Kirkcaldy YMCA legend LIz Easton steps down after 19 years at helm

Liz Easton, who has spent her entire career helping young people, has raised over £11,000,000 while in her role at the YM to ensure that every kid that walked through the charity’s door has had an opportunity to shine.

From the hugely popular Beveridge Skate Park to the newly built YMCA Community Hub in Gallatown, she has had a continuous impact in Kirkcaldy for the last 20 years.

It is the end of an era.

After a successful spell as a community education officer with Fife Council, where she supported at risk kids with activities that helped them engage with local educational programmes, Liz helped to break down barriers and create a sense of community for children who were slipping through the net.

In her time with the local authorityl, Liz was instrumental in the creation of the Beveridge Park Skate Park.

She said: “After some pressure from young people in Kirkcaldy, the council was looking at building a skate park in the town.

"I began to support the group, Young Skaters, who wanted to build a skate park, and when I moved to the YM in 2003 I continued that work.

"The skaters knew exactly what they wanted and we studied a park that had recently been built in Livingston – I drove the minibus through and we took pictures before returning to Fife Council with our findings.

"It was in 2006 when the Young Skaters dream was realised when the skate park was completed – before it was opened skaters would hold a competition in the park with homemade ramps, the skate competition is still running to this day.

"It was all down to the young people making it happen, but to be part of it was truly amazing!”

Liz said that when she joined the YM most of the projects were football orientated, but she wanted to offer more for the kids in the area.

"In the 60s and early 70s the YM was the place to go for music, I wanted to link back to that, and that is when we created the senior music project which was immensely popular.

"As so many younger kids wanted to join the project, we went on to create the junior music project – we were able to get funding to build our own recording studio where we could teach them how to work a PA system, and how to write songs, as well as learning to play instruments.”

With the music projects being so successful, that led directly to the creation of the Beveridge Park Music Festival which ran for 10 years in the town.

"It was such a great event, and with the money raised from ticket fees we were able to deliver more projects for youngsters in Kirkcaldy.

"The event would always sell out and a lot of the kids who came to the YM would volunteer whilst learning life skills – there was nothing like it.

"Unfortunately it kept getting more and more expensive to run it, and we couldn’t generate the money needed so we made the decision to close it down.”

Liz said that even though she was part of some major projects, it was delivering services for young people and watching them grow to become responsible adults that was the most enjoyable part of her time at the YM.

"A lot of youngsters who come to the YM stay on to become volunteers, and a lot end up going to college or uni who stay with the YM for placements, and sometimes when they graduate they end up coming back to us to work.

"I’ve had over 50 HNC, HND, and degree students with us at the YM in the time I’ve been there – because we have so many activities there are so many different approaches to youth work available for these students.

"We have had numerous young people who came to the YM for a project and had such a good experience that they have said to themselves that they want to get into youth work as a career.

"In my years at the YM I estimate that there has been over 200,000 young people and adults come through the door – it’s all about engaging them with something that they enjoy and they will keep coming back!”

Liz said that out of all of her achievements as general secretary, the construction of Gallatown Community Hub was the jewel in the crown.

“It took 11 years to get where we are now, and it all started with the Link Up project which is a community asset approach to working in the community.

"The asset in the community was the people as there was very little up there and it started from nothing.

"The aspiration and the dream was to have a place where people who didn’t have much could go for a bite to eat or a blether as well as a space for kids in the area to call their own.

"We had a discussion with the funding guy from the National Lottery and he stood on the balcony at the bowling club and he could see what we were trying to achieve and told us to go for it.

“The hub cost over £800,000, but what we have now is amazing and when you see what we have done with the hub and the surrounding grounds it truly is an awesome space.

"To me the work that the YMCA does has a higher value than the cost of the hub, what people have experienced, the lasting benefit of working with the community.

"The YM has changed people’s lives and you can’t put a price on that.”