THE FLEX YOUTH & COMMUNITY GROUP
Challenging The Narrative- The Flex Way!
This new and exciting programme has been funded by The National Lottery- Reaching Communities Fund and Active Essex, to help us grow our organisational structure and support young people to have more opportunities in sport. This programme runs alongside the WE MOVE project that is funded by Sport England that removes the cost as a barrier to access sport.
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Often young people are stereotyped, and stigmatised. So at Flex we work to support them in self development, and making positive and informed choices. #TheFlexWay enables us to celebrate and encourage our young people to strive for success while carrying themselves with integrity and poise. Therefore CHALLENGING THE NARRATIVE.
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Many of our service users come from marginalised communities and have struggled to engage with activities due to lack of funds, representation and more importantly acceptance.
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These funds means that we can provide skilled and culturally competent staff members that can coach and mentor young people to live healthier and more active lifestyles and release their true potential in safe and encouraging environments.
My Story - Miriam Chalkley
I founded Flex back in 2022 after seeing that there we not many ethnically diverse young people making use of valuable community services. Having lived in the Basildon for over 30 years I reflected on my needs growing up and despite regeneration, some things remained the same.
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Growing up as a black child in Essex I struggled to see any representation in senior leaderships roles and this is the feed back that I am still getting from young people today. This meant that my aspirations felt limited. Things needed to change, so Flex was born.
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Since opening our doors we have put in place projects and provisions that are all co-created with our young people. This is vital to ensuring that we are meeting the needs of the people that use our services and that we maintain strong relationships with the communities we serve. The Flex Hub service users always feel like the door is open and we have a warm and welcoming atmosphere that feels safe and welcoming. ​
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This has been a hard journey with a lot of personal learning and development for me. But my biggest goal and legacy will be to remove the glass ceilings for marginalised people and show them that that anything is possible.
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Lets connect!
We are always looking for new and exciting collaborative opportunities. Let's connect.
07415221812