February may be a short month, but The Door team packed an enormous amount into it. Alongside our regular provision, we were proud to train a new cohort of Young Leaders in Stonehouse over the half-term break, and we also completed interviews for the second iteration of our highly successful Youth Voice Board.
It remains an immense privilege to have young people so firmly at the heart of The Door’s delivery and decision-making. Ensuring their voices shape what we do will remain a top priority as we move forward with our new five-year strategy.
This month we also received the results of our latest service user survey, and the feedback from young people was incredibly encouraging. They told us that they feel safe, heard and cared for in our services, and that they are given real opportunities to learn new things and build meaningful connections with others. Every single metric we measured showed improvement compared with our 2023 survey — a hugely positive sign of the impact our work is having.
This progress is a testament to the dedication and talent of our staff team, who work tirelessly to support young people across our communities. The survey results, alongside a wide range of other evidence, played an important role in an achievement I am now delighted to share: The Door has successfully achieved the National Youth Agency’s Advance Quality Mark for the second time. We remain the only provider in Gloucestershire to hold this accreditation from the National Youth Agency, the UK’s leading youth work governance body.
After what has been a challenging period during our recent restructure, there is much hope for the future as we look ahead. I hope many of you will join us at our Celebration Evening on St Patrick’s Day, Tuesday 17th March, at Stroud Subscription Rooms.
It will be a wonderful opportunity to hear more about The Door’s work from both staff and the young people we work with as well as celebrating their successes from the last 12 months.
All are welcome to attend, if you know in advance that you plan to come along please do drop us a message to let us know.
Chris
Director of Service Delivery