson – a 3-year project with the aim of encouraging young people to think ambitiously about their future here in Carlisle.
We work with local businesses that are willing to provide a varied range of opportunities and then match them to young people interested in a career in that field.
2016 was the year that we got a new livery on a Stagecoach bus. We’re really pleased that stagecoach supports us in this way, and can spread the word about CYZ all over Carlisle!
CYZ wasn’t about to let this absolute devastation defeat it. Within a week the first and second floors were open providing free Holiday Club and food to any young person and their families affected by the floods.
CYZ was there to provide the emotional support young people required, as many of our members had also had their own homes devastated too. Everywhere they knew was gone – home, school, friends gone, families split up. That was why we wanted some continuity at CYZ for them.
On 5 December 2015 Storm Desmond struck Carlisle. After what seemed like endless rain in the previous months, Storm Desmond was the Storm that broke Carlisle.
Carlisle Youth Zone, like many, many other businesses and homes, was flooded. The entire ground floor was under 4ft of dirty, smelly water. Absolutely nothing, from furniture to IT equipment, to kitchen equipment to the plaster on the walls and even the floor was salvageable. It all had to go.
We were absolutely heartbroken, Carlisle Youth Zone had been wiped out.
#TeamCYZ was inspiring and confident; Storm Desmond would not beat us! Having gained access to the building, together we worked on plans to continue to ensure every young person living here in Carlisle had a safe and fun place to visit. It’s with a massive heartfelt thanks to people, local businesses, volunteers and staff for their generosity and support that we were able to transform the 1st and 2nd floor of the building and were back open after only 10 days!
We commenced 2 years worth of building work to restore our building to its former glory.
In partnership with the Shabby Scholar, CYZ hosted Zchef – with the lucky winner, Callum Allardice, winning an apprenticeship at the Shabby Scholar Bar and Restaurant in Carlisle.
With Funding from the Police Crime Commissioner for Cumbria, CYZ set up a joint 3-year Mentoring Project. The aim of the project is to keep youngsters out of trouble, targeted at those young people who are experiencing difficulties in their life, and who needed a positive role model.
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