2025 was a busy and meaningful year for us here at YMCA Fairthorne Group. Across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, we continued to deliver support for children, young people and families through a range of services working together to strengthen communities and create opportunity.
As we look ahead to an exciting new year, we want to take a moment to reflect on the impact made during 2025 and to say a sincere thank you to everyone who supported our work. With your help, we continue to provide brighter futures for young people and communities.
Youth Services
Throughout 2025, our Youth Services teams continued to support young people experiencing homelessness and instability. At any one time, we provide accommodation for young people across our services, alongside a wide range of support that extends beyond accommodation alone.
This includes wellbeing and mental health initiatives, employability programmes, and an increasing focus on prevention, outreach and post-move-on support. Together, these approaches are helping young people build confidence, emotional resilience and long-term stability as they work towards independence.
Our housing teams were recognised with two Team Star Awards this year, acknowledging their compassion, skill and dedication in supporting vulnerable young people.
This year has been about strengthening our foundations through a significant transition, as we rebranded from housing into youth services. This shift means we are now able to support young people in a different way. As part of this, we have started developing a curriculum, while continuing to invest in our team and future development. – Josh Towers, Director of Youth Services
We also proudly marked the 25th annual Young Carers Festival, welcoming nearly 1,000 young carers for a well-deserved weekend of fun, rest and connection. This long-standing festival remains a powerful reminder of the importance of giving young carers time and space to simply be children. Planning for 2026 is already underway, and we are grateful to everyone who continues to support this much-loved event.
Early Years
2025 was a highly positive year across our Early Years settings. We welcomed the highest number of children since before the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting both the growing demand for our services and the trust families place in our teams.
Our Early Years quality agenda continued to progress, supported by enhanced frameworks and a strong focus on reflective practice. Across the year, we supported over 1,360 children, delivering more than 880,000 hours of high-quality early years care and education.
The roll-out of the Inclusive Classroom Profile (ICP) across our settings strengthened inclusive practice and helped ensure every child can thrive in a safe, supportive learning environment.
We’re proud of all we’ve achieved in Early Years this year. We have had the highest occupancy figures since before the pandemic, and we are continuing to grow in 2026. – Vikki Kennesion, Director of Early Years
Community Services and Activities
Across our community services and activity provision, delivery remained steady and responsive to local need. Our community centres, including Eastleigh, Newtown and Weston Library, continued to act as important hubs for families, young people and local residents, offering a wider range of activities, support services and social opportunities.
Across Daycamps and Holiday Clubs, we enhanced programme design, broadened activity choices and invested in staff training to ensure high-quality, inclusive experiences. These services support children and young people to build confidence, independence and positive memories in safe, structured environments.
People
Our people remain central to everything we do. In 2025, we grew our volunteer base to 115 volunteers across services, supporting nurseries, fundraising events, community programmes and youth services. Together, volunteers contributed over 45,000 hours of support throughout the year.
As we reach the end of 2025 our Volunteers continue to make an extraordinary difference to our services and the communities we serve. Their warmth, dedication, and friendly presence enrich every interaction, and many of our services simply would not be possible without their invaluable support. – Jo Pike, Volunteering Manager
Alongside this, we secured additional apprenticeship levy funding, enabling further investment in staff development, qualifications and career pathways. We also continued to train mental health first aiders across the organisation, ensuring wellbeing remains a priority for all teams.
We are delighted to mark another year of opportunities and growth across our charity. The positive impact we deliver for our communities, year after year, is only possible thanks to the commitment, dedication, and exceptional work of our staff team in supporting our services – Sue McCarthy, Director of People
Partnerships and Fundraising
Partnerships and fundraising continued to play an important role in supporting our charitable work throughout 2025. We were proud to receive Charity of Choice status from DP World and to work alongside partners who share our commitment to supporting children, young people and communities.
Our fundraising activity supported a wide range of initiatives, from food parcels and outdoor activities for families facing financial or additional challenges, to supporting the Young Carers Festival and young adults in supported accommodation.
It’s been an impactful year with fundraising; helping to support the community with food parcels, outdoor activities for those from low-income families or additional needs to working with businesses to support the Young Carers Festival and young adults in our supported accommodation; from securing a two-year corporate partnership to growing our individual supporters. – Sarah King, Fundraising Manager
If you would like to learn more about how you can get involved or directly support our work, we would be pleased to share further information.
