A community venture in Livingston has become the hub to deliver ‘Junior Duke’ awards to its youngest members.
The Vennie in Knightsridge will deliver the scheme, originally created by a Glasgow primary school teacher, which offers life skills awards that help children build confidence, resilience and independence.
The Vennie will be working with the Duke of Edinburgh scheme with senior pupils from the nearby Ogilvie School.
While similar to the Duke of Edinburgh Award the Junior Duke it is not associated with that scheme but it offers a pathway into it for children as they reach their teens.
The Junior Duke programme runs in many schools across the country and in West Lothian is being managed by the Vennie youth club which has just appointed a new youth coordinator Jen McCusker.
According to the Junior Duke website: “The Junior Duke Award has been designed to be inclusive. Every student, whatever their background, will benefit from the confidence and competence that the challenges develop.”
The Vennie which also runs a community food outlet as well as a youth club held an open day to mark its reopening after new kitchen facilities were built in the clubrooms in Knightsridge.
The Morrisons Foundation gave the Vennie a donation of more than £8,000. It is probably the biggest single investment in the building in the 15-year life of the club.
On the open day the youngsters were making good use of the new facilities with a team making baked potatoes and other hot food for visitors.
The transformation of the building was branded “amazing”.
It was a day for “good news” said trustee Julie Henderson, who runs the Vennie food outlet in the Mosswood community Centre.
The open day also highlighted other projects offered by the Vennie including the food outlet and the community garden and the football team.
The Vennie will be working with Ogilvie School campus in the community garden.
Julie said: “We have started to work with the young people of Ogilvie Campus, in the Community Garden teaching them some life skills. They will also be completing the Duke of Edinburgh awards. This is the first collaboration of this type. We are very proud of this work.”
It was also the chance for youngsters and trustees, including local councillor Andrew Miller to welcome a new trustee on board, former Livingston MP Hannah Bardell.
Hannah told the local Democracy Reporting Service “I want to give my time, experience and expertise that I’ve built up over the years to support these amazing folks. I’m looking forward to getting involved and helping in any way that I can.
“I grew up in an area very similar to this. I was lucky that I had a family who helped me and gave me the confidence to believe that you could do anything- you could become an MP.”
Current MP Gregor Poynton was among the visitors tot he open day long with local police and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crews.
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