BEWDLEY YOUTH CAFE

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OVERVIEW

During the summer of 2017 Active Youth Outreach Services ran an outreach project promoting positive behaviour and engagement supported by Bewdley Youth Café. Our focus was to deliver services in the heart of disaffected communities enabling children and young people to pursue constructive and stimulating activities.

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BACKGROUND

Bewdley Youth Café and West Mercia Police had identified areas of highest need in line with current local policing statistics.

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SOLUTION

Bewdley Youth Café approached AYOS as a result of our successful intervention events aimed at reducing ASB in the local area during 2016. During 4 weeks of summer we delivered one session per week on a Saturday afternoon at Barnfield Park in Stourport.

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We utilised all of our mobile resources on-board the youth trailer which houses TVs, games consoles, sofas, arts and crafts as well as our outdoor activities, which included inflatables, archery, mobile skate ramps, table tennis and sporting equipment. The key aim for the sessions was to build relationships with the young people and offer structured discussions to support them in their day to day positive behaviour choices.

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RESULTS

During the sessions we would encourage young people to take part in meaningful activities, use respectful communication and take the opportunity to talk to staff about any concerns or worries they have.

We successfully engaged with over 50 children and young people across the four weeks and 100% of our attendees said that they found the youth trailer services useful, felt supported during their engagement and that it made a difference giving them something to do and somewhere to be.

Here are a few quotes we received from our young people:

“Can you be here every week”

“Its great to have this on our doorstep”

“Its nice to have something just for us”

“Fantastic support, fantastic sessions, a really worthwhile service”
Sarah Watton – Bewdley Youth Café Manager

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CONCLUSION

As a result of the positive outcomes we are hoping to gain funding for further sustained outreach work to support the children and young people of Stourport and Bewdley in conjunction with the youth café, giving them a consistent and safe space to seek advice and support.