Based in Birkenhead, The Hive Youth Zone is open for young people seven days a week and has now received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

Wirral Youth Zone (The Hive) has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK. 

Based in Birkenhead, The Hive operates seven days a week and works with up to 4,000 young people each year from across Wirral, giving them, somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to.

Young people can choose from around 20 activities each day including sports, arts, music, climbing, cooking and much more, all of which is underpinned with developmental and support programmes such as young leaders’ courses, employability schemes and a mentoring programme.

The entire programme is designed to raise aspirations, enhance prospects, improve health and wellbeing and enable young people to be the best possible versions of themselves.

Volunteers are key to making a difference to young people, with more than 80 bringing skills, experiences, passion, commitment and time, giving thousands of hours each year.

Over the last year during the pandemic, The Hive has adapted it’s programme to ensure that local young people continued to receive the support they needed. Practical support was offered along with initiatives including a daily digital offer, and an isolation support project which received more than 1,000 referrals in just 2 months. 

The Hive is one of the QAVS awardees given a special designation for providing impactful support to the community in response to the pandemic last year. It is one of 241 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the award this year.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate The Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Recipients are announced each year on June 2, the anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation.

Representatives of The Hive will receive the award crystal and certificate from Mark Blundell, Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside later this summer. And two volunteers from The Hive will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May 2022 along with other recipients of this year’s Award.

The Hive chief executive Stuart Barnes said: “I am beyond delighted that The Hive has received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, it is fantastic recognition and a tremendous thank you to all those who have given so much and consistently gone “the extra mile” putting young people first.”