Ice cream vans helping to tackle anti-social behaviour on the Wirral » Housing » 24dash.com

Ice cream vans can act as a magnet for youngsters but this time, teenagers in Beechwood weren’t greeted by Mr. Whippy but youth workers from Wirral Anti-Social Behaviour Team’s Youth Respect Team, as part of a brand new initiative.

The ‘ice cream engagement project’, funded initially by Wirral Drug & Alcohol Action Team, is an innovative approach to providing young people with information about alcohol misuse.

The project will see a decommissioned ice cream van, staffed with workers from the Youth Respect Team, touring Wirral twice a week, targeting both hot-spots of anti-social behaviour and areas where young people congregate.

Beechwood Ballantyne Community Housing Association, part of the Vicinity Group,  is sponsoring the ice cream van which will also see two workers from the Youth Respect Team based in Beechwood for an evening a week, supplementing existing Youth Service provision. 

Following the launch, workers from the Youth Respect Team discussed the potential dangers of alcohol with local teenagers.

The work is being led by Rob Connolly, a specialist alcohol misuse youth worker, seconded from Youth Services, who is renowned for the ‘beer goggles’ game and his hand-crafted props.

By reaching out to teenagers in this unique way, Wirral Anti-Social Behaviour Team is able to get a serious message across to Wirral’s young people who are able to have fun whilst learning about the damage that alcohol can cause and the effect that anti-social behaviour has on communities. 

The van, whilst not serving ice cream, is stocked with refreshments and snacks, to further encourage young people to engage.  The van also has a comprehensive supply of information and literature for both young people and parents about alcohol and its work will be supported by Youth Services’ Response Service.

One of the young people had this to say: “The ice cream van and its team are cool and really good fun, they made me laugh.”

Andy Hall, BBCHA Managing Director, said: “Beechwood Ballantyne backs this initiative to make young people more aware of the dangers of alcohol abuse. We are particularly keen on the fact that the project contacts young people where they congregate – not just in youth centres.”

Caroline Laing, Manager of Wirral’s Anti-Social Behaviour Team: “The ice cream van certainly has character and charm.  We hope that this novel approach is successful in enabling us to positively engage with young people and whilst fun, hope it enables us to deliver a very serious message.”