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The Youth Team
The Youth Team offer a diverse range of services and activities for children, young people
and families.
The Team works with the Youth
Offending Service to run an Inclusion Program, which works with young people
who are offending and /or not attending school. This is an extremely
challenging project that very few agencies would have the infrastructure to
deal with.
Referrals to the Team are from
Social Services, Youth Offending Service, Health Visitors, Schools, Parents,
Housing Departments and many others.
Apart from Social Service
referrals, the team picks up work with people who are slightly below the
threshold of the Social Services involvement and those that would refuse to
be involved with the Social Services.
Project Aims an Objectives
- To Improve the quality
of life for children, young people and families on the Caia Park Estate.
- To increase and enhance
co-ordinated local services for the above.
- To encourage positive
alternatives to crime, vandalism and anti social activities.
- To encourage involvement
in new and established services.
- To ensure inter-sector
co-operation and investment in preventative child and family services.
- Offer a pro-active and
re-active response.
Some of our activities are
listed below:
After-school Clubs
We operate three successful after school clubs based within the schools in
the Caia Park area. These are open term time only. They are registered to
take 62 children per evening. The children are picked up from their
classrooms by fully qualified staff and taken to each club, where they are
provided with a nutritious snack and drink. They are the then offered a wide
range of activities e.g. painting, home corner, table top games, indoor and
outdoor games and many others.
Breakfast Club
This is a relatively new venture. It started off slow but the need for this
service has now been proven by its increasing popularity. Although we put in
for continuation funding to N.O.F. we have been unsuccessful we are now
trying to find funding from other sources. The children are given breakfast
and then escorted to the school yard to wait for the bell, they are then
seen safely to their classes. The opening times are 8am till 9am.
Fishing Club
The community benefits from
the group by encouraging the young people to participate in the recreational
sport, which enables the young people to develop new skills both personally,
and in an angling nature. The user benefits through experiencing a sport
which is not always available to them, either through not being able to
obtain the correct equipment, due to expense or by not being able to travel
to adequate venues due to lack of public transport.
History Club
The programme is set up to
enable young people who live in Caia Park to develop a better understanding
of local history and incidents. The initial programme being run involved a
World War Two German bomber, which had crashed in a local farm. The young
people have visited the site and also the Wrexham Museum and the German war
grave cemetery at Cannock
It also caters for young for young people who have been excluded from school
for whatever reason and would be hanging around on street corners during the
day.
The History Group gives young people who attend the chance to broaden their
horizons and create knowledge of their local heritage. They are also able to
use the video camera and upgrade their skills and also upgrade on their
internet skills. They also develop skills socially by attending a public
service building and researching their project.
Holiday Club
The Holiday Club is also a new venture it’s opening times are 9am till 5pm
Monday to Friday. We are registered with Social Services to take sixteen
children. We have fully qualified staff. The children bring in their own
lunch. They are offered a full range of activities e.g. painting, home
corner, table top games, indoor and outdoor games, helping the children to
develop socially, physically, creatively and emotionally.
Junior drop in
The group offers the
opportunity for young people to participate in fun activities and promotes
positive social interaction with their peers. As the young people design
their own programme (which includes Confidence Building, Sports, Personal
Hygiene, Group-Work & Craft) the group is tailored to suit the users needs.
The young people have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues in
an informal, non-threatening environment and are encouraged to have positive
regard for other members of the group.
New Horizons Girls Group
The group offers the
opportunity for young women to build on their confidence and self-esteem
through informal social education with their peers. As the group design
their own programme, their own needs are being identified and addressed and
young women can receive factual information in a non-threatening
environment. The young women also take part in recreational activities i.e.
sports, craft, sponsored events. The young women design their own programme
for group, addressing issues relevant to them, these include Parenting
Skills, Healthy Eating, Healthy Sexuality, Dental Hygiene, Personal Hygiene,
Assertiveness & Confidence Building.
Parenting Programmes
Individual parenting programmes are ongoing to suit the individual needs of
each family. The main aim of the parenting programme is to build the
confidence and self-esteem of the parents, running with the ethos that if
parents feel confident and competent they are more able to deal with issues
affecting their children. Parents are usually referred to the Caia Park
Partnership by the Youth Offending Service, Schools or Social Services, but
some families do self refer.
Pentre Gwyn Youth
Club
The club provides many different activities through the use of the Youth
Work Curriculum Statement for Wales. All activities encourage participation
and equal opportunity.
The following activities are provided Art & Crafts, Cooking, Sports,
Computer Games, Pool & Dancing. The young people who attend the club have
the opportunity to experience and develop skills, competencies and knowledge
in many different subjects. These can be obtained informally or formally
depending on the topic in question. The young people are also encouraged to
take the lead in activities.
Saturday Club
The young people take part in
fun activities, issue based work, outings and also have the opportunity to
do homework with help from support staff. The young people benefit from
attending this group by developing their social skills, interacting with
other young people, having help and support with their school work and the
opportunity to leave the estate on occasional trips out.
Young Men’s Group
The programme is devised by the young men themselves. They have developed a
six week programme, which has a mixture of leisure activities and issues,
which effect young men in the new millennium. The user will be able to
experience and explore many different relative issues which effect young
men, this will hopefully develop coping strategies and positive alternatives
which will portray young men in a different light and allow teenagers to be
‘Active Participants’ in society rather than ‘Disaffected’ or ‘Excluded’
socially.
Youth Football
The young people/children take part in structured football matches, attend
training where the following issues are challenged or promoted Self esteem,
Self discipline, Team building, Attitude, Football skills, Technique,
Fitness and health. The benefits of attending this group are that through
participation the young people can explore and attain certain levels of
sporting achievement this not only raises their self esteem, it also
develops a positive attitude towards authoritarian figures (i.e. referees),
the group also enables the development of positive relationships, which can
be long lasting and fruitful.
Youth Shelter
Group
The Youth Shelter Project is a set work programme which incorporates the
idea, design, structure and assembly of a youth shelter within the Caia Park
area. Other issues relevant to the group Environmental Work,
Architecture/Structure Work, Drama/Role-play, Delegation & Group work.
The Youth Shelter group has engaged and developed the interest of eight
young people, who have used their ideas, designs and planning to develop a
Youth Shelter facility for the young people of the Caia Park Community. The
young people were at risk of offending behaviour, their energy has been
re-channelled and they have worked very hard towards a positive constructive
result.
For further information contact the
team on
(01978) 262265 Ext 229
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