PAPER C

Youth Work Manager Update - September 2020

Since the last Steering Group the team at Network Ryde have been working on several projects and this

report will provide an update on these activities as well as how we are planning on moving forward.

147

On 14^th September we reopened 147 with an adapted timetable, with Covid-19 guidelines in place, so that

young people are able to come and visit us again. We have bookable sessions where young people attend

our hot chocolate and toast takeaway on a Monday and then book in for the week ahead. We only have 8

spaces per session and we are monitoring attendance so all young people have the opportunity to come

in rather than just the first ones to book in each week. We have currently suspended our Short Breaks

offer due to a lack of demand but are working with the Short Breaks team at the Isle of Wight Council to

help promote so we can reinstate following the October half term - we have ensured that the young

person who was attending Short Breaks has been able to access a different session in the meantime.

Network Ryde’s 6-week timetable

**All Drop - in sessions to be booked @147 on Monday

during Hot chocolate and Toast takeaway**

Red - year 9 Blue - year 10 Green year 11+

Monday

Hot chocolate & Toast take away @147 3.15 - 5pm - year 9 -11’s welcome!

Tuesday

After school Drop in’s: 3.15 - 4pm, Y9 4.15 - 5pm, Y10 5.15 - 6pm Y11+

Wednesday

Wellbeing drop in 3.15 - 5pm 5.15 - 7pm (YP will be contacted about these sessions)

Thursday

Home educated drop in 1-2.30pm (message or call to book)

Duke of Edinburgh’s ward 4.30 - 6pm (Phil will contact you to book these in)

Friday

Drop - in at Network Ryde’s allotment 4.30 - 6pm - year 9-11’s welcome!

We have Covid-19 protocols in place for young people and visitors entering 147, including temperature

checks, the NHS Covid-19 QR code and social distancing. Following the Government announcement on

Tuesday 22^nd September, the National Youth Agency has issued guidance that we remain at an amber

level for activities (which our activities are currently planned at) however with the addition that young

people aged 11+ will need to wear a face covering. Staff have been provided with face shields to allow

young people to see their faces and we have a supply of face masks in case young people do not have

them.

We are currently assessing our offer at 147 every half term as we are aware that this is a changing and

ever evolving time and we want to be as responsive as we can to support and engage with the young

people that access Network Ryde.

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We have maintained 2 sessions a week on Virtual Youth Club - youth worker drop in and a baking session

as these were very successful whilst we were operating virtually and this then allows us to easily restart

Virtual Youth Club in the event of a further lockdown.

HAZ project:

We worked alongside the High Street Historic Action Zone to deliver a young people project. The project

looks at Charles Dimmock who ran his plant growing business and also lived at 147 High Street. The young

people linked with 2 community artists who supported them with the project. This ran over 8 weeks and

culminated in a Flower Sale in Minghella Square on the August Bank Holiday where the young people sold

the plants they had grown and the crafts they made during the project raising £359 to be used at the

Network Ryde Allotment.

Wellbeing Care Packs

We have just distributed a further 50 care packs with funding from Tesco’s Bags of Help funding. These

packs had a back to school theme with a voucher from local retailers within their packs. These packs were

delivered by the team to the young people (in a socially distanced manner). The feedback from these

packs again has been positive and the young people have enjoyed receiving them.

Network Ryde’s llotment

Ryde Town Council have given us an allotment at Quarry Road to work with young people there. The

allotment is a fantastic opportunity to work outside with them in a Network Ryde space. We were

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successful in securing funding from Sovereign Housing to clear the site and flatten it ready for use by

young people. We have an allotment session in the timetable on a Friday afternoon and once it starts

getting darker we will look to move this session to a Saturday morning.

The young people will lead the planning, design, and development of the allotment with the aim of being

able to use or sell the produce that we grow on the allotment.

Funding

We have been successful with applying for funding from the Community Safety Partnership for £2672.78

for a pilot project working with Ryde Academy for 2 sessions a week at the allotment for a total of 8

young people struggling in school and at risk of antisocial behaviour or criminal involvement. This is due

to start at the beginning of October running until the end of March. The funding covers additional hours

for a member of staff and all the equipment and a new secure shed for the allotment. Part of this offer

will be supporting the young people to gain their Skills Section on their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award

with the hope that we can support them to gain their other sections as well.

We have also been approached by Sovereign Housing to look at a fuel poverty project with a £500 grant.

We are in the process of talking to the young people about what they would like to do and then we will

apply for this.

We have also been approached by the CAP project who have funding to deliver 40 Level 2 Health

Champions qualifications on the Isle of Wight for young people aged 14-25. We already have a group of 5

young people interested in completing the qualification and we are looking into how we can facilitate this

qualification within our timetable.

Duke of Edinburgh Update - Provided by Phil Plant

We have now moved on from DofE catchups on Zoom with young people to small group meetings at 147.

Meeting face to face is much more productive than the Zoom meetings, the sessions are used to catch up

and support young people with putting evidence for the different sections on their eDofE accounts and in

some cases working out what they can count as activities for their sections. Covid-19 has created lots of

issues with sections that encourage participants to get out and about. The DofE organisation has actively

encouraged leaders to “think outside of the box” in order to help young people to progress. The sessions

are a mixture of catching up and for expedition training on things that we can do classroom based. Our

aim is to try and get all our current young people up to date and signed off in their Volunteering, Skill and

Physical sections, so that all that is left to do is the expedition section. The expedition section is still on

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hold. Hopefully, we will be able to do this early next year. To complement the classroom-based sessions,

we are hoping to run day walks during the half term, Covid-19 restrictions allowing.

Normally we would be introducing DofE to young people through school assemblies at this time of year

however we will put together a video to play in assemblies to introduce young people to the Award. We

will hold “Open evenings” for young people and parent’s / carers to come in and chat about DofE͘ These

will be based on a booking in system, so that we can limit the numbers attending 147 at any one time but

allowing them to sign up. We have also adapted our enrolment process whereby young people were

previously only able to enrol at the start of the academic year however we have changed this to young

people being able to start at any point in the year as they are able to start on any of their sections and

wait until we have enough for an expedition group to begin their expedition training. There had been

some confusion regarding the enrolment fee for Duke of Edinburgh however it has been agreed that

Network Ryde will cover the £23 enrolment fee for young people wanting to participate on DofE as we do

not want the cost to be a prohibitive factor.

Database

We had a free trial of the CPOMS database and have now upgraded to the full system - it is allowing us to

move to a paperless system and have a more robust safeguarding recording process in place. The annual

cost is £1045+VAT however this can be covered through the current budget.

Staffing

We still have a vacancy for a part time youth worker however we have not started the recruitment

process yet in case we are locked down again (we learnt that it was incredibly tough for the new member

of staff who started just before lockdown) - we have borrowed 4 