Essential Energy

PRESS RELEASE .. The College of Chinese Physical Culture.

Local project gets £300k funding to turn young people’s passions into community action in England
1st April 2008, by College of Chinese Physical Culture.

The Essential Energy Project, based in Yorkshire has been awarded £300,000 funding by v, the youth volunteering charity, to get young people across England positively involved in their communities.

The project will get 164 young people aged 16-25 to develop a brand for Lishi (an ancient system of Chinese movement and exercise) and market it to other young people across the country. Through a series of performances and events at national venues including the Royal Albert Hall, volunteers will promote the role that Lishi can take in doing something about local issues of poverty, crime and health.

Young volunteers on the current V-funded project being run by the College of Chinese Physical Culture (CCPC) have inspired the Trustees to radically change the CCPC brand to target, promote and deliver its Chinese movement and dance specifically towards young people. The current young volunteers recognise that the CCPC is greatly benefiting their own and other people’s lives and communities. They are convinced that the new opportunities they have helped propose will enable their successors to develop their existing passions and strengths to do something about the local issues such as poverty, crime and health they are concerned about. This new project will enable at least 47 young full time volunteers from disadvantaged backgrounds to gain a Youth Achievement Award whilst developing the new CCPC brand. Over the 3 Years of the project they will be responsible for implementing their own marketing strategy based around the planning, promotion and delivery of 7 major partnership cultural events at national venues including the Royal Albert Hall. From the thousands of young people who will be newly attracted into the activity, at least 117 young people, also from disadvantaged backgrounds, will be recruited into new part time opportunities planned to support 35 local CCPC governed groups operating across England. They will be given the option of gaining a Sports Leadership Qualification and progressing into new full time opportunities such as setting up new youth groups to teach the activity to themselves with the possibility of eventually working for the CCPC as employed teachers.

The Essential Energy Project is one of 152 projects across the country who will be funded by v as part of vinvolved, a new national youth volunteering programme backed by £75 million funding, which aims to inspire half a million more young people to volunteer in England.

Alex Boyd, Project Coordinator says: “We are very excited to be part of the vinvolved programme and to have the backing of the Central Council of Physical Recreation and the Exercise, Movement and Dance Partnership. The funding will enable us to support 164 young people to gain a Youth Achievement Award or Sports Leadership Qualification whilst at the same time having an impact on local issues of poverty, crime and health.”

vinvolved has been designed by and for young people to make volunteering a compelling choice for all 16-25 year olds in England by tapping into their passions and concerns. The charity aims to change the image of volunteering and make it a ‘must-have’ part of young people’s lives.

Terry Ryall, v’s Chief Executive, says: “v is delighted to be able to fund this innovative and youth-led project, which will enable young people to get positively involved in the sports community.

“Young people are at the heart of this new programme which aims to put them at the centre of our communities. Instead of seeing them as a problem to be fixed, we are giving them the chance to become a positive force for change.”

The volunteering opportunities will be available from April 2008. For more information visit www.wearev.com or the young people’s portal www.vinspired.com