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Programmes

Things with an end and a certificate.

Open access is most of what we do, but not all of it. These five have a start date, a finish date and something to show for it — which for some young people is the only thing that has.

The three biggest

Bronze DofE · £68 a year

Thursdays in the Loft from September, two training weekends, and a two-day expedition on the moors above Luddenden in June. Boots loaned free in every size from 4 to 12.

Earn-a-Bike · free

Six Monday evenings in the Yard. Strip it, fix it, rebuild it, keep it — with lights and a lock. Eight places, three times a year. Bikes donated by the police and two local shops.

Arts Award · £2 a session

The Weaving Room on Wednesdays: a recording desk that works, a drum kit and two guitars. Eleven young people complete Bronze or Silver each year. Silver carries UCAS points.

Why we charge £68 for something worth £250

Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award costs a family around £250 by the time boots, a rucksack, a sleeping bag and the registration fee are paid for, and that is before anyone has driven to a training weekend. That price is why the Award has a reputation in some parts of Halifax as a thing other people’s children do. Our £68 covers registration with the Award, all group kit, both training weekends and the expedition itself, and we hold a loan box of walking boots in every size from 4 to 12 so that nobody has to buy a pair for one weekend in June. The gap between £68 and what it actually costs us — about £190 a head — comes out of donations and a grant from a regional community foundation. Fourteen young people started Bronze in 2025 and twelve finished, which is above the national completion rate, and two of those twelve had never spent a night away from home before the first training weekend.

Every programme, in detail

What it costs, when it runs, who leads it and how many places there are.

Runs Thursday evenings in the Loft from September, with two training weekends and a two-day expedition on the moors above Luddenden in June. The £68 covers registration with the Award, all group kit, both training weekends and the expedition itself; the only thing we ask families to provide is walking boots, and we keep a loan box of those in every size from 4 to 12. Fourteen young people started Bronze in 2025 and twelve finished, which is above the national completion rate. Sophie Ainsworth is the licensed coordinator.

Six Monday evenings in the Yard stripping, repairing and rebuilding a donated bike, and at the end of it the bike is yours to keep, with lights and a lock. Ick Rahman runs it with two volunteer mechanics and it takes eight young people at a time, three times a year. It exists because transport is the single biggest practical barrier to a young person in Halifax getting to a college, a job interview or a friend’s house. Bikes are donated by West Yorkshire Police from unclaimed recoveries and by two local shops.

The Music Room on Wednesday evenings is a recording space, a drum kit, two guitars and a desk that works. Eleven young people complete Bronze or Silver Arts Award through it each year, which is a real qualification recognised by UCAS at Silver level. Nobody has to be doing the Award to use the room; most people in there on a Wednesday are just using the room.

Tuesday afternoons in the Office with Dawn Mercer: housing applications, benefit forms, bank accounts, CVs, and the specific administrative cliff that arrives when a care placement ends. It is not a drop-in for advice in general — it is two hours of somebody sitting next to you while you do the form. Twenty-three young adults used it in 2025.

A full-day group programme in our building for up to twelve young people, most often a six-week block for pupils at risk of permanent exclusion. Delivered by two JNC-qualified staff. Block bookings across a term are discounted; ring 01422 486 210 for a quote before you write it into a bid.

The Yard, the Weaving Room and the moors above Luddenden

Stand behind it

The building is paid for. The evenings are not.

Calderbank has never charged a young person more than £2 to walk through the door, and we are not about to start. Regular giving is what makes that possible — 68% of our running costs now come from people in Calderdale rather than from grants.
£8 a month
Keeps one young person in club for a whole term, hot meal included.
£25 a month
Pays a qualified youth worker for an evening of detached work in town.
£60 one-off
Buys the tools and parts for one Earn-a-Bike course place.
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Gift Aid adds 25p to every £1 · Registered charity 1069412 · Accounts published every October