Youth Services
because it matters
Meeting their needs, something to do and preparing them for the future
Every generation, Kids face so many challenges. The type of obstacles they face can differ year to year. We all want the best for them but most parents find it almost impossible to keep up in todays fast moving society.
When we first have kids, most parents are a mixture of excited and terrified. None of us know what we are doing. Much like most things in life, you make it up as you go along and hope that you have it right. Nothing changes in that sense. Children get older, and we get used to making it up and learning as we grow beside them.
We have all heard the saying "It takes a village to raise a child" and that is something that we believe in. Raising a child in a one, or two, parent family is hard and most parents no longer have "a village" to support them in raising their young and many fear asking for help can result in unwanted judgement.
Having a larger community support system in place (let's face it, none of us want to be the adultiest adult), to celebrate when we win, support when we struggle and lift us to new levels of achievement in the things we love is everything, so here is what we have planned...
Support for Parents and Children
Signposting
If you're uncertain about anything or need guidance, feel free to reach out to us during our opening hours. If we don't have the answer right away, we'll do our utmost to find it for you or direct you to someone who can help.
Homework Club
Children of a school age start getting homework as soon as they start their education. With the huge demands on parents, helping with homework can be a time consuming pressure that you want to do, but struggle to find the time for. We plan to hold group homework sessions for all ages to take the pressure off. The sessions will be grouped by age and can be subject focused to make sure the support is where it's needed.
A little Extra
And if you are really finding a subject hard going, or have upcoming 11 plus or GCSE's, you can get affordable one-to-one tutoring by qualified tutors or experienced education based staff.
Parent and Baby groups
We Know the first couple of years aren't easy.
We'll be there when you need us.
We will be offering support from day one. Breast feeding guidance, learning through play or support through parents leaning on other parents, we want to be there through every stage. Everyone deals with becoming a mum differently and it really doesn't matter if it's your first or the last of a football team, every time is unique.
One of the biggest misconceptions we found in our research and experience is thinking we are alone through parenthood. It's true to say that there are times when we need to be, but it is also true that there are so many missed opportunities to bond with other mums, because the services are not available or do not fit within your comfort or boundaries.
We will provide our services and develop them with your input to the best of our ability. As with all of our projects, we are moving away from the one size fits all model and will shape the services we provide to the people who are using them, ensuring a support system that meets the needs of the people it serves.
Activities
Nothing to do?
There seems to be two different views on this, from one perspective we have many activities in town and around the area such as swimming, cinema and clubs.
From the other perspective, many of the activities are financially out of reach, as regular activities for families.
This means that their normal activities are hanging out with friends, but without having something to actually do, and as a result antisocial behaviour is a common occurance.
Within our centre of operations, we intend to provide an area known as "The Den". A lightly supervised, relaxed, bean bag style atmosphere, with available activities, such as pool, ping-pong and a graffiti wall to make their own. A space to just "hang out" and be.
Safe and warm during the winter months with water or squash to drink and fresh fruit freely available.
This is one of the services we will be offering to begin dealing with antisocial behaviour experienced in the area.
Youth Group
Acknowledging the lack of opportunities, activities and financial impact, we are looking to provide a service much like we had in our childhood, plus a bit more!
We will run Monday to Friday and will provide a range of activities, from tech based to basics including sports, dance, F1 digital racing, arts and crafts, drama, music and anything else we can make happen!
Holiday Clubs
Most Antisocial behaviour happens during the Summer period. School Holidays means freedom for the kids and pressure for parents, in terms of both, Childcare Costs and keeping them occupied.
We will be providing childcare and activities through our holiday clubs at around half the price of current options. This will mean that the parents will be more financially comfortable and the children will have fun and be safe throughout their school holidays.
All of our youth services are run with safeguarding and well being at it's centre. Each element of our provision, is available to meet the needs of each individual and their family.
Imagine; your children finish school, have somewhere safe to hang out, attend a homework club, have dinner at our cafe and attend the youth club, when you have a late finish at work.
By the time you get home, nearly all of your children's needs have been met and you have enough time to spend some quality moments with them, when you would normally be cooking dinner. All of this for an affordable price too!
Back to Basics
Kids will always enjoy hobbies and games, but many kids have missed out on the basics, because the price of these lessons are just unaffordable to some families. We think that skills like swimming and bikeability should be available to everyone and shouldn't cost the earth, so our youth services includes summer swimming lessons and road safety in the warmer months of the year, as part of the membership.
Introduction to Adulting
Today, young people grow up learning to navigate the fast pace, tech heavy world that they live in. With social media, families working hard to make ends meet and a lack of job opportunities, kids are not always getting all of the chances that can benefit them, in preperation of being young adults.
Within our youth program, we plan to provide sessions based on money management, cooking, basic car maintenence and much more. We also want to provide them opportunities to work, either within the community centre or paired with a local company, and be able to earn their own money. This in turn will take pressure off parents financially and encourage the child to understand and embrace their financial independence alongside giving them experiences of the working world.
Childcare for employees
We recognise that one of the biggest barriers to work is childcare. This can be for many reasons and instead of analysing the situation, we put our focus on finding an answer.
Our staff will be entitled to onsite childcare for pre-schoolers and holidays clubs for children up to the age of 8 years, for approximately 20% of their hourly wages.
Employees children who are over the age of 8 years will be given priority for our standard holiday clubs provided in the area.
The aim is to provide peace of mind to our employees who are parents, and ensure that our employees feel the financial benefit of working, alongside meeting the human need to feel purposeful.
We hope that this part of the project will eventually be rolled out to our members, using a similar framework and partnering with other willing local childcare providers.