Quality Assurance and Awards

Quality Assurance

Fitzrovia Youth in Action (FYA) is committed to the continuous enhancement of the quality of activities and opportunities provided. FYA has undertaken a strategic and evidence-driven approach to improve the quality of learning opportunities.

We participate in the following quality assurance programmes:

London Youth Quality Mark

FYA has been awarded a Gold Level London Youth Quality Mark, a quality assurance scheme accredited by City and Guilds.

FYA has achieved all three levels within London Youth’s Quality Mark; Bronze, Silver and Gold.  The Bronze award focuses on the policies and procedures clubs need to have in place to ensure they are operating legally and safely.  Silver focuses more on the opportunities provided to young people, as well as their training and support provided to staff and volunteers.  The Gold award is a badge of excellence which focuses on providing evidence that the club is committed to continuous improvement and involves young people at all levels.

Project Oracle Standard of Evidence

FYA’s monitoring and evaluation framework for youth social action is validated by the Project Oracle Youth Evidence Hub. Project Oracle is an accreditation programme that supports youth organisations gather high quality evidence and produce robust evaluation frameworks.

FYA has achieved Project Oracle’s Level 2 Standard of Evidence. This means FYA has in place a coherent and plausible description of the rationale that lies behind this work. This includes a description of project activities, intended outcomes and aims, how these are connected and what assumptions are being made; therefore providing all the elements needed for a Theory of Change. The accreditation also includes plans for evaluating the outcomes described and the timeline for implementing this.

Recent Awards

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service                                                                                                                                                                       

FYA was awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award given to voluntary organisations in the UK to recognise outstanding contributions made to local communities. The Award recognises groups whose work with volunteers has significantly benefited others and claims it ‘sets the national    benchmark for excellence in volunteering’. The award is the equivalent to the MBE and is managed by the    Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Camden Youth Awards 2022 – Best Youth Provision

Young people who have excelled, overcome obstacles or made sacrifices to help others had their achievements recognised at the Camden Youth Awards. FYA won the category of Youth Provision for its peer mentoring programme. The project supported over 700 young people during the Covid 19 pandemic in online and face to face sessions with issues including mental health, homelessness, and parental conflict.

Camden Youth Safety Awards 2022

The Awards were held as part of Camden Council Youth Safety Fortnight, which brought together schools, local youth services, the police, politicians, and voluntary organisations working with young people and families to discuss ways on how to improve youth safety as well as the work that has been happening so far in this area. Young people supported by FYA won the 1st and 2nd place for films they created to promote safety for young people. Both films were based around the theme young women’s safety.