Our Plans
Canongate Youth has been going for over 40 years, and we’ve worked with lots of different children and young people over the years. Whether you come to us for Play Rangers, Bananas, volunteering at the café, music, getting employability support or sports- we’re here for you. We will help you to be, belong, become.

For the next three years, we’re going to be looking at helping you feel confident, helping you to doing rewarding things after coming to us, building friendships, being part of your community, dealing with difficult emotions and situations, building happiness, helping you to think about challenges (and how to overcome them) and making sure your voice is heard.

When you come to us we will be 

NURTURING – We will support you to be you, and treat you with care and respect. We will provide a safe space for you to be, belong and become.

FUN –  All our activities, events and sessions will be fun, and make you feel good about taking part.

EMPOWERING – We will help you to make decisions that are your own. We will listen to you about you want from your life, what some of the challenges might be and how we can help you get there.

TRUSTWORTHY – We’re accountable and we’ll do what we say whenever we can.

CHILD AND YOUNG PEOPLE-LED – we’ll listen to you and involve you in how we put on events, activities, sessions. Your opinion matters.

How?
To do all of this, we must come up with new ideas and let people know when they give us money, we will spend it properly.

We will
-show people the change we make
-make sure we’re a good place for everyone- understanding and celebrating difference
-let other people know how great we are!
-show that we’re thinking about new ways to make a difference
-make sure everyone’s voices are heard.

Change
We’ll keep thinking of new ways to make changes, listening to what you tell us about your life. We’ll find out if what we do makes you feel happier, have more time with your friends, know what to do with difficult feelings and whether or not you have gone on to work or train somewhere after coming to us if you’re older.

Being a good place for everyone
We’ll make sure all our activities are supportive for everyone. All our staff will know about issues like sexism, or racism, being care experienced or what it’s like to be transgender, have caring responsibilities, or have a disability  and we’ll work hard to help you be the best you, in a safe and supportive place.

Tell people we’re great
We’ll keep chatting on social media, or in the papers, or in meetings with people in powerful positions about how amazing you all are. People will know us as a great place to be.

New things
We’ll keep learning from you about what you need from us, whether it’s looking at training on digital or phone technology, or thinking about how we can help people go on to great things. We’ll always be looking to grow and respond to your needs.

Everyone’s voices
We want to make sure everyone is heard- and listened to. We’ll think about new ways to learn from you, and we’ll make sure we can, and do run smoothly and successfully behind the scenes.

We’re really excited about the next three years, and we hope you are too.

If you’d like to find out more, join our Youth Forum or give us ideas on what you’d like to see email Ellie on ellie@canongateyouth.org.uk