Youth Cymru is a National Voluntary Organisation, with over 80 years’ experience supporting young people and youth workers across Wales.
We work with over 400 members, to provide bespoke opportunities and programmes bettering the lives of young people in Wales.
The Welsh Association of Youth Clubs was one of the major voluntary youth organisations in Wales.
Commencing as a girls’ club, organisation, it owes is existence to the initiative of voluntary leaders who formed a number of independent local federations with the object of seeking mutual support.
The Ocean National Colliery Company played a leading role in forming boys’ clubs and girls’ clubs in the Rhondda, Garw and Monmouthshire Valleys, collectively comprising the Ocean National Federation. But elsewhere too, particularly in the “non-special areas,” it was the clubs themselves which formed their own federations with a view to seeking co-operation, discussing common problems, exchanging ideas, arranging, inter-clubs visits and providing services to their mutual advantage.
Two years after the formation of the Cardiff Federation, a meeting was convened by the National Council of Girls’ Clubs. This was held on the 25th of January 1936, at 33 Park Place, Cardiff, mainly as the result of a grant received from the Jubilee Trust by the National Council of Girls’ Clubs for work in the ‘special areas’. Representatives of federations and settlements were invited to attend this important meeting to consider the formation of a South Wales Association of Girls’ Clubs.
In addition to representatives from the federations, a number of other girls’ organisations were present at this historic meeting, but the records do not indicate whether they attended in order to secure membership, or merely to support.
In attendance:
Local Federations
Educational Settlements
Other Youth Organisations
Dates
Miss Warren, the Organising Secretary, of the National Secretary of the National Council of Girls’ Clubs addressed the meeting. She stated that the Council of Girls’ Clubs in South Wales would provide an essential link between the federations and the National Council and make it possible for combined schemes to be offered, such as holidays, camps and training courses. Additionally, services could be provided for scattered clubs in areas where no federations, as well as the provision of opportunities for women in South Wales to undertake leadership training offered by the National Council.
The birth of this new organisation was not an easy one, and the Celtic trait of being concerned for local identity emerged, when the representative of the Pontypool Settlement stated that she was not in favour of forming a South Wales body, as her organisation, was perfectly capable of co-ordinating the work of local cubs.
In reply, the chairman pointed out that an Association would provide clubs with more scope for development, and prevent settlements from adopting a small minded attitude!
Originally, the major source of income was a proportion of the annual grant received by the National Council of Girls’ Clubs from the Jubilee Trust for work in the ‘special areas’ to be replaced later by a similar arrangement for the disposal of HQ grant received from the Ministry of Education. This initial financial support, apart from a small sum retained for administration, which was passed on to individual girls’ clubs.
Summer School
In 1954, Mr Edward (‘Ted’) Higgins, brought a new dimension to club work in the form of a ‘Summer School’ which he organised for club members and their families. For the next eighteen years, the Harlech Summer School became the focal point for all activities.
A feature of The Harlech Summer Schools in 1958 and 1959 was the production of what quickly became known as “The Chronicles”.
Composed daily in Biblical language by Islwyn Jones and Owen Picton, their production was eagerly anticipated, as were the evening “readings” in the great hall.
Junior Summer School
In 1972, it was noticed with some concern, that an increasing number of young people under fourteen years of age were now attending affiliated clubs, and in an endeavour to provide for this age group, the first Junior Summer School was planned and directed by Mr. Peter John, West Wales Regional Officer at Coleg Trefeca, Breconshire, when forty junior members thoroughly enjoyed a week’s programme of arts and crafts, music, drama and pony trekking.
In 1973, the second summer school was held at the same venue. The high sprits and the infectious enthusiasm of the youngsters was not only shared during this memorable week, but taken back to their own clubs, and it was noticeable that the clubs involved reflected this influence in their programme of activities.
We work collaboratively with our members and other youth facing organisation to provide unique, innovative and life-changing opportunities, projects and programmes, bettering the lives of young people in Wales.
