Northern Lights: A busy first year for Charity committed to giving youth the best chance

I never do this; I’m always so focused on what is next. However, when I was writing the 2023 Annual impact report for Always An Alternative CIO (AAA), I had the opportunity to step back and reflect on our achievements. When I was looking back at all that Always An Alternative(AAA) had achieved, it sunk in, I had a feeling of being proud and a almost overwhelmed to be the CEO of such an amazing Charity.

During the year of 2023 AAA opened a new youth club and provided a youth worker to another established youth club, embarked on 3 anti-knife crime projects, and continued free American flag football sessions, weapons collections and weapon amnesty bins.

Youth Groups: The first Youth Group was set up at Foxhill Forum on Thursday. It was slow at the start, but it was built up to reach over 30 attendees per session, unfortunately the youth group had to move. This meant that AAA had to find a whole new cohort of you people, which was achieved, and luckily this didn’t have much of a negative impact on the numbers of young people attending. The following outcomes are partial as the project ended July 24.

508 young people came to our sessions

100 different young people visited our sessions

1000 meals were handed out

There was a reduction in antisocial behaviour reported in the areas of the youth clubs

28 young people attended on average every week

It was only closed twice (planned break)

“If it wasn't for the youth club, I'd be out on the streets with my friends messing about and getting into trouble.”

In August 23, AAA was asked to provide youth workers to a High Green Development Trust youth group, as the number of young people attending were low. After four weeks AAA increased the numbers, to over 20 young people per session. The following outcomes are partial as the project ended August 24.

200% increase in young people attending sessions

50 different individuals people attended (not double counting young people)

65% of parents saw an improvement in their Childs behaviour

100% of attendees, made new friends

22 attendees on average

“It helped me when I moved to secondary school because I knew some people that come here.”

Youth Flag Football: since 2019 AAA partnered with Sheffield forge to provide free grass roots American flag football training to young people. We were able to continue this throughout 2023.

Check out what was achieved:

Took part in 2 tournaments

12 Touch downs

48 Free sessions

13 attendees on average every week

“We cannot thank you enough for what you have done for my boys. You’ve brought the quietest boy out of himself.”

Talks, workshops and mentoring: AAA deliver a wide variety of talks and workshops, but we’re most known for ones that cover serious youth violence: knife crime.

However, during these sessions and discussions with professionals AAA started mentoring, looking at the deep routed problems that young people face.

500 university students reached

23 students had 1-1 mentoring sessions

900 miles travelled

11 SEND students accessed sessions

3000 students took part in workshops

98% liked the sessions

Victims Voices Documentary: The aim of this project was to show the devastation that knife crime causes by talking to those that have felt the pain directly. AAA premiered the project at Sheffield Town Hall along with work from some excellent artists and the upgraded version of the Tree Of Opportunity.

100 people attended the premiere

90 young people attended on average

100% positive feedback

300 people visited local artwork

5 sessions delivered to young people in collaboration with the NHS

“Love this! Keep motivating young children and putting them in the right direction. You’re absolutely fantastic!'”

Cutting-Edge: AAA was commissioned by the VRU to visit 10 educational facilities across Sheffield to raise awareness of knife crime with our art exhibition and discussions on the issue.

Each of the educational facilities housed our cutting-edge exhibition. During this time sessions were held around knife crime and then the educational facilities submitted a piece of artwork to raise awareness.

To celebrate all of those involved we had a lunch at Sheffield Cathedral and Dean Abi Thompson, Nancy Fielder and Abtisam Mohamed got involved to do a talk to the attendees.

25,000 people were reached including students, teachers and staff

1,000 people visited the cathedral to view our exhibition

30,000 saw the exhibition online

90 people attended the awards lunch

“Always An Alternatives delivery style is engaging for students as Ant speaks to them on their own level and turns a serious topic into something that is relevant to them.”

Weapons collections and amnesty bins: The combination of our weapon amnesty bins and weapons collections stopped over 500 weapons from reaching the streets causing more damage to our communities. All the weapons were collected and stored safely. They are then used to create sculptures that promote positivity. We work closely with Jason Heppenstall to achieve this.

AAA feel strongly about having this method of prevention in the fight against knife crime.

500 weapons

12 weapons collection

6 weapon amnesty bins

On behalf of AAA I would like to thank everyone that supports the work that we do.

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