Working with young people in Hawick and Galashiels

New Ways has received funding for 3 years from Communities Scotland to work with some of our most socially excluded individuals and groups, as part of a Regeneration Outcome Agreement (click here for the full agreement). Below are some of the great projects that are being funded.........

Borders Production Unit- Community Café
The focus here has been the refurbishment of a space destined to become the Community Café (Langlee), the Café itself having been set up as a community venture offering vocational training for young people.  A fully functioning kitchen, counter and seating area have been created.  Agencies such as CAB, Welfare Benefits, Healthy Living Network and Careers Scotland have all expressed an interest in attending the Centre to offer advice and guidance to local residents whilst the Café is open. 

Breakfast Club- Galashiels Academy
As many as 80 young people were buying breakfast from the Galashiels Academy Breakfast Club in the winter of 2005/06.  As a result of a survey conducted within the Academy in March of this year, a number of menu changes have been made.  Building on the findings of this survey, students have since set up a ‘Feelgood‘ Group.  It is intended that this Group will work with the Academy‘s SNAG to drive further changes next academic year.  Their work will also incorporate a new lunchtime initiative – Lunchtime Girls Health Group – where diet and exercise will become the focus for a group of young girls keen to adopt a healthier lifestyle. 

Breakfast Club - Hawick High School 
Since the appointment of a principal teacher for Health and Enterprise in April 2006, it is hoped that he will work alongside Hawick High School‘s SNAG to increase
take-up rates at the Breakfast Club there.  Anticipated issues for consideration include staff supervision, the physical environment of the dining area and, the possibility of running ‘taster‘ sessions to identify potential new products for the canteen.

Burnfoot Community Newsletter
The aim of the newsletter is to inform the community of events in the area, highlight local information and provide details of what is going on in Burnfoot.  The first edition of the Newsletter, distributed to all households in Burnfoot in spring of this year, included information on the proposed Community Futures programme and an invite to join the Steering Group.  As a result of this invite, 45 local residents attended the first two meetings of the group, representing a wide range of different interests.  The future development of the Newsletter includes encouraging young people to contribute articles, updates on other events and, the establishment of a community website. 

Chillout2gether (CO2 Jedburgh)
The Jedburgh Chillout2gether Youth Project has recruited an additional sessional worker for five hours weekly.  As a result of this, the Project has not only been able to continue to offer its‘ drop-in facility (two nights per week), it has also enabled work to be carried out with students in the local High School.  Jedburgh Community Council has approved the creation of a Youth Community Council, and further work is planned with the students to establish a youth democracy model for Jedburgh. 

Dialogue Youth
The dynamic Dialogue Youth initiative has seen an increase in the voice of young people being heard locally.  Around 20 young people have been trained to upload information for the Young Scot Borders website with an average of 2000 to 3000 hits a month.  This initiative has also seen the creation of the ‘Wired‘ programme on Radio Borders.  Hosted and presented by young Borderers, ‘Wired‘ is a weekly show designed to engage and inform young people living in the Borders.  Other developments include the setting up, by a group of six young people, of a monthly youth page in the local paper (YOB – Youth of the Borders), and the attendance of 60 young people at a health conference ‘Sex, Drugs and What You Know‘.  The conference itself was led by 4 young people for those in the 12 to 18 year age group.  The next stage in the development of Dialogue Youth is to introduce SMS text service and to begin training the new presenters for ‘Wired‘.

Family Liaison Worker - Langlee Primary School
Work thus far has concentrated on the preparations made for the appointment of a Family Liaison Worker (FLW) within Langlee Primary School.  Dividing her time between Langlee Primary School and the Community & Learning Development unit at Langlee, the FLW will continue to work on projects already established within the School e.g. Treasure trails (nature walks in the locality for young parents and their children), storysacks for Nursery parents and, target work for groups of more vulnerable children and parents.  The new FLW will also seek to establish further opportunities for young parents through consultation once in post.

Innerleithen Youth Project
As a result of extensive refurbishment, the Unit One building in Innerleithen now provides a much needed new youth base for the area.  Currently open for work with young people during evening sessions (one night per week), the project has seen young people take ownership and control of their own facility.  The new youth base will allow for the range and quality of local services to be expanded upon, in the running of, for example, issues-based workshops and team building exercises.  It is also envisaged that the resource at Unit One will be used as a drop-in space for partner agencies and local community groups. 

Local Community Action Plan pilot (LCAP)- Burnfoot, Hawick 
For the last year, the Vibrant Communities theme team of New Ways has been working on a model of Local Community Planning in order to bridge the gap between local communities and local agencies/service providers.  Essentially the main purpose of the pilot is to ensure that the whole community is involved in establishing an action plan for Burnfoot.  The ROA funding will ensure that young people make a significant and valuable contribution to this process, and that creative and relevant engagement methods are used to reach this particular group within the community.  It is hoped that the methods used can highlight good practice and be replicated in other parts of the Borders.