Young people in Wales are confident and strong, empowered to fulfil their potential and to contribute to building the Wales we want.
We want to bring about positive change for young people in Wales through our Grass Roots Values and strategic influence.
We believe that young people are citizens and rights holders. All our work is underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in line with the Rights of Children and Young Person’s Measure (Wales) 2011.
We believe that youth work changes lives. We are committed to equality and inclusion; we challenge prejudice and discrimination.We believe that youth work has a vital role to play in building the Wales we want. We shape our work to contribute to the seven Well-being Goals set out in the Well-being of Future Generations
DIVERSITY
Young people are unique and those individual differences are of great value, are to be respected, and central to all that we do.
PARTICIPATION
Young people are creative partners in our vision and work.
EQUALITY
Young people have the right to an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives, talents, and strengths.
INCLUSION
Young people have different needs, identifying solutions and responding personally at a pace that respects their individuality, is essential.
OPPORTUNITY
Opportunities enable authentic creativity and growth. They are essential to learning, vital for developing self-expression, self-confidence, and problem solving.
ACHIEVEMENT
Young people have the potential to achieve great things and to live fulfilling, meaningful, and positive lives.
We are for all young people in Wales, and for all those organisations, volunteers and professional staff, who support them.
We work through a network of local and regional organisations that support young people throughout Wales. These are primarily statutory and voluntary youth work organisations, but include other organisations supporting young people, such as training providers, youth offending services and alternative curriculum provisions.
Many of our member organisations are based in Wales’ poorest communities as defined by the Wales Index of Multiple Deprivation. We work in partnership with our members and with others supporting young people in Wales.
We work through the British– Irish Strategic Youth Partnership with our partners Youth Scotland, Youth Work Ireland, Youth Action Northern Ireland and UK Youth to improve the lives of young people across Britain and Ireland, and learn from youth work experiences across Europe through our membership of the European Confederation of Youth Clubs. Our work is shaped by what young people tell us about what they want and need.
Five campaigning youth work charities committed to social action, to make England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the best possible places for young people to flourish.
Inspiring young people
Promoting youth work
Connecting young people
Challenging inequalities
UK Youth, Youth Scotland, Youth Cymru, Youth Action Northern Ireland and Youth Work Ireland are five leading youth work charities, working locally, regionally and nationally to improve the life chances of young people throughout the UK and Ireland.
We have relationships spanning 100 years.
Together we are striving to increase the understanding of the impact of youth work and strengthen cooperation and advocacy actions of the five partners. This agreement is in tune with contemporary British and Irish political alliances and is relevant to national and local interests. We seek to increase our collective ability to shape policy and legislative changes, as well as energising young people to be more mobile and to work collaboratively on areas of interest.
This agreement is built on the values of inclusion, participation equity and respect, with young people at the heart. It is the outcome of a British / Irish symposium on youth affairs, held on 23rd-24th October 2013 with young people, volunteers, staff and Board members of the five organisations.
This partnership is intended to support and inspire everyone in our network.
Your personal data – what is it?
Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone, or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession, or likely to come into their possession.
Information We Collect
Personal information includes identifiers such as; your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number, as well as information you provide in any communications between us. You will have given us some or all of this information through:
your interactions with us – including; registering on our mailing list, using our website, joining our online forum, making a booking on our website, attending an event or training course and seeking advice / support.
How the Information Collected is used
Youth Cymru complies with its obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.
We will process your personal data based on your consent, and/or because we need to use it in order to fulfil a contract with you (e.g. because you have subscribed to our membership, engaged with our programmes and/or legitimate interest).
Legitimate interest means there is a valid reason for Youth Cymru to do so. This could include; making improvements to our services, to manage relationships with our supporters and to comply with relevant legislation. Whenever we process your information in this way, we ensure that we consider your rights and interests.
We will never sell or swap your details. We may share your information with trusted third parties in the process of managing your engagement with us, such as the payment processing of donations or to partners who manage our events.
