|
Back in May 2021 The Lodge of Dawn No 6511, Leeds secured a Major Grant of £24,700 from the Provincial Grand Master's Fund for the building of a 4G AstroTurf MUGA (multi-use games area), for the Chapeltown Youth Development Centre (CYDC).  6 months later the fantastic new facility was opened, meaning that almost 1,000 children a week were able to use this valuable addition to the local community, in an area identified as the 5th most deprived area in England. After much arranging and re-arranging, on a freezing, foggy morning ten of the brethren of The Lodge of Dawn went down to CYDC not only to see the facility, and the children using it, but also to hear all about the wonderful work that CYDC do, and how the new pitch contributes to an incredible beneficial ‘ripple effect’. The Lodge of Dawn met Lutel James – CEO, Jake Boyd – Positive Destinations Project Co-Ordinator, David Adams – Chairman and Syimah (see photo) who each explained how the MUGA was being used, and more importantly the benefits that getting the children, and in turn their parents, involved in not only the sporting side but the wider support that’s offered. "It was brilliant to get the donation,” Jake Boyd, who runs the club’s foundation age teams, said. “You know it’s going to engage the kids all year round, not just depending on how the weather is. Games and training would often get cancelled because the pitches got waterlogged so quickly, or they would be frozen solid which is also dangerous. The kids are buzzing with it, they aren’t bothered by the weather. They just want to play.” The ‘ripple effect’ of the MUGA, more than simply kids playing sport, includes;
 Explaining to The Lodge of Dawn representatives, Luthel James said, “With what you’ve done and the help that you’ve given us, don’t under-estimate it, because it goes MILES further than that. It’s one of those things that says ‘here’s a contribution’ but it’s been a catalyst to 50 to 100 other things happening because of that contribution.” He also added “Across the board the perceptions of Freemasons is that you are in your ivory towers – that’s how some people see it. But our perception and view has changed and now is that they are ‘real people who drink coffee and tea’, and parents say ‘oooh, we spoke to them’. So for me it’s bridged that gap between perception and reality, because when they started seeing you in reality, and that’s what happened, and people now here have got a different view, not because of that [The MUGA] but because you’ve come down here and had that level of engagement as well and it makes a difference. It shows that when you people do things, the parents get to understand what your organisation has done for us, and that they appreciate it, and they respect it, because there’s not many people doing it. We appreciate it. “  Explaining to The Lodge of Dawn representatives, Luthel James said, “With what you’ve done and the help that you’ve given us, don’t under-estimate it, because it goes MILES further than that. It’s one of those things that says ‘here’s a contribution’ but it’s been a catalyst to 50 to 100 other things happening because of that contribution.” He also added “Across the board the perceptions of Freemasons is that you are in your ivory towers – that’s how some people see it. But our perception and view has changed and now is that they are ‘real people who drink coffee and tea’, and parents say ‘oooh, we spoke to them’. So for me it’s bridged that gap between perception and reality, because when they started seeing you in reality, and that’s what happened, and people now here have got a different view, not because of that [The MUGA] but because you’ve come down here and had that level of engagement as well and it makes a difference. It shows that when you people do things, the parents get to understand what your organisation has done for us, and that they appreciate it, and they respect it, because there’s not many people doing it. We appreciate it.“  After the visit, Worshipful Master, Christian Higgins said, “we’d hope that our involvement doesn’t stop here. We’ll be looking at additional ways to further support this great community project”. Interview with Lutel James | @LutelJames Lutel James, CEO at CYDC Back in May 2021 The Lodge of Dawn No 6511, Leeds secured a Major Grant of £24,700 from the Provincial Grand Master's Fund for the building of a 4G AstroTurf MUGA (multi-use games area), for the Chapeltown Youth Development Centre (CYDC).
