Cathedral Gardens Project

Peer Youth Work Proposal and Plan

March 2006

Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work Proposal

Introduction Manchester has some 36,000 young residents aged between 13 and 19 years. The city centre exerts a significant attraction for all of these young people, but particularly those who do not have safe spaces and appealing activities in their own locality. Many young people see the city centre as a public space in a way that their neighbourhoods are not. The majority of these young people use the city centre as active and responsible citizens. Indeed they are significant spenders in the city centre as young people and as emerging adults. However, the city centre does not currently have a designated space, or a strategy, to accommodate the young people who come to it to socialise for prolonged periods. Following concerns expressed by City Centre businesses around young people who were then congregating in large numbers in Exchange Square, a partnership of youth work agencies was formed in late 2003 to identify and implement a strategy for Young People in the City Centre. The partnership now includes the City Centre Project, Manchester Youth Service, The Depaul Trust, Connexions, Voluntary Youth Manchester, City Centre Management, Greater Manchester Police, Urbis and Spearfish. The management of the Triangle and other local businesses have also been involved. A consultation event held at Urbis in July 2004 attracted more than one hundred young people to discuss what provision should be made for themselves and their peers in Manchester city centre. Young people at this event highlighted the need for more facilities in the city centre and requested that there be recognised spaces for young people to hang out. They welcomed the involvement of trained adult staff but wanted the opportunity to share the work and the responsibility. There were mixed responses around whether they needed an indoor or outdoor space, and whether young people would mix in one area or needed a range of small, targeted venues (such as adults have through commercial provision). Further questionnaire-based research in Cathedral Gardens identified a range of issues indicating that the young people would benefit from the provision of advice and information by youth workers. Since then the partnership has co-ordinated the delivery of activities to engage young people in Cathedral Gardens. The Youth Contact Team and Urbis have each funded Spearfish to run series of workshops for groups of 10-30 young people at a time. The Wardens planned and ran a successful litter-picking event that involved a wide range of agencies. Through Depaul, the young people have been supported to set up a website which acts as a forum, with over seventy members and hundreds more visitors each month, the majority of whom are regular users of the City Centre. In addition, the partnership has continued to highlight the need for an encompassing strategy for young people in the city centre. Now the City Centre Management Company have provided 15,000 in funding to the Depaul Trust to recruit and manage Peer Youth Workers who will engage other young people and provide them with advice and information in Cathedral Gardens. Connexions have provided a Youth Involvement Worker for one day a week to assist in the management and delivery of this project.

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Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work Peer Youth Workers Project Proposal This project will recruit, train and manage six Peer Youthworkers and one adult Sessional Youthworker who will positively engage young people using Cathedral Gardens, promote pro-social behaviour and discourage littering or damage. In addition the Peer Youthworkers will support the community of young people to develop projects to address their own needs and interests. Target Group Engagement will predominantly be with young people, aged 13 to 19, in Cathedral Gardens. All other users of Cathedral Gardens and its surrounding businesses will benefit through improved communication, better understanding and the creation of a more pro-social, cleaner and safer environment. Objectives Objectives for the Peer Youthworkers to achieve in the Cathedral Gardens area: To provide information and support as trained peer youthworkers. To disseminate information about by-laws. To foster increased pro-social behaviour. To reduce litter, graffiti and damage caused. To understand and record incidents of conflict involving other users and/or stakeholders. To work alongside other agencies to resolve issues before they escalate and to reduce risk of repetition. To involve more young people in the Cathedral Garden Projects website and other initiatives or events aimed at young people in the city centre. To represent the needs and perceptions of the community of young people to other stakeholders. To create four focus groups recruited from the community of young people, chair their meetings and provide them with support and direction. To develop mechanisms, processes and best practice for integrating young peoples social spaces into the city as a positive asset for all parties. Outcomes This project will have a significant impact on both the reality and the perception of anti-social behaviour in Cathedral Gardens and surrounding business premises. The Peer Youthworkers will be given the knowledge and skills to positively influence the wider community's attitude and perception of acceptable behaviour. A detailed survey of knowledge and attitudes will be conducted at the beginning and the end of the project to measure distance travelled by the community of young people. Improved mutual understanding provided by the Peer Youthworkers will speed and enhance all Stakeholders' responses to issues that do arise. Better communication in both directions will also lead to increased involvement by the young people in opportunities and events provided by agencies in and around the city centre, and amplify the positive outcomes of these activities. By empowering young people to act responsibly and encourage their peers to do likewise, this project will help to break down the 'us and them' culture in the area. The Page 2

Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work trained Peer Youthworkers will act as a pool of consultants, young people who can work productively with all stakeholders as well as with their peers. Four further outcomes will come from the focus groups led by the Peer Youthworkers. At the very least these will provide a diversionary activity and a sense of achievement for the young people involved. Youth Matters: The government green paper, Youth Matters, points out that: Evidence highlights the importance to young people and their parents of safe spaces where they can hang out and socialise, as well as taking part in activities. Many local areas are exploring alternatives to the traditional youth club approach, for example by investing in mobile facilities or youth shelters. However, these sorts of facilities remain underdeveloped, and their provision is not always in line with what young people actually want. The paper goes on to say that: We want young people to have more direct involvement in all stages of service design, development, delivery and evaluation. By involving them, we can help to ensure that they will share ownership of decisions and use facilities and services responsibly, and that the investment of public, private or charitable funds is directed to meet their real needs. This project aims to address these issues for the young people using Cathedral Gardens, and in doing so to achieve key tasks proposed in Youth Matters: o Engaging more young people in positive activities and empowering them to shape the services they receive o Encouraging more young people to volunteer and become involved in their communities o Balancing greater opportunities and support with promoting young peoples responsibilities o Involving a wide range of organisations from the voluntary, community and private sectors in order to increase choice and secure the best outcomes o Encouraging more peer mentoring young people supporting other young people; o Celebrating further young peoples positive achievements in the community; o Exploring the role rewards can play in encouraging volunteering and affirming young peoples positive choices. o Young person-to-young person support, providing an opportunity for young people to comment on real life experiences and offer each other advice and support; This project will also contribute substantially to four of the five outcomes specified in Every Child Matters: o enjoying and achieving: supporting the pre-existing positive social space and its development, advertising and encouraging participation in, and planning of, positive activities. o making a positive contribution: enabling the young people to represent their peers within the city centre community and negotiate with other stakeholders. Developing the creative contribution their peers can make. o being healthy: making useful information and contacts available to their peers and encouraging young people to look after themselves. o staying safe: improve understanding of other city centre users to reduce antisocial behaviour. Also, working directly with peers to discourage risk-taking.

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Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work Plan

Recruitment Information will be distributed to all partners and stakeholders so that they may encourage suitable young people to apply. Interview, selection, CRB checks and employment will be by the Depaul Trust. Young people working on the existing Cathedral Gardens Project (the website) will provide input at all stages and be involved in interviewing. Applicants who are unsuccessful will be offered volunteering and other opportunities with the Cathedral Gardens Project. Connexions will support the young people where necessary when preparing for interview, opening Bank Accounts, obtaining National Insurance numbers and identification for CRB checks. An adult Sessional Youthworker will be recruited by the Depaul Trust to support the Peer Youthworkers while they are working, and Connexions Youth Involvement Worker will work on this project for one day a week to support and co-ordinate their work, to plan training, and to liaise with other agencies. Initial Training There will be an initial residential training weekend in Newcastle. During this weekend the Peer Youthworkers will receive their induction to the Cathedral Gardens Project and the Depaul Trust as well as basic training. Most importantly the residential will give Peer Youthworkers an opportunity to bond and develop as a team. While they are away from their peers in Manchester, they will also contextualise their work by researching similar public space issues in Newcastles Eldon Square. Peer Youth Work After the initial training on the residential the Peer Youthworkers will be ready to conduct supported outreach in Cathedral Gardens. They will work in pairs 13:00 17:00 each Saturday and at other times during school holidays. They will be supported by a Sessional Youth Worker employed by the project. They will also liaise with any other agencies present and the CCTV control room. Their general remit will be the promotion of pro-social behaviour. In addition, the Peer Youthworkers will have ongoing training that will expand their knowledge and abilities, and give a changing focus to their engagement of their peers. The last 15 minutes of each session will consist of a debrief, when an activity report will be completed. Ongoing Training Additional ongoing Training Sessions will be delivered 12:00 - 14:00 on Saturdays twice a month. After these sessions the Peer Youthworkers will work as normal until 17:00hrs. Each training session will serve two purposes: To give the PYW the skills and understanding necessary to engage their peers in discussion on a targeted issue for the two outreach sessions Page 4

Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work immediately following the training. This engagement can be tracked and its impact assessed. To enlarge the knowledge base of the Peer Youthworker team to enable them to deal effectively with specific incidents and enquiries from their peers. Essential to this will be contact details of agencies and services that can provide further support and information. Details of these will be included in each training session. It is important that the Peer Youthworkers are acknowledged as professionals by other stakeholders, and to this end, their training and practice will involve those stakeholders wherever possible.