We use your personal data for the following purposes:
· To enable us to provide support and advice for the benefit of those working with children and young people within the Youth Sector.
· To administer membership subscriptions and activities;
· To fundraise and promote the interests of the charity;
· To manage our recruitment processes, employees, trustees and volunteers;
· To maintain our own accounts and records;
· To inform you of news, events, activities and services we offer;
Personal information provided to the Charity by you will only be used for the purposes stated when the information is requested. Personal information will not be sold to third parties, or provided to direct marketing companies or other such organisations without your permission.
What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?
Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services offered by Youth Cymru.
Processing is necessary for carrying out legal obligations.
Sharing of information with partners or third parties is only done so where consent has been provided.
However, we may disclose your information to regulatory bodies to enable us to comply with the law and to assist fraud protection and minimise credit risk.
Please be advised that we do not reveal information about identifiable individuals to our stakeholders without consent from the data subject, but we may, on occasion, provide them with anonymised information.
Protecting Children and Young People
Where we believe any of our services may attract children and young people under the age of 16, we will clearly provide information notices to try and deter children from providing their personal data without parent or guardian consent.
We do not knowingly intend to send marketing communications to children and young people.
We actively encourage all our staff, whenever they are implementing new initiatives to assess whether these might be attractive to children and young people and if so, will ensure clear information is provided to try and deter children and young people from providing their personal data without parent or guardian consent.
How we Store Information Collected
As part of the services offered to you, for example through our websites, the information you provide to us may be transferred to and stored in countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) as we use remote website server hosts to provide the website and some aspects of our service, which may be based outside of the EEA, or use servers based outside of the EEA – this is generally the nature of data stored in “the Cloud”. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for one of our suppliers, e.g. our website server host, or who work for us when temporarily based outside of the EEA.
A transfer of your personal data may happen if any of our servers are located in a country outside of the EEA or one of our service providers is located in a country outside of the EEA. If we transfer or store your personal data outside the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected, as outlined in this privacy policy and in accordance with the DPA and GDPR. If you use our service while you are outside the EEA, your personal data may be transferred outside the EEA in order to provide you with these services.
We do not use or disclose sensitive personal data, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.
We may disclose your personal data outside of Youth Cymru e.g. data analysis or newsletter mailings. However, any such transfer will only be on terms that the confidentiality of your personal data is protected and that the terms of this privacy policy will continue to be complied with by the recipient.
We will process, disclose or share your personal data only if required to do so by law, or in good faith believe that such action is necessary to comply with legal requirements, or legal process served on us or our websites.
Security
The transmission of information via the Internet or email is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of data while you are transmitting it to us via our site or formstack applications; any such transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal data, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
The Use of Trusted Partners and Suppliers.
We use external companies such as Eventbrite to collect or process personal data on our behalf. We undertake checks on these companies before we work with them and put agreements in place that require them to comply with data protection legislation and ensure that they have appropriate controls in place to secure your information.
You’re Rights and Your Personal Data
Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:
1. The right to request a copy of your personal data which Youth Cymru holds about you; where possible this will be provided within 30 days of request. If an extension is required due to the complexity of the request, then this will be agreed in writing by both parties;
2. The right to request that Youth Cymru corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
3. The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for Youth Cymru to retain such data;
4. The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time;
5. The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [Only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and in either case the data controller processes the data by automated means].
6. The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;
7. The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [Only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics]
8. The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office, https://ico.org.uk
Further processing
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by your consent, then prior to commencing the processing we will provide you with a new notice setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.
Controlling the use of Your Data
If you have given us consent to use your data for a purpose you can revoke or vary that consent at any time. If you do not want us to use your data, or want to vary the consent that you have provided you can email mailbox@youthcymru.org.uk
Changes to our Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may use your information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy policy. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the policy changes on our website www.youthcymru.org.uk/privacy/
Company Number : 02646433
Charity Number : 1163959