Members of the Burnfoot Steering Group hand over community questionnaires to the Borders Exploration Group, for distribution to every household in Burnfoot

Outreach Work - Gala Youth Project
After an initial period of induction, the Outreach Worker has been out on the ‘streets‘ of Langlee introducing himself to, and engaging with, young people in the area.  He has begun to build relationships with many of the young people he has come across thus far, and as a result has been able to discuss issues and concerns which affect them and their environment.  Indeed, potential candidates for sub-groups and community-based projects have already been identified (in the areas of motivation, empowerment and citizenship for example).  The newly appointed Outreach Worker continues to network with relevant agencies, including for example; youth clubs, the police, community wardens and Dialogue Youth. 

Voice of My Own (VOMO)
The Voice of My Own (VOMO) project, a video and film-making project for young people which aims to work with some of the most excluded and hard to reach young people in the Borders, has seen a total of 14 workers trained to deliver VOMO locally, 210 young people have had their voice heard through creative media and a further 291 young people have been involved in video making work.  Most of the equipment for the project is now permanently based at sites across the Borders.  Completed projects include Losing It;  Teen Mum;  Bright New Futures (5 films in total);  Nothing About Us Without Us (montage on youth participation projects);  Right to Reply (Dialogue Youth/Young Scot film) and, Burnfoot Multi-Skills Project.  In addition to these films (made with the direct involvement of VOMO staff), young people have been making films with the VOMO equipment independently. 

Welfare Benefits Assistant
In recognition of a perceived gap in the provision of advice, information and support for young people aged 14 to 25 years in the Scottish Borders, it was also recognised that the Welfare Benefits Service possessed the relevant skills, knowledge and experience to make a valuable contribution towards closing this gap.  To date, the work of the Welfare Benefits Assistant has concentrated on establishing contacts and links to other agencies, with plans to set up a series of information sessions/talks for the autumn.  In addition, the new post holder will attend Registration Weeks for both Heriot Watt University and Borders College later this year. 

Window of Time
10 young people have been offered leadership training in outdoor activities through the Window of Time project.  Working 3 days weekly, the team has introduced participants to a range of activities including mountain biking, kayaking and, canoeing.  Of the 10 participants, 2 have gained the Mountain First Aid Award, and 8 have secured 1 star Kayak and Canoe awards.  All participants complete a monthly review with a staff member, and video diaries have begun for both individuals and the group.  The Voice of My Own (VOMO) project will edit these at a later stage.

Young Citizens Project - Galashiels and Hawick Citizens Advice Bureaux
The Citizens Advice Bureaux serving Central Borders and Roxburghshire have extensive experience of advising their local communities on a wide range of issues including benefits, housing, employment and debt.  The Borders Young Citizens Project, in conjunction with local young people and other agencies, aims to provide a service for people aged 14 to 25 in Galashiels and Hawick.  This they will do by assessing the best times/venues/methods of service delivery;  providing training in benefits/employment/debt-related issues to young people and;  providing training opportunities for young people to develop skills to act as intermediaries in advice work, thereby becoming aware of the issues affecting their peers. 

Youth Chex
Some 500+ young people were involved in groups applying for funds to set up projects within their localities.  A further 50+ young people were meaningfully involved and engaged in decision-making processes by sitting on the Youth Chex Decision Making Panels.  Out of a total of 48 applications, 31 projects have been successfully funded with total grants awarded amounting to £24,500.  Successful applications have included theatre, disco, sports, dancing, swimming, paintball and puppetry groups;  bagpipe, folk music and orchestral groups and, individuals providing skills workshops.  In addition to this, two Borders-wide projects – a Young People‘s Basketball League and a Young Person‘s Health Conference  have been supported.  Some 1500 young people have benefited from the activities provided by the applicants‘ successful projects in their communities.  The Youth Chex project is a good example of a project which is young people led.  Young people (panel members) write monthly monitoring and evaluation reports, and they also chair and minute Youth Chex Panels.  The panel members themselves decide on grant allocations.  Feedback on the process is gathered from participants and Youth Chex youth workers through the Youth Chex Advisory Board, residentials and the University of Edinburgh research team.  In an initial survey of some 44 (27 males and 17 females) young people for the purpose of baselining the project, it was encouraging to note that whilst there was clearly an imbalance in terms of male/female recruitment, the recruitment of almost 40% females onto a youth participation project was a considerable achievement in itself.  Comparisons with what is generally known about ‘youth participation‘ projects demonstrate that Youth Chex is succeeding in attracting young people from groups that tend to be under-represented in other participation models. 

For more information on the ROA, you can access papers, minutes etc of the Project Board by clicking here