We recently donated £2,000 to Wivenhoe Youth Hub, a youth organisation set up in Wivenhoe in Essex back in 2022. Wivenhoe is a small town in Essex with a population of 9,000. Their youth club closed back in 2016 before being resurrected after some hard work by a couple of local councillors and individuals.
We were approached by Dr Samantha Davey, a lecturer in law at the University of Essex, who nominated Wivenhoe Youth Hub to receive a donation from us.
The Hub was set up partly by Anne Lucking, who identified that young people needed somewhere to go after the previous youth club closed down. A school was looking to get rid of an old shipping container and agreement was reached to transport it to a local park and set up as a youth centre. Councillors managed to get about £20k of funding in place and the whole enterprise is being supported by Essex Youth Services.
Anne Lucking said to us:
“We have just completed part of the development by adding a summerhouse on our decking area and also covering the decking. This has created a valuable usable space for the young people who come to the hub every Thursday. We cater at the moment for school years 7-9 and need additional funding to complete the development. We would like to build an additional shed on the front of the hub so we can store sports equipment and chairs etc. This will allow us when we are open to use the whole area. We have also just launched a cafe called The Cosy Cup Cafe which is run by the young people with the guidance of volunteers and we need equipment to furnish the cafe properly. We would be asking for funding in total of £2000 which would cover both the shed and equipment .”
Project Info
- Café – The Cosy Cup Café run by young people – equipment to furnish, £2000 to in total – shed to store sports equipment + chairs and equipment to furnish the café
- Limited space so want to build a shed to store as if not they have to go into the main container which can make it quite cramped when raining, also store craft stuff
Usefulness
- Cater for y7 – 9 (ie aged 11-13 years old) with different groups and regulars
- Have about 15 – 25 open Thursday evenings and Saturday where they run a cafe
- Hub with summerhouse + decking area
Future
- More volunteers to open more nights and do different things at the hub such as careers advice.
Decision
We took the decision to donate £2,000 to The Hub. The trustees could see that our small donation could make a clear difference to the work of this organisation.
On Site Visit
In October 2024 Toby Hirst, an administrator with Ten Percent Legal Recruitment, visited the Hub and spoke with Anna Lucking, one of the founders and the CEO.
Anna showed Toby around the Hub and talked about future plans. The shed we have donated the money for has not yet been purchased and Anna explained why.
Anne: “Your money is going to be spent primarily on a shed, a storage shed, which we badly need, but we’re waiting for confirmation from the council. It’s just when we can put it up. So that’s the storage shed that’s going at the front of the hub. Also, it’s paying to furnish and put electricity and heating in the summer house, which is a really valuable space for us because we are not that big. We need more space. So it’s made that more accessible space.”
Toby: “Tell me about the the community in Wivenhoe”:
Anne: “the positives of living in the Wivenhoe area are that we are a great community. We have an abundance of people who are willing to support each other. And also it’s a growing community.
Toby: “Why did you set up the Hub?”
Anne: “I set up the Wiv Hub two and a half years ago because there was no youth club in Hoe. The only youth club [in the wider area] is linked to the church. So I wanted it to be nothing to do [with religious organisations], I wanted to set up a youth club and I set it up in conjunction with my daughter, who at the time set up a youth council as well.
Toby: “Are you registered as a charity?
Anne: “We’re a community interest company.”
Toby: “What do you specifically do?”
Anne: Essentially at the moment, we run sessions every Thursday, 4pm to 7pm for years seven to nine. And also we run a community cafe every Saturday run by the teenagers.
Toby: “Anything other than the youth club nights and the cafe?”
Anne: “No, not at the moment.”
Toby: “How much money do you raise per year on average?”
Anne: “That’s really hard [to answer] because I normally, normally submit applications for funding when I’ve got a project. So other than specific projects, I don’t get regular donations, if that makes sense.
Toby: “How much do you raise yourself from things other than donation?”
Anne: “what we do is we hire out the space. So I hire out the space to the community and that keeps it going.”
Toby: “Do you think the charity is financially secure?”
Anne: “I do with the hiring out.”
Toby: “What are your plans for the future?”
Anne: “I want to create this space into a proper youth hub. So I want to offer free counselling sessions. I’d want to open career sessions. There’s lots of different things that I want to extend.
Toby: “Do you want to offer more services to the kids? And do you think you could cater for many more kids?”
Anne: “I want to offer more services, but I need to be bigger, and so I need potentially more grants to make the space bigger.”
Toby: “What problems do you face on a regular basis?”
Anne: “Not enough volunteers.”
Toby: Can you get enough volunteers to run events for the kids?
Anne: Not really. I have enough volunteers to run the sessions that I’ve currently got. I’d like to offer more sessions for older children. From 14 to 17 I’d love to offer separate sessions, but I need more volunteers.
What is this all about?
Ten-Percent Legal, Interim Lawyers, and Jonathan Fagan Business Brokers donate 10% of annual net profits to charity via the Ten Percent Foundation, a charitable trust set up by our group of companies to distribute monies to charities in the UK and Africa. We have been doing this for over 20 years. The Foundation never incurs any administration costs (other than Triodos bank charges, which are minimal). All monies donated are distributed to charities and community organisations.
Why do we donate?
We set up our companies over 20 years ago with the intention of being ethical in everything we do. As part of this, we decided that a percentage of our profits should always be earmarked for charitable work and set the rate at ten percent. A sudden burst of inspiration meant we called ourselves the Ten Percent Group.
Nominations 2024
We received over 60 charity nominations from academic clients, business clients, locums, solicitors, transcribers (via our sister company TP Transcription Limited) and staff. We have a strict list of criteria concerning our donation available on the Ten Percent Foundation website. Donations tend to be within the range of £500-£2000 per charity per year. However, in the past, we have supported charities over a period of 5 years with donations going towards specific ongoing projects.
View our list of 2024 donations so far here
If you have any questions about the Ten Percent Foundation’s work, please email jonathan@tptranscription.co.uk or visit our website at https://www.tenpercentfoundation.org.
