“This project should be modelled elsewhere” says youth worker

News from Soha Housing

4 March 2010

Project lays the foundation for a turnround in young people’s behaviour
 

Gary Hibbins, an independent youth worker with a Soha Housing-led diversionary project believes “this project should be modelled elsewhere for its multi-agency approach. It’s enabled young people and key adults to work together towards a common goal".

And the police sergeant who accompanied the group adds, “It’s the best diversionary initiative I've been involved in in 22 years in the police force.”

The programme, designed to channel the energies of young people who were referred by Thames Valley Police and the Didcot TRAIN (detached youthwork) project, highlighted the benefits of changing their behaviour. Consisting of days of hard physical work alongside challenging teambuilding exercises, the project culminated in a celebration for the young people and their parents in Didcot today.

Six teenagers - five boys and a girl – from South Oxfordshire were led on an US army-style “Bootcamp” in Surrey and a couple of days of eco-volunteering at the Northmoor Trust. RWE Npower supported the scheme with the loan of the Didcot Power Station minibus, a driver and the fuel to get the young people to Surrey.

The project was the brainchild of Jackie Silver and Jane Cox of Soha Housing, which funded the project alongside the South Oxfordshire District Council Community Safety Group. Jackie says: “The agencies which helped us deliver this project – Thames Valley Police, two of whose officers came along to support the project, the Didcot TRAIN project, and Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service, were enthusiastic from the moment Soha mooted the idea. Like us, they wanted to demonstrate to young people who had had difficulties with accepting authority, that being mainstream and working together would open up opportunities for them.”

Sgt Fraser Weller of Didcot police station agrees: “I knew all of these teenagers already from patrols but I was really heartened that all of the young people commented at the end of the project that they would like to continue with similar projects involving the police. They reckoned they had made good relationships with us in the last month.”

Simon Belcher, Station Manager at Didcot Fire Station, felt much the same: “Our part in the project was to show the teenagers the potential outcomes of their anti-social behaviour. For example, we have graphic footage captured at the scene of dangerous driving accidents. The consequences of joy-riding aren’t left much to the imagination with these films. I think the young people were duly shocked.”

Paul Gander, of Didcot TRAIN said, "The team work and willingness to try displayed by the young people on the “Bootcamp” day, in the face of very physically tough challenges, was incredible and it was great to be involved in this multi-agency initiative."

Far from being the end of the programme, the celebration, which took place at Soha’s Didcot offices on Thursday, may well turn out to be the launchpad for a new project. The young people - with a couple of the youthworkers they met on the Soha scheme - want to apply for grants to fund training around issues such as drugs and alcohol abuse. They are even investigating the possibility of a residential course to encourage their peers in teamwork the way they themselves were encouraged in the last month.

Notes to Ed.

(1) Further jpgs available of the Bootcamp and eco-activities as well as the celebration.

(2) For further information, please contact Liz Roberts, Soha Housing Resident Involvement and Marketing Department, on 01235 515 900 or lizroberts@soha.co.uk.