The Enact Story
The story of enact begins with its name, in 2003 it was registered on the charity commission website under the name of 'The Enfield Island Youth & Community Trust (EIYCT)'. This is the legal name that we still use however read on to find out more about us and how we got our name of enact!
EIYCT was first developed by a group of concerned individuals who sought an effective way to support young people aged 13-19 on 'Enfield Island Village' in the North East of the London Borough of Enfield.
In 2006, EIYCT developed a partnership with Oasis UK who used their national links to recruit key workers and help us develop a broader community provision through the newly established Oasis Academy. We still are in partnership with Oasis today in 2021 and work with the teams in Oasis Academy Enfield Academy and Oasis Hub Hadley.
In 2010, following local research, EIYCT launched provision for children and families with clubs for 4-11s, trips and family events. We encouraged volunteering and young people and parents began helping us to run groups.
By 2015, Trustees felt that EIYCT no longer described the breadth, nor the joined-up nature of our work, so EIYCT rebranded to 'enact community'. We also defined our value-led organisational outcomes, and the rationale for our model of an open-access universal offer where our provisions do not require membership, referral or an entry fee. All our delivery is community and young person led, we are informed by those who live in the area and the relationships we have built to understand this.
By 2017-18, we were supporting over 25 young people to volunteer. In May 2017, parent volunteers opened our first 0-5s Stay-and-Play session, completing a family of provision where children are supported between the ages of 0 to 19.
Our long term funder, the RSA Trust, help us to sustain the lease on our youth centre and majority of our core staff team salary cost, therefore sustaining a universal offer. Project grants completes the funding necessary to retain a current core staff team of three full-time workers who lead our provision projects with a small team of paid sessional workers and a larger team of volunteers.
For the avoidance of doubt enact/EIYCT is not to be confused with the Enfield Island Village Trust, which is a completely separate entity.
Mid 2019 enact saw a new team be introduced to the Enfield Island Village community, comprising of experienced practitioners to develop enact projects and bridge the gap between all provisions to stream line the 0-19 age appropriate projects (Please see children and families/youth tabs to find out more). enact also said goodbye to the team leader who had a huge impact working at enact for 10 years with a goodbye christmas meal led by staff and volunteers.
March 2020 and 6 months into the new team putting their individual stamp on provisions we saw a global pandemic hit. The challenge was now to work creatively to ensure meaningful relationships were still being made especially with volunteers. Covid19 had brought about challenges that no-one foresaw, and yet the team were committed and driven to make a change for children, young people, families and volunteers.
In 2021 the team are using various methods to stay in touch with the community with the help of funders to allow a new way of working. (Please take a look at our support us page/funders and sponsors tab to see more). This has involved using Twitter, Instagram and releasing a monthly or weekly schedule for the community to get involved in. Why don't you take a look at our current schedule?
The team are trying to improve universal services (during Covid19) with ongoing updates from the National youth agency and national government guidelines. We know we are working in a way that is ever changing however we are listening to the community and their needs as well as caring for ourselves. Self care is crucial and our work is underpinned by this with the emphasis of mental health. We are focusing on reducing isolation, improving health and wellbeing and tackling digital exclusion. Our aim is to focus on the demographic needs of the community who are living in poverty, do not have access to services and at risk of youth serious violence.
