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Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm Saturday 5am - 9pm

Cumbria Youth Alliance

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Cumbria Youth Alliance

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"Working with and for young people to enable them to reach their full potential" We will remove, in whole or in part posts which we feel are inappropriate.

Cumbria Youth Alliance is a leading charity for the development and quality assurance of youth provision in Cumbria with a vision that all young people can thrive to achieve a sustainable and positive future! We are a membership organisation, supporting, engaging, and working in partnership with the infrastructure of Youth Organisations throughout Cumbria, to enable them and us to deliver a range of needs led programmes so that young people can reach their full potential. Our focus is supporting the physical, mental health and wellbeing, attainment, and emotional development of young people across the county ensuring that young people can make a successful transition into adulthood.

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Social Media Ground Rules

We want our social media platforms to be welcoming and a place where people can share their experiences of Cumbria Youth Alliance. We’d ask you to be polite to one another, respecting each other’s views and comments. We won't tolerate any material or content that is deemed disruptive, offensive, or abusive behaviour, unlawful, objectionable defamatory, or what is considered to be harmful in any way. If you would like Cumbria Youth Alliance to promote you, your work, or your organisation then please contact us directly on [email protected] or send us a message. Please do not use our social media channels as a platform to promote your work or organisation without prior permission. We will moderate posts on the rare occasion that someone has used offensive language or made allegations about named or identifiable individuals on our page. We have a duty to protect our staff and volunteers and the people that we work with. If an individual continues to post offensive, threatening, or libellous content or are repeatedly engaging with us using content or language which falls into the above categories then we’ll be forced to block and remove that person from the page. If you’re concerned that a posting or user content has broken any of our house rules, please send us a direct message. We’ll do our best to respond to your enquiries, public or private, as soon as possible.

03/11/2026

25 years. Over 100,000 young people. Countless futures taking shape.

It’s , and this year’s theme is Where Futures Begin.

At Cumbria Youth Alliance, we’ve spent more than 25 years helping young people find their confidence, their people and their next step.

Sometimes that’s a first job. Sometimes it’s having someone in your corner when life gets difficult. Sometimes it starts with muddy boots on a Cumbrian fell and discovering you can do more than you thought.

Through our own programmes and the youth organisations we support, we’ve reached over 100,000 young people across Cumbria.

Behind that number are individual stories. This week, we’re celebrating the young people, youth workers and places that make them possible.
Here are just a few of those faces. 💚

26/10/2026

In Cumbria, getting to the next town can feel like a challenge for a young person, and most of the young people we work with have never been abroad. That’s one of the main reasons CYA went to Brussels last week.

Our CEO Becky Wolstenholme and COO Sophie Birkett were selected to join Strengthening UK-EU Erasmus+ Youth Partnerships, run by the British Council and Kiwanis International - Europe. Places were by application, so we were proud to represent Cumbria.

From 2027, UK youth organisations can apply to Erasmus+ again for youth exchanges, youth worker mobility, participation projects and partnerships. We wanted to be in the room so Cumbria’s young people are part of this from the start.

The group included organisations from all four nations of the UK and across Europe. Whether it’s a youth club in Northern Ireland, a foundation in Istanbul or a rural charity in Cumbria, we all want the same thing: safe spaces and more opportunities for young people.
Monday was about who we were, who we support and what we were hoping to find.

On Tuesday we got stuck in. Jan walked us through building an Erasmus+ project, from the need and the goal to the activities that get you there. By the end of the day, sticky note ideas had turned into partnerships.

Sophie began a KA2 partnership on the sustainability of youth organisations with Oana (TERRA, Romania and Youth Empowerment Foundation - IEEN, Cyprus) and Emre (Kafkas Foundation, Türkiye). She also worked on youth exchange ideas and talked about Cumbrian groups who might want to get involved.

