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Blandford Youth Trust
Established in 1988 Blandford Youth Trust (BYT) was set up to support the young people of Blandford Forum.
It employs Ken Reynolds as a youth worker and Trish Reynolds who provides admin./clerical support for the Trust.
BYT is a small voluntary sector Christian organisation registered as a charity. (Charity number 900156).
The Trust was instrumental in setting up and running the TREADS Project in Blandford Town Centre between 1990 and 2001. In this time TREADS was acknowledged as a “Centre of Excellence” by the Local Authority, the Health Services and the Police. In 1997 the NHS Health Service Management Centre in Birmingham University selected TREADS as the best example of good practice in young people’s voluntary projects across the UK. Treads has since been replicated in most towns in Dorset and beyond. Without BYT’s drive and enthusiasm and hard work TREADS would not have happened.
In 2001 BYT’s trustees felt that it was time to take the next step and set about developing a school’s based project to support young people in Blandford aged 11-18. The aim was to provide early intervention services and to take a "preventative" style approach, working “upstream” to drastically reduce the sorts of problems we saw at TREADS in the late 1990s.
The Blandford School welcomed BYT and its Schools Project Worker Ken Reynolds in June 2001.
For the past 7 years a great deal has been achieved. Almost 600 students, all from the Blandford area, have benefited directly from intensive support at school. Further to this we also train and supervise a 30 strong team of student Peer Mentors. These Peer Mentors support younger students within the school community.
Each school term (3 times each year) a full evaluation is carried out and a report written. These reports have been submitted to all funding bodies on a regular basis.
Funding is an ongoing issue for Blandford Youth Trust. After 20 years supporting local young people BYT is facing the possibility of closure if new funding is not found.
Ken Reynolds BYT Project Worker