Chris Cook Email & Phone Number

Crawley, Gb

Dormans Youth Arts Centre, Dormans, Crawley Rh11 8Hz

With over 40 years of voluntary and paid youth work / youth club experience I am able to support communities, management committees, housing associations and others in engaging young people as well as considering the risks and safeguarding required to support the development of safe youth activities.

Crawley

Having supported the development of this charity from its inception and creation I continued as an Advisor to Directors in an unpaid role. In September 2014 I joined the Board of Directors as Secretary and have helped to establish this charity as a major provider of universal youth services in Crawley. With my various transferable skills I manage the building Dormans Youth Arts Centre, provide technical support and expertise to manage the website www.ccys.org.uk and develop systems/procedures for staff and volunteers to use. I work to ensure that the charity delivers a high-quality service representing the organisation to county-wide safeguarding forums and networks across Sussex. I play a key role in holding the charity to account as well as overseeing the preparation of financial reports for the Board.I regularly help to train staff/volunteers but also provide access to county-wide development opportunities as well as complete grant applications for the organisation. We are working to develop the charity as a sustainable business able to deliver universal youth services for the long term.

Gossops Green, Crawley

In 2012 WSCC released me to take up a position with Crawley Community Youth Service (CCYS) for one day a week as an Advisor to the Directors. I established this charity as a not for profit limited by guarantee company after taking advice from Crawley Community and Voluntary Service in May 2011. As Advisor to Directors I helped prepare policies, procedures, and business plans to support the development of this voluntary universal service. I recruited the trainee part-time Youth Worker and gained funding of £22K from the DWP to support the training and development of this worker at Brunel University. We are in the process of an asset transfer of Dormans Youth Arts Centre from WSCC. In this role I have gained experience of funding applications, plus significant understanding of governance and voluntary sector provision. Since returning to full-time work with WSCC I am now a voluntary Director and Secretary for CCYS.I liaised with countywide networks with the Diocese of Chichester, Sussex Clubs for Young People, West Sussex Council for Voluntary Youth Services and the West Sussex Safeguarding Forum. I was also part of the original steering committee for Young Crawley which developed a consortium for voluntary sector groups to work together to bid for funding by commissioners from the NHS and county council.

Worthing

Meet In Place, Fishersgate, Hove

Sussex Clubs for Young People Ltd (SCYP) aims to support development of a vibrant voluntary and community youth sector, which involves, empowers and meets the needs of young people in Sussex.We are here to support clubs throughout East and West Sussex, including Brighton and Hove. SCYP is an umbrella organisation which has been supporting voluntary youth groups in Sussex for over 70 years. It is a registered charity (number 1142272) and company limited by guarantee (number 6938546).As Club Support and Business Development Officer I will be • Visiting and supporting SCYP Clubs across Sussex including Brighton and Hove.• Identifying the needs of the clubs and enhancing programmes for young people.• Identifying and informing affiliated clubs of youth work training and activities available to them.• Developing the work and sustainability of SCYPContact me by email at chris.cook@sussexcyp.org.uk

Thomas Bennett Youth Wing

YOUNG PEOPLE'S SERVICEI am a qualified Youth Worker managing staff, buildings, lead worker for Young Carers and NEET forums in Crawley, Horsham and Mid-Sussex, the direct support of Care Leavers as well as targeted work for young people with needs around self-esteem, anger management and bullying. My manager considers that my organizational skills are “second to none” and I am frequently called upon to plan and prepare events for the county including transportation, managing suppliers and other services to deliver a mixture of residentials, conferences and performances for young people. In the last year I have organised two camps for 200 National Citizen Service recruits and 120 young carers respectively at Blacklands Farm near East Grinstead providing resources and managing suppliers for the catering, accommodation and delivery of the different programmes.

Centenary House, Worthing

As the Voice and Engagement Coordinator for WSCC working with members of the UK Youth Parliament, County Youth Cabinet and Youth Councils throughout West Sussex to engage with services and work with MPs and Councillors as part of Positive for Youth strategies. This included preparing young people for scrutiny meetings and shadowing members. I liaised with Engagement Workers at Borough, Town and District level and nationally. My key tasks included the establishment of a Young Inspectors programme, the review and development of governance for the Youth Cabinet, creation of an independent Young Carers 16+ Network, Youth ePanel, and latterly developing links between forums for Young Disabled people and Youth Councils. I was successful in preparing with young people and other partners a Youth in Action grant of £26K to develop Youth Voice in West Sussex working with a range of stakeholders and partners in councils and voluntary sectors agencies. I utilized social media and other technologies to work with young people across county writing blogs and capturing feedback. I managed support workers and volunteers in this role and coordinated a range of events including a Youth Voice Conference in Worthing and a meeting with decision makers and members at County Hall in Chichester.

Ifield Youth Wing

As the Youth Worker in Charge at Ifield Youth Wing. I managed a staff team of 7 sessional workers, developed a significant volunteer team and recruited a number of young people as volunteer junior leaders and peer mentors. I applied for and received over £30K of funds in this period for a range of projects including one that supported young people with poor behaviour and attendance to address their needs and improved their engagement with education. In this role I was able to offer opportunities to complete the Duke of Edinburgh's Award as expedition and centre leader. I also led on a scheme to engage and encourage young people back into education with a programme to build on self-esteem and emotional resilience.

Crawley

Discovery New School was one of the first tranche of free schools and was one of the first to be closed.I was originally selected as a Community Governor because of my links to a variety of groups across Crawley. Sitting on the Finance Committee I helped to scrutinise financial matters. In April 2013 I agreed (naively) to stand as Chair of Governors following the sudden resignation of the former Chair and two other Governors all of whom had been involved in the founding of the school. In May 2013 a very poor Ofsted result led to the eventual closure of the school. Personally I found this to be a very challenging and life-changing experience. My understanding of governance has led me to reflect on my role in other charities and elsewhere in keeping organisations to account. Dismissing members of the senior management team was emotionally and personally difficult and I gained a good understanding of the complexities of proper performance management, human resources, and coping with legal challenges to the processes.I managed this stressful time voluntarily with limited support from my employer where the workforce was undergoing redundancies and restructuring. This has been a sad episode for all involved in this school. A lot has been learnt and we hope these lessons can be useful for others working in free schools.

Crawley

The Rector of Ifield convinced me that my future was in a role that had a greater impact in youth and community work. Licensed by the Bishop of Horsham in this role I developed youth and children’s work within Ifield Parish, visited schools, took assemblies and classes, after school and lunchtime clubs and was a member of two governing bodies for local secondary schools. One key project was to work with groups of young people from a CE secondary school to prepare assemblies that they would deliver involving over 30 primary schools over a 12 month period. As Youth Missioner I was responsible for organizing holiday clubs, workshops, youth-led services and confirmation teaching. We raised funds successfully for a range of trips, musical and camping equipment including a large marquee. In 2005 I helped to lead a group of 18+ young people to Cameroon with the Diocesan Evangelist – this included supporting the young people in raising their own funds to travel, completing all vaccinations and applying for visas, training them to cope with the cultural differences and then providing pastoral support while away from the UK for three weeks.

Woking

I contracted for a few months for this company writing corporate tax software in a specialised computer language. I was recruited to take on a full-time role as Project Manager for a team developing Corporate Tax Software. The team were drawn from a number of countries and we created a system utilising formulae provided by accountants to cope with the intricacies of Corporate Tax.

West Sussex

I returned to contracting to boost my income. During this period I worked for different companies writing retail, tax and insurance software. Primarily using object-orientated code in scripting languages and developing as part of large teams.

Steyning

I was recruited by Ashdown Publishing who were one of my clients to manage their IT systems. I managed a small web development team including designers and editors. I provided web and email services to a range of clients. During this period I recorded, edited and produced videos for a range of conferences including our very own Teddy Bear Oscars for one publication – Teddy Bear Times.

Haywards Heath

This was my first stint at being self-employed following a redundancy. My major projects included: writing retail software for an office furniture supplier and invoicing in Crawley; developing a timesheet/invoicing/payroll system for an employment agency providing HGV drivers to clients which ultimately developed into a system paying over 500 staff per week and with a turnover through invoicing of approx. £450K weekly covering 30 offices nationally. During this period I formed a partnership with a friend with whom we launched one of the earliest internet cafés in Haywards Heath.

Croydon

I led a small team that commissioned and installed systems nationally for this accounting firm as well as providing front-line support to over 250 end users. In this role I was able to develop skills in line and performance management of employees. In one major project I planned and facilitated the installation of 60+ PCs and network servers at the Glasgow office including the coordination of structured cabling, purchase and delivery of equipment, plus the support and training of staff to a tight deadline with all activities completing in a two week period.

Reigate

After developing insurance quotation software for mortgages and pensions in Cobol and using Lotus spreadsheets for IBM PCs I transferred internally to a Business Support Team. I supported the use of PCs from installation to front-line support. As part of the Business Analysis Team I helped to review the processes and staffing for a range of departments and branch offices completing time and motion studies and analysis of caseloads. I developed significant skills in the preparation and presentation of reports to senior management.

Crawley

Starting as a Computer Operator on early mainframes (including ICL 2960's) I was internally promoted and into development as Programmer and Business Analyst. I was instrumental in the early introduction of PCs to the service including preparing standards and guidance for their use. I supported the training of new programmers and the development of standards for using PCs in the early days across the IT Department.

Foundation Degree, Youth & Community

Studied Youth & Community

Education record