Chapeltown Young Peoples Club

During the reporting period, the Partnership has been involved in a variety of Connexions strands:

Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP).

In July 2003 the Chapeltown Young People’s 10 – 2 Club secured a contract with Connexions to deliver Positive Activities for Young People both during school holidays and after school until March 2004.

This work fitted in well with YES-Cyber’s primary client group of 13 – 19 year olds, as funded by the National Youth Agency. It also fitted well with the SRB-funded volunteering project, as the staff appointed through the volunteering project were able to support and co-ordinate the PAYP programme which, in turn, generated opportunities for young people to volunteer to help with the activities. The value of the contract was £16,000 to deliver 8 hours of after school activities per week during term time and a minimum of 16 hours per week during school holidays. The target number was 20 young people and this has been achieved. In partnership with the Youth Service, another PAYP contract has been secured for the Easter and Spring Bank vacations; a contract for the main Summer holidays is under consideration. It is hoped to hold some of the activities at TDC, so as to give young people an informal opportunity to visit the College; although the shortage of staff available in vacations has proved a barrier in previous vacations.

Thomas Danby College - Primrose Hill Leeds City Council Connexions transition pilot.

Thomas Danby has been linked to Primrose Hill High School in the Colleges’ strand of Connexions funding. A grant of £20K had been made available to support the transition of young people from the school into Thomas Danby, where this is an appropriate pathway for them. Recruitment to the new fixed-term posts created proved problematic and, in the main, this work has been undertaken by the YES-Cyber Manager and various members of the Y-C Outreach Team. In Spring 2003 there were originally just 4 young people from Primrose who had expressed an interest in attending a TDC Open Day; after 2 presentations from the YES-Cyber Manager approximately 60 young people had agreed to attend and 2 coaches were commissioned. Approximately, 23(?) young people subsequently enrolled on courses at TDC. There are plans underway to dedicate a weekday twilight session at YES-Cyber as an after school club for young people from Primrose Hill. [Cathy: please could you add / confirm data, etc.]

Involvement with Connexions West Yorkshire

• The YES-Cyber Manager sits on the Young People’s Involvement Group of Connexions West Yorkshire Committee.
• Several young people associated with YES-Cyber and the SRB-funded Chapeltown Volunteering Project sit on the Young People’s Panel.
• The collaborative bid with the Youth Service to develop 3 new CAPs and further develop YES-Cyber’s facilities was one of only two successful Youth Service bids to develop CAPs in Leeds.
• The Chapeltown Young People’s 10 – 2 Club secured a capacity building grant in 2003.
• 2 young people from the Project sit on L.C.C.’s Youth Parliament.