Visit to YSS

James with Cayden

I visited YSS https://www.yss.org.uk/our-work-in-herefordshire at HVOSS (No Wrong Door) in their new premises at 1 Union Walk, Hereford.  We followed a visit by the charity’s Patron, The Princess Royal, who had been there on 8th November.
The Chairman, David Chantler OBE, introduced Lucy and me to the wide range of services provided and to other senior members of the resident team, including Catherine Kevis, the Chief Executive.   We also met two of the young people who are currently being helped by YSS.
YSS enables people who face significant life challenges to feel safe, have the chance to thrive and to realise their potential.  They provide a wide variety of mainly community-focused support for people and are often described as the ‘glue’ between those at risk of social isolation and the wider mainstream society.  Their programmes include National Careers Service guidance, Wellbeing, a Peer Leadership programme, Herefordshire LGBTQ+ youth group and Creative Thinking, but there is a total of 33 partners working with YSS, so the variety is huge.
As Herefordshire is thinly populated in the rural areas and access to services is often difficult, YSS needs greater resources to be able to respond effectively to all the cases referred to them by the Police, social services, schools etc.  They will be looking to encourage more local businesses to support their work.
They clearly do excellent work, and we are very fortunate to have them in our county.

James Hervey-Bathurst