A leading High Wycombe charity has expressed its concerns after they exclusively told the Free Press that they are ‘financially struggling’.

The Wycombe Youth Action, which has been helping young people in the town and its surrounding areas for the past 42 years, is unsure of its long-term future due to a lack of funds.

The Baker Street-based charity has aided tens of thousands of children and young adults since the 1980s, but since lockdown restrictions were lifted from the coronavirus pandemic in 2021, WYA [Wycombe Youth Action] has not been able to supply the same needs as they did before.

Bucks Free Press: The Wycombe Youth Action team of Haseeb Nawaz (far left), Brandon Baker-Timms (centre left), Yasmin Harris (centre right) and Nicola Workman (far right)The Wycombe Youth Action team of Haseeb Nawaz (far left), Brandon Baker-Timms (centre left), Yasmin Harris (centre right) and Nicola Workman (far right) (Image: Wycombe Youth Action)

This has been down to rising costs and limited funding.

In an exclusive chat with the Free Press in the middle of February, general manager Nicola Workman said: “During the pandemic, we were probably the only youth organisation that didn’t furlough.

“We all still worked but we shifted to do whatever we could do online as much as possible.

“As a charity, we were doing quite well and we got a bit of money due to it being around.

“But since we’ve come out of the pandemic, it’s been a massive struggle and we’re struggling financially.

"We’re struggling and it’s bad – really bad.

“We’ve had to cut back on everything.

“I’m not sure how much longer we can go on.”

Since 1982, the charity has helped many young people get on the straight and narrow as the WYA focuses on children who have been primarily impacted by the following:

  • Knife crime and gun crime
  • Drug use and drug-dealing
  • Night time safety
  • Sexual exploitation
  • Exploitation by gangs and criminal activity
  • Relationship between young people and police
  • Poor perception of young people amongst the wider public
  • Substance abuse
  • Physical and sexual abuse
  • Anxiety around future career prospects
  • Racism and hate crime
  • Lack of youth centre provision in the town centre and recent closures of youth service providers

To help those in need, it costs the charity £258,697 per year through engaging workshops, outdoor projects, camps and more.

However, due to the cost-of-living crisis, there has been a sudden decrease in donations.

This has led to numerous cuts being made, and with the situation now worsening, those at the charity are now charging schools in the area for their workshops – a tactic they have never done before.

Nicola continued: “Over the last few years, our statutory funding has been reduced to almost nothing, resulting in the need to raise funds from the voluntary sector.

“We have been supported by grant-making trusts and foundations and individuals over the last 42 years and without this help, we would not have been able to support young people, their families, the safety of the community and ultimately savings to the social justice system. 

“Wycombe Youth Action achieves the work undertaken with limited staffing and resources - the demand is increasing, and we try, even with the increase in rising costs, to maintain our income and expenditure based on the funds that we can raise from grant-making organisations and individuals.”

Senior project officer, Yasmin Harris, added: “We run a workshop on empowering young women that we’ve done for seven/eight years now which has always been free.

“Now we’re asking for a token/donation to help us as we can’t afford to do it for free anymore.

“Let’s just say a six-week course of empowering young women, six weekly sessions covering numerous items, would cost us around £1,500…we’re asking schools for £300.

“Some schools won’t pay for it, but we know they’ve got the money, so now it’s difficult as we’re now working with the schools who can pay us.

“We’ve got a lot of money in the pipeline but it’s just not coming through, and for every pot of money, so many charities are going for it.

“We’re still trying to get through it all.”

Assistant Manager, Haseeb Nawaz, who has been with the charity for 10 years, added: “We noticed during the pandemic that some young people were becoming quite insular, so through the delivery of our workshops in schools, we were able to establish youth groups to help young people.”

To read more about the charity and what it provide, go to www.wycombeyouthaction.co.uk.