6 months later the fantastic new facility was opened, meaning that almost 1,000 children a week were able to use this valuable addition to the local community, in an area identified as the 5th most deprived area in England. We spoke to Lutel James, CEO at CYDC, about the impact that the MUGA has made to the CYDC, as well as other things that spin off it. Here’s what he had to say; “With that surface that we’ve got there, we are now able to house, on a weekly basis, 900-1000 kids a week doing positive activities; boxing, football, educational support, crime prevention, jobs, employability, mentoring, mental health work… There are family's coming from across the city, some are coming from outside the city now, not because we've got all the answers to everything, but because they feel the comfortability of the place; we’ve created a family-like atmosphere here. We’ve had Mallik Wilkes who plays for Hull City now, and Dylan Mottley-Henry who went to Bradford City and we’re proud of them. But we don’t only glorify the ones that go forward in football - it’s also the ones that are holding down a job… he’s a bin man, someone who's gone into architecture, there’s a young man who's got a national charity. That young man that was on MUGA area we’ve just been on, Anthony, he’s gone to university and done his Masters. We just got him a placement and now it's gone into a job as an architect. So for us it's not just about glorifying all those magical areas [like football] that people see as magical, it's about holding down that level of a job, employability and having a better life. Equally, we have a model of called ‘Each one, Teach One’; for every bit of knowledge you've got and learnt, you have to come back and feed it to others and share that knowledge with them. We also have a ‘gang to plan’ structure. We look at opportunity, exposure and growth. We can offer the opportunity; you then need to get the exposure so that you can be exposed to it to be able to have the accessibility to connect with whatever you want to be able to do. And then get that exposure to different things [and open their eyes] that there’s more than a 5-mile radius of here to see that there’s bigger things out there. But you still need the accessibility, so we work with those that have made mistakes earlier on, who don’t get that exposure and can’t get that connectivity to take the next steps. That’s what the battle is for us half of the time. I work with young offenders, around how they feel within the prisons and they’ve got a thing about ‘transforming and rehabilitation’ but yet it if there’s ging to be a transition, transforming and rehabilitation when you come out you should have the opportunity to do so. But if you suppress that and stop them from doing it, that means you probably never change and you’ll be a criminal for the next 30 years. And that's what we see and face as major barriers. So we’re trying to get about the youngest set to do positive activity but we’re also trying to help the ones, maybe 15 to 19, that made some of the wrong decisions, to turn it on its head and get opportunities. So, we've got a lot of businesses signing up to taking on board apprentices, giving them some training and a lot of positive outcomes across the board where it has grown massively. So that's an area really working on. We’ve also got plans for the adjacent Caribbean Cricket to build a facility that’s fit for purpose to carry this on, because we’ve outgrown the facilities here. It’s what you leave behind that counts, for the next generation and to see that they pick up the baton. When you think about it; today it’s a crappy Saturday morning but the kids are here. A lot of these kids are coming for different reasons and you might say ‘yeah but they’re just playing a bit of football’ but I know each one of the challenges they face. A number of them have got challenges; domestic violence, parents that have been carrying on for years so it's not in their state of mind to improve, so we work with them. The ones that are having challenges in school and are not meeting all the requirements educationally, we've got an education programme that supports and uplift them to get to the standards that they need to be up to. It’s alright that we talk about young people, but some of the parents are the problem and they have passed that onto the children, and we’re trying to change that rut. There are kids here that have been groomed previously to go into gangs, go into criminally and negative behaviour so then we have to battle with that too. We also get a lot of referrals from the police, the local authorities, social care to be able to support vulnerable young people that have been drawn into negative behaviours so when we look at it there are many people supporting it, and many volunteers contributing to make the best outcomes possible, which is why I wanted to explain it holistically for you to see how in depth it all goes. For me, the football is my thing that I'm really a passionate about, but without all your money, it contributes to the overall youth development or it all falls short. With what you've done and the help that you've given us, don’t under-estimate it, because it goes MILES further than that. It’s one of those things that says ‘here’s a contribution’ but it’s been a catalyst to 50 to 100 other things happening because of that contribution. So, even on there [The MUGA] there's going to be some courses that are put on to upskill people to be able to become coaches and referees. The referees course that was put on a few weeks ago on there; two lads, they got trained to be referees so they’ve now got their referee badges that allows them to be paid part-time money to go and referee games, so actually through what you have done gives them a part-time job. So then again having that economical challenge at times means I can go and fend for myself, and make a bit of money and I've got no excuse for getting involved in other things. So that area of work is going to contribute to loads of things so I don’t want you to think ‘yeah is just gonna be that’ [The MUGA]. There will be loads of outcomes from there that you probably won’t see or get to understand, but we’ll be sending you information to make sure you keep up to date with what's been achieved on there, so you can see the value it of it. And we don’t want the relationship to end. It's not really about monetary value. We want you to understand that sometimes, a lot of times, people will donate something or give resources and they don’t see the length of that and where it's really going, and the depth, and then they don’t see the growth and the additional exposure. And some of your skillsets may even be able to add value to key areas which we are developing into, and for me that growth and opportunity and exposure is always good. There’s a guy over there and he said “I’ve seen those people before, the Freemasons”. So, I explained who you were and what you’ve done. It shows that when you people do things, the parents get to understand what your organisation has done for us, and that they appreciate it, and they respect it, because there’s not many people doing it. So, we appreciate it. Across the board, the perceptions of Freemasons is that you are in your ivory towers – that’s how some people see it. But our perception and view now is that they are ‘real people who drink coffee and tea’, and people say ‘oooh, we spoke to them’. So for me it bridges that gap between perception and reality, because again with anyone or anything perception can become fact so when they started seeing you in reality and that's what happened and people now here have got a different view; not because of that [The MUGA] but because you’ve come and had that level of engagement as well and it makes a difference. It’s a good thing and we’re looking to make it continue, and the different things that we are doing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
David Simister
|
RSS Feed