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The mission at Young Devon, the largest young people's charity in the Southwest, is to make the county a better place for all young people. A place where they are respected; a place where they can get the help they need; a place where their voices are heard; a place where they have a safe place to call home; a place where they can thrive.
Each year, the charity's staff of 150 – plus more than 150 supported and trained volunteers, apprentices and hosts – works with more than 2,000 young people, building quality relationships to improve the odds in their favour.
Ivybridge-based Young Devon, which started more than 70 years ago as a support organisation for local youth clubs, has not stopped working over the course of the pandemic across its 34 projects. The accommodation team alone provides over 60,000 bed nights a year to make sure no one goes without a roof over their heads.
Throughout the first lockdown – before which the charity already began to move to remote working, having forecast its arrival by a couple of weeks – it developed ways of staying in touch. This ranged from regular email and video updates from CEO Andrew Moreman to chocolates being delivered to every member of the housing staff and to host families.
Young Devon says it will never want to be 100% online but the vast majority of interaction between colleagues has now moved to videoconferencing. “Some meetings just don't need to go back to being in person,” it believes.
