I feel that as Britons we have had a lot of reason to celebrate in 2012; we have hosted the Olympics, celebrated a Royal Wedding and witnessed a Golden Jubilee. Reflecting on these events has made me realise how good celebrations are at raising profile, recognising importance and acknowledging success.

Take the Olympics for example. In the run up to that event the spotlight was on sport like never before. Even as a relatively un-sporty person I couldn’t help but get swept up in the sport mania that embraced Britain. Personally it made an impact. I have taken up running and even joined a running club. Similarly, the Olympics gave us a unique opportunity to assert the importance of sport in British life. Whether it was through building brand new, state-of-the-art sports facilities or through the numerous funds which have been set up to get Britain active, the importance of sport has been reiterated through politics, media and celebrities time and time again. Finally, what a fantastic opportunity the Olympics gave us to acknowledge the determination and success of countless sports men and women from a huge range of sporting disciplines.

So what are my hopes for our year of celebration in 2013? Well I am not going to pretend that our anniversary will be anything like on the same scale as the Olympics or the Royal Wedding and Jubilee. However, I hope that it will achieve some similar outcomes. I hope that through our anniversary celebrations we will be able to put the spotlight on youth homelessness. Last year 30,000 young people in the U.K. experienced homelessness. I find this statistic mind-boggling and deeply disturbing.

It is probably obvious that I think the work we do is vitally important. It’s always difficult to blow your own trumpet but working here on a day to day basis, and seeing the impact in the lives of the young people we accommodate, makes me sometimes frustrated that people just don’t know about what we do. We see young people come to us broken and with their confidence at rock bottom and through one-to-one support, job clubs, cooking courses, budgeting lessons and film nights we see them leave with their heads held high. One young resident recently said to me: “the best thing about YMCA is that you come in all shy and you leave full of confidence.” Well I couldn’t have put it better myself. If that’s not important I don’t know what is. My hope is that during 2013 more people from our local community will come to recognise it.

And finally, I want to celebrate our success over the last 20 years. We haven’t always been perfect and we have learnt a huge amount, but we have seen a huge amount of success too. Some of the best moments at YMCA are when old residents get back in touch. Some are graduating from university; others have started their own families or businesses. In any case they are keen to thank YMCA for a pivotal time in their lives, and we are delighted to share their success with them. Ultimately it’s not our success but theirs. Next year will be about remembering and celebrating the many and varied successes that our young people have achieved over an amazing 20 years. Will you join us for the celebration?

As usual it is all go at Exeter YMCA. We are fully booked within in our Supported Housing Project, meaning we are currently supporting 39 young homeless people from across Devon. As always, it is a huge privilege to get alongside these young people and see them make extraordinary progress in their lives.

We are currently running evening classes in independent living skills for those young people living in our Supported Housing. These classes have proved extremely popular with more people signing up than we currently have spaces for! The course equips our young people with vital skills that will help them manage a private tenancy, manage utilities and find private accommodation once they eventually leave our Project. The course has proved invaluable at preparing our young people for life outside of Exeter YMCA.

We are looking forward to welcoming Steph Trebilcock to our staff team in 2 weeks time. Steph will be setting up our first ever detached youth work projects, initially starting in Exmouth and South Molton. We are really looking forward to having Steph with us and connecting with young people outside of Exeter YMCA for the first time.

Job Clubs have been incredibly busy. We are now operating 9 Job Clubs a week for the homeless and ex-prisoners and another 5 Community Job Clubs each week across the city. A recent highlight has certainly been the Exeter Enterprise Rotary Club conducting mock interviews for those within our Job Clubs. Our clients really appreciated their feedback and we are incredibly grateful for their input.

Within fundraising we are gearing up to the Great West Run on the 6th May. We are really pleased and privileged to be one of the Great West Run charities of the year this year. We currently have 17 people signed up to join our running team which we are very excited about. Do get in touch with us if you would like to join our running team or volunteer with us on the day.

I look forward to sharing with you more as the year progresses!