Andrew Davies, PAVO Youth Development Officer & Hannah Lake, PAVO Volunteering Officer attended two successful Duke of Edinburgh Volunteering Events this week, 1 held in Newtown & 1 held in Brecon.

This was a great opportunity to make links with Duke of Edinburgh, Ysgol Penames, Welsh Rugby Union and Youth Services to promote volunteer placements for those starting their Bronze Award which requires 6 months of Volunteering.

For more information on volunteering opportunities contact 0845 0093288 or email info@pavo.org.uk .

The event celebrated the success and end of the Engagement Gateway Project by showing off the wonderful work that has been done which aimed to improve the employability of individuals who face barriers to employment, by giving them the confidence, skills and experience to move a step closer to becoming employable. There were Engagement Gateway Projects at the event to promote and proudly show off their work, including Tir Coed Woodland Project and Ashfield Cultivating Change. In particular a participant who had engaged on the Tir Coed project whose life had been turned around since joining the project came to the event. Ben Morgan had improved confidence, learnt many skills and was proud to talk to and show the guests what he had achieved, he was awarded with his 200 hours Millennium Volunteers Certificate and surprised when he was also presented with a copy of 'Mike Abbot's book Living Wood - From buying a woodland to making a chair', awarded to celebrate his tremendous achievements.

PAVO were also lucky enough to receive an email from Sarah Rochira, Welsh Government, who, even though unable to attend, sent her best wishes and congratulated all of the projects.  Mike Marshall, Older People's Strategy Project Manager from Powys County Council presented an enjoyable speech on the importance of all three projects in Powys and Mike Theodoulou a Big Lottery Fund Committee member kindly attended the event.
PAVO chief executive Carl Cooper quotes “It is delight to be able to launch 'Powys Befrienders', a project that will support older people in Powys to pursue active lifestyles, maintain a stimulating social life and remain independent. In addition to new beginnings, it is equally rewarding to celebrate the achievements of PAVO's Engagement Gateway support service and our 'Can Do Communities' grant scheme. These initiatives have helped to transform the lives of individuals and communities. We rejoice in the many, innovative ways in which people have been helped towards paid employment and in which small scale capital projects have made a relatively enormous social, economic and emotional difference.