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Project Report - Warrior Close Activity Programme Summer 2005

Portslade Community College –
Youth Work Team in partnership with the William Sutton Housing Association.

Portslade Community College – Youth Work Team in partnership with the William Sutton Housing Association delivered a Summer Activity Programme at Warrior Close, Portslade during July and August 2005.

After consulting with Val Lecky and the, newly formed, Warrior Close Residents Association it was agreed that the PCC Youth Work team run a series of events and activities based around the Warrior Close park space and targeting younger children and their parents.

We spent two sessions using outreach youth work methods to meet and talk to young people in/on the Close and get their opinions on the summer programme. Although there was some interest from the 14 – 19 age group the overwhelming interest was from the 7 – 13 age range which gave added weight to the views of the residents association.

We visited the Close for ten sessions during August (and organised one trip out) and delivered a series of activities based in the park. Our activities included ….
Face painting
Sand castle competitions
Parachute Games
Art and Craft activities e.g. jewellery making, weaving, model making etc.
Team games and problem solving games.

We recorded 204 attendances over the 11 sessions.
112 male and 92 female.
139 were by young people under 13 and 65 by young people 13 to 16 years of age.
The busiest session was attended by 38 young people (15th August).
The lowest attendance was 2 young people on a session which was not advertised as a youth work session.

This suggests that both young people and parents were aware when the workers would be present and attended the park because the youth workers were present.
We did not record the number of parents and carers who attended the sessions and although we know there were a group of parents who regularly attended and supported the activities we do not have accurate figures for this group. This does suggest that if the project is repeated we could count on the active support of a group of parents/carers.

The overall feedback from young people and parents/carers was very positive. All sessions were very busy and the quality of the activities provided by the youth work team was very high.
The activities and presence of the youth work team provided a positive focus for the sessions and created a safe space where young people and their parents could meet, get involved in activities and have fun in a safe and supervised environment.

Comments from parents/carers included:
‘Our children were able to get fresh air, with all the different activities they were never bored.’

‘I felt able to come into the park without feeling intimidated by older youths.’

‘We all looked forward to the twice weekly visits by you.’

Comments from young people included:
‘There were more people to play with and lots more things to do.’

‘Brilliant – should come here more often we are bored all the time and we need you.’

‘It was more fun and different to last year because there were more people to play with.’

Overall we feel the programme was a great success.
The Youth Work team delivered a high quality programme of activities over the summer period and worked with high numbers of young people and parents/carers in the Close.
The participation by young people and parents/carers was high and justified the resources we dedicated to the programme. Future programmes could build on this high level of participation and look to involving young people and parents/carers in the planning and delivering of the programme.
The rapport during the programme was excellent – between youth workers and young people, young people and other adults, and parents/carers and youth workers. This rapport could and should be built on to provide future programmes in the long school holidays.
The partnership between the William Sutton Housing Association and Portslade Community College proved extremely effective. Using the tenants office as a contact point and working with the team based at the office proved effective and provided a model of good practice which could be used in other areas of the City.

The Youth Work Team was:
Peter Trenholme Carol Havard Tai Havard Kevin Betts
Kylie Mulloch Lee Bennett

October 2005 email: youthoffice@pcc-web.com

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