Leroy - Aged 21

“Volunteering at my local youth club at the age of 15 was my first experience of participation.  I didn’t know it was though until I started working with CHILYPEP when I was 16.  This all became clear to me when working through The Training the Trainers program.  The course covered lots of different aspects from communication to equal opportunities and gave me lots of skills and knowledge to go on to train workers in participation.

When the course finished, some of us decided to come together as a youth forum. Our first task was to find out what issues and needs young people had in our area.  We carried out a peer research project and consulted with over 700 young people.  Chilypep supported us and gave us the training and help we needed. As the forum grew my role became more of a support to other young people and I was asked to be a voluntary worker.  As well as this I continued to volunteer at youth clubs and other projects in the area building up my experience of working with young people.

At the age of 18 I started my NVQ level two in youth work and attended various other training sessions such as child protection and drugs and alcohol awareness.  When I was 19 I worked as a paid sessional worker for CHILYPEP delivering the Training the Trainers program, introduction to youth work course and working on a detached project working with young people in parks, outside shops or wherever they hang around.  At the age of 20 I started working part-time for CHILYPEP, supporting young people to carry out research and develop a youth forum.  After 6 months I became full time and currently run several projects throughout Sheffield.”