Whitburn Community Development Trust, in conjunction with our partner, Whitburn Youth Services Group (WYSG), which consists of representatives from local agencies and organisations with an interest in young people, identified Friday afternoon as a time when higher levels of anti-social and risk-taking behaviour amongst young people is prevalent and viewed additional youth provision as necessary. A successful Friday afternoon drop-in ran during 2011 and a decision was taken to seek funding for its continuation in 2012. The views of young people had been sought at two focus group discussions at Whitburn Academy and the Partnership’s Whitburn Youth Festival in August 2010. The young people were also consulted in an evaluation at the end of the 2011 project and were then involved in further consultation which informed that they wished the provision to continue and suggested what improvements could be made.
Given that there was a focused alcohol diversionary project in Whitburn on a Saturday night it was felt that our project would be more useful in trying to target younger young people who may be at risk of becoming involved in the regular consumption of alcohol or committing anti-social behaviour and the target age range was reduced to S1 – S3 with a particular focus on S1 and S2’s.
During its term the project engaged with 70 young people with those in attendance having access to cooking activities, music workshops, martial art sessions, arts and crafts activities and music and dance activities. Staff at the drop-in observed a change in the behaviour of those young people attending with many seeming more mature, outgoing and confident.
Whitburn Community Development Trust was successful in attracting funds to support these projects from YouthLink Scotland Scottish Government CashBack for Communities Fund.
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