Becky worked with Letícia (FNAJ - Federação Nacional das Associações Juvenis , Portugal) and Stella (Terre des hommes Hellas, Greece) on youth participation, democracy and child protection. She also worked with Cloe (North Ayrshire Council) and Anna (LEVEL UP, Poland) on how young people can create change in their communities.

We also got to share our ME Tool, which helps organisations measure and show the difference they make.

On Tuesday evening we joined a reception hosted by the UK in Belgium - British Embassy Brussels. Wednesday was all about follow-up: how partners work together, how young people can lead and how to keep the impact going.

We came back tired, full of ideas and with lots of new friends.

If you’re a Cumbrian group working with young people and you’re interested in Erasmus+, we’re happy to share what we learned, help you find EU partners and support you through applying. You don’t need to have done it before. Just drop us a message.

Find out more about Erasmus+ here: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk

A huge thank you to Eva and Eve and the British Council team, and to Jan and Kinda for such a well-run few days. We can’t wait to get started 💚

23/10/2026

Hands up if you are juggling spreadsheets, notes and bits of evidence everywhere?
Trying to keep track of your impact should not take more time than delivering the work itself. What if all your data could live in one place, making reporting, monitoring and learning much simpler?
Good news, help is at hand.
Cumbria Youth Alliance has been working with Upshot for the past 5 years. Together we have supported youth and community organisations, (big and small), to strengthen their Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), making it easier to understand and show the difference their work is making.
📅 Join us on Wednesday 4th November for a free online demonstration of the Upshot system.

We will:
✨ Show how the system works
💡 Talk about why MEL matters
🤝 Share our experiences and what we have learned along the way

If you want to spend less time managing spreadsheets and more time supporting young people and communities, this session is for you.
👉 Sign up now to secure your place:
https://loom.ly/z5uvtHU

15/10/2026

Hands up if you are juggling spreadsheets, notes and bits of evidence everywhere?

Trying to keep track of your impact should not take more time than delivering the work itself. What if all your data could live in one place, making reporting, monitoring and learning much simpler?
Good news, help is at hand.

Cumbria Youth Alliance has been working with Upshot for the past 5 years. Together we have supported youth and community organisations, (big and small), to strengthen their Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), making it easier to understand and show the difference their work is making.
📅 Join us on Tuesday 23 June for a free online demonstration of the Upshot system.

We will:
✨ Show how the system works
💡 Talk about why MEL matters
🤝 Share our experiences and what we have learned along the way

If you want to spend less time managing spreadsheets and more time supporting young people and communities, this session is for you.
👉 Sign up now to secure your place: https://loom.ly/a4F7O-A

13/10/2026

Autism training in Barrow 📣

Join Triple A (All About Autism) for Understanding Autism at the Family Hub in Ormsgill on Thursday 22nd October, 9.30am to 3.30pm.

The session is co-delivered by autistic trainers and covers what autism is, communication and sensory needs, and practical ways to support autistic people. It’s informal, jargon-free and CPD accredited.

Thanks to a subsidy from Westmorland and Furness Council, places are just £24.

To book your place, email [email protected]

09/10/2026

Your say on Cumbria's buses 🚌

Westmorland and Furness Council and Cumberland Council want to hear from residents, passengers, businesses and community groups as part of the Cumbria Bus Reform Pilot Study.

If you rely on the bus to get to college, work or appointments, this is a chance to tell the people planning services what would make a difference, whether that's routes, cost, accessibility or getting around rural areas.

📝 The public questionnaire is open until Sunday 25 October.

📍 You can also share your views in person at a community drop-in:
Fri 16 Oct: Penrith Library, 12.30pm to 4.30pm
Sat 17 Oct: Carlisle Library, 10.30am to 2.30pm
Tue 20 Oct: Keswick Library, 1.30pm to 4.45pm
Wed 21 Oct: Workington Library & Community Hub, 2pm to 6pm

https://loom.ly/zMLAuGQ

08/10/2026

Menopause Confident Workplaces Day 🗓️ Thursday 22 October, The Bridge, Barrow

A free, practical day for local organisations to explore what menopause can mean at work. You'll hear different experiences, look at ways to support people, and think about what could work in your own organisation.

The day will also introduce the MENO-kit and a free five-month Menopause Champion opportunity.

If you're an employer, manager or work in HR in the Barrow area, this is well worth a look.

Find out more and book: https://loom.ly/RrH5ils

Dandelion Coaching

02/10/2026

A week ago, we held our first opening event at our new home, the Benny Walker Centre in Workington, to mark the event we held a mayoral husting, hosted by our chair Mark Libby. The husting focused on how the candidates would support the young people of Cumbria if they were elected. Our CEO, Becky Wolstenholme, opened the evening by thanking everyone and sharing the story of Benny Walker.

The centre is named after Benny Walker, who grew up in Frizington. Without ever attending university, he founded Newdale Construction in Workington in 1970, whose projects included building the Ennerdale pipeline and Summergrove reservoir. In 2017, Benny set up the Benny Walker Charitable Trust to help young people get on in life and to support community buildings.

Callum Hyslop, CYAs data and infrastructure co-ordination and one of the young people who questioned the mayoral candidates on the night, said:

"I started work on a paper round at 14 and, like Benny, I didn't go to university. Having a place like this in West Cumbria, where young people can be heard by the people making decisions about their lives, is exactly the kind of chance he'd have wanted to give us."

Young people told us safe spaces and trusted adults make the biggest difference to their lives. The Benny Walker Centre is our answer to that.

Here are some moments from the night. Read the full story here:
https://loom.ly/ml_IK2M

📸 Carlos Reina Photography

30/09/2026

Proud to have represented Cumbria's youth last night at the UK Youth Gala!

Our CEO, Becky and COO, Sophie were privileged to attend, a huge thanks to Laurence Hancock from the Boathouse Youth Charity for the very kind invite.

It was a brilliant evening full of great conversations, new connections and shared ideas about how we can all work together to create more opportunities for young people.

The highlight of the evening was listening to the young people speak about their phenomenal journeys, showing us the impact youth work and trusted support can have in a young person's life.

A big thank you to Rosie Ferguson OBE, UK Youth CEO for bringing us all together. We also heard from UK Youth's president Nigel Mansell and Bargain Hunts, Thomas Forrester, even giving us and Cumbria a shout-out during the auction!

At CYA we see the power of partnership everyday. We are proud to be bringing Cumbria's experience into national conversations, it helps us champion the needs, ambitions and potential of young people across Cumbria.

We are looking forward to building on conversations and new connections.

We can always do better for young people by working together.

28/09/2026

On Friday, we opened the doors to our new home, The Benny Walker Centre in Workington. To open with a real bang, we invited the mayoral candidates to a hustings to discuss how they would like to support young people in Cumbria.
The evening opened with this video, showcasing young people and The Benny Walker Centre.

Then Kim took to the stage! Kim is an incredibly talented care-experienced young person. She chose a song close to her heart ‘Unwritten’ by Natasha Bedingfield. What a way to start an evening about young people’s futures.

Amy, Lettie and Callum made sure the mayoral candidates heard directly from young people posing questions around local decisions, transport, working the land and having a say in farming policy. Thoughtful questions about things that matter to young people in Cumbria.

And what a venue to have these conversations! After more than 25 years of working with young people in Cumbria we finally have a permanent home, The Benny Walker Centre. Inside is a dedicated youth room designed by young people, a skills room and kitchen, and seven bookable rooms, including one that holds up to 150 people.

Thank you to The Benny Walker Charitable Trust, Sellafield Ltd and UKSPF for making it possible.

More opening events are coming soon, so keep an eye out.

Address

Benny Walker Centre, Longhorn Building, James Street
Workington
CA142DF

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm
Saturday	5am - 9pm

Telephone

+441900603131

Website

http://cya.org.uk/

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