A celebration night was recently held in honour of retired youth worker, Nadine Kipling.
Nadine, who was born in Crook, qualified as a youth worker for Durham County Council in 1973.
She started her youth work career at Glenholme Boys’ Club and was working as a manager in the NHS at the same time.
She was then asked to support youth workers at Millbank Youth Club, West Auckland in 1980 for six months before finally hanging up her hat in December 2015. Six months turned into nearly 36 years of service!
Nadine has watched generations of young people pass through Millbank’s doors and has worked directly with parents, grandparents and children. She worked tirelessly, leaving her job at the NHS in Durham promptly at 5pm so that she could be at the youth club four nights a week.
On her celebration night, Nadine said her commitment was driven by watching young people grow and develop into the lovely young adults she witnessed coming back to say hello and to let her know how they were doing.
Many of these young people were in the room at Nadine’s celebration, on Wednesday 25th May, to give her a fond farewell.
Nadine was instrumental in organising inter-club competitions and young people would travel to Consett, Barnard Castle, Stanhope and Durham to take part in activities with other young people.
She was always a strong advocate for ‘grow your own youth workers’ and many of the young people she worked with went on to train on the same course she completed. Nadine was a committed and enthusiastic mentor for those young people, some of whom have now been in the profession for over 25 years.
The club is currently still being run by younger youth workers, whom Nadine has supported over the last five years, and all attended the night at West Auckland Workingmens Club to show their appreciation to such a wonderful woman and an amazing youth worker.
Nadine retired from the Health Service over 15 years ago and she was awarded an MBE the following year for her commitment to the post. This is something she has played down greatly but decided to celebrate it in front of the young people, as she wanted to show them that anything is possible with hard work.
As well as working two jobs, Nadine has volunteered and supported a whole range of charitable and community organisations throughout Bishop Auckland and within County Durham.
On her Celebration Night she was presented with gifts from Auckland Youth and Community Centre, Henknowle Community Association, Bishop Auckland Area Youth Committee and St Helen’s Parish Church.
All groups confirmed that they could not have carried out their work as well had it not been for the support of Nadine.
Nadine’s retirement comes at a time when Durham County Council have announced that they are no longer going to support youth clubs such as Millbank, threatening both staff and young people.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
