- Children and young peop...
- On the streets
The On The Streets programme is a detached youth work project that we run for 13 to 19 year olds.
The project targets hard to reach young people who have little or no services they can access in their area. The team of youth workers spend six months in an area, building up relationships with the young people and working with them to find out their issues and needs.
The main focus of the programme is in taking part in activities and achieving accredited outcomes. While this greater participation in youth service and community activities may lead to a reduction in anti-social behaviour, hoax calls, small deliberate fires, and school exclusions, these are not explicit objectives of the project.
The team has worked with young people from Ditton and Halton Lodge, Hough Green, and are currently working in Winsford. Initially the young people are wary of the youth workers but, by walking the streets three nights a week, the young people begin to engage with the workers.
The project has been highly successful as the young people have been empowered to get what they want out of their community. For example, in Halton Lodge the young people had nowhere to go which meant they hung around in big groups on the street. Now they have access to the community centre on a Tuesday night and Friday night for football.
The young people also took part in 'On the Station' for three days over the Easter Holidays at Runcorn Fire Station. They were involved in teambuilding and firefighting activities and in educational sessions on sexual health and young people's rights.
In Ditton, good relationships were established with the young people. Now 90 young people play football on a Friday from 6-8pm. There has been a 57% reduction in small fires and 39% reduction in crime due to anti-social behaviour. These figures are still holding since the team have withdrawn from the area.
A BMX competition in Victoria Park in March was organised by the young people, assisted by the team. This attracted over 200 people from all areas of the community and plans are in place to repeat this event on a yearly basis.
If you need any more information please contact:
Tel: 01606 868700
Last updated: Thursday, 6 July 2023