Meeting Objectives Due to the high turnover of individuals within the target group there will not be a point at which we can say the message has been delivered and the project over. However, in the medium term we expect a sense of responsible community to be fostered after three to four months, by which time most young people who use this space regularly will have been engaged several times by the Peer Youthworkers and be aware of the project. At this point it will be essential that the project both continues and develops, reinforcing the changes and ensuring that the young people are empowered to continue using the space positively. Efforts will also have to be made to ensure that channels of communication remain open to all stakeholders even in the absence of immediate concerns or issues. Developing the Community After three months the emphasis of the project will shift towards the provision of activities and events. To this end the Peer Youthworkers will be given training which will enable them to propose, plan and budget future projects, bidding for funding in their own right as young people. They will then be tasked with using and developing the skills and knowledge gained. Each pair of Peer Youthworkers will recruit and manage an interest group of young people. The subject of three of these groups will need to be chosen by the young people themselves but should address the spectrum of interests represented by their peers; a good mix might include skating, fashion, rock music and involvement in the City Centre Youth Forum or other political activity. The fourth group will have the task of planning and running a celebratory event at the end of the whole project. These groups will meet on alternate Saturdays for three months with the aim of creating a project, activity, course or event to engage young people from Cathedral Gardens. They will have a small initial budget but should also be able to bid for additional outside funding from the Community Chest, Awards for All, the Young Peoples Fund, The Big Boost, or through commercial sponsorship. During this the project will continue to supervise, support and enable the Peer Youthworkers. Ancillary Benefits The recruitment of volunteers for the focus groups will be an opportunity for the Peer Youthworkers to reflect on their learning to date and the distance already travelled by Page 5

Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work the project. For most of them it will be the first time that they will have had colleagues recruited after they were. They will be supported in their transition to senior, experienced staff as an opportunity for personal development. These focus groups will allow the whole peer group the opportunity to be involved in the project. The sub-projects undertaken by these focus groups will also be a very concrete and visible contribution by the project to the young peoples community. As such they should generate substantial good will for the Peer Youthworkers. Concluding the Project The fruition of each of these four sub-projects will also be the conclusion of the Peer Youthwork project and an event will be held to mark the occasion. This event will be large enough to include all regular users of the space and other invited stakeholders. In addition to celebrating the achievements of all young people involved and the change in their use of Cathedral Gardens, this event will also be a reward. Therefore it may likely take the form of a presentation on the projects achievements followed by a social music event. In addition the Peer Youthworkers will conclude their work with a survey of young people and other stakeholders in Cathedral Gardens for comparison with that done at the beginning of the project. This will form the basis for assessment of distance travelled and the projects success in meeting its aims. Final Report An initial report of results achieved will be given at the concluding event. After this a detailed project assessment will be completed and distributed to all stakeholders. In addition to measuring the projects achievements, the report will also look at practical lessons learned and the application of its methods to other groups of young people and other areas of Manchester. Feedback will be sought through: Survey of young people using Cathedral Gardens. Meetings of the Young People in the City Centre Partnership and Local Area Team. Young people to interview stakeholders as to their reaction to project and any changes it has made. Assessing the community of young peoples reactions through the website and informal consultations. In addition to reviewing distance travelled, these consultations will also serve to highlight new or continuing needs that can be fed through to future projects.

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Cathedral Gardens Project Peer Youth Work Prepared by: Rory Coyle (Connexions Youth Involvement Worker) Contributors: HayJ (Young Person using Cathedral Gardens) Rebecca Kent (Depaul Trust Regional Administrator) Consultants: Kaydence Otterwell (Young Person using Cathedral Gardens) James Tash (Young Person using Cathedral Gardens)

Depaul Trust The Wesley Centre Royce Road Hulme Manchester

M15 5BP

Connexions The Powerhouse 140 Raby Street Moss Side Manchester M14 4SL

April 2006

The views expressed in this report are the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Agencies listed.

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