About the Project

Meet the Team

The Phoenix Project was set up in 1999 to provide opportunities for young people. It offers activities for sport, creative arts and cooking as well as volunteering opportunities. In particular it prepares young people for the expedition section of the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

The Project has a focus on young people who learn or live in Spelthorne. The Project is based out of Ashford Youth Club, Kenilworth Road, Ashford, Middx. In particular it supports pupils at Thomas Knyvett College and Sunbury Manor School. In 2022/23 it worked with over 230 different young people aged between 14 – 18 from these communities, taking 180 away on Bronze, Silver and Gold Expeditions

The Project is volunteer led from the community it serves. All volunteers live in the borough and had involvement in the local schools. They give their time on Thursday evenings when the project meets or on one of the 6 yearly expeditions for free.

It is a Peer led project. Young people are developed as young leaders from the age of 15 to take an active leadership role within the project. This can be assisting with the training on the project, organising evening activities or supporting on expeditions. All the current staff came through in this way. This journey starts with a Peer education weekend open to anyone interested and progresses with coaching and mentoring. At any one time there are between 10 and 15 leaders aged 15 – 18,

It is Young person initiated. The project offers training for the expedition section of the Award which is often the reason young people initially join. The remainder of the activities are organised by young people asking if they can run them. Currently there is a river cleaning project along the Thames, a sports project as well as a generic drop in allowing discussion and planning. Additionally volunteering opportunities are available in partnership with Staines Rotary where we support the Santa Sleight, Staines Upon Thames Day amongst others.

It is self financing. The project relies on applications for funding. At the same time it refuses to have any young person not be involved in activities due to funding. Hence fundraising allows it to subsidises activities.

Staff are qualified and safeguarding is prominent. All staff are DBS cleared and have undertaken Safeguarding training. The project additionally has 12 First Aid qualified staff, 7 BEL trained for expeditions.