Be The Change helps young people become a “positive force in their community”

Be The Change Youth Project supports young people aged 10-25 in Bolton, providing them with a chance to explore activities “with no barriers and no cost”. In weekly sessions they facilitate workshops that give young people life skills, prepare them for the future and prevent them from taking a negative path in life. Through delivering knife crime workshops and providing a mentoring programme between staff and young people, DofE Leader Diana says they aim to reach the most marginalised young people and find “different ways to engage them”. 

Be The Change particularly aims to support young people from ethnic minority backgrounds, low-income households and those disengaging from mainstream youth provision. Diana feels that providing positive role models is one of the biggest things they can offer young people, saying, “Representation makes a difference – young people need to be able to see themselves and connect with that”.   

Starting with the Skills section, Diana says they try and create a space for young people to explore lots of different topics. Dedicated sessions just for girls gives them a space where they can chat about “everything and anything”. Meanwhile they have several football clubs which helps their outreach to young boys in the community through sport.

In terms of volunteering, Be The Change support young people with in-house opportunities such as their own young leaders programme, facilitating workshops and supporting the summer programme, getting involved from the admin side all the way to dishing out the food.  

Everything Be The Change offers to their young people is either very low cost or free, meaning the Access Without Limits funding will play a vital role in offering the DofE to their participants.  

Ultimately, Diana hopes that through their experiences at Be The Change, young people will “broaden their horizons” and see that “the world is bigger than just where they are now”. By providing them with a means to “explore with no barriers and no cost”, Be The Change hopes to provide experiences that will prepare young people for whatever life throws at them.  

Be The Change Youth Project are a community organisation based in Bolton, Greater Manchester. They work with young people aged 10-25 providing workshops and activities to help them become a “positive force in their community”. They started offering the DofE in January 2024 with support from Access Without Limits community funding and currently have 16 young people taking part in the Bronze Award. Access Without Limits community funding is made possible through support from The Julia Rausing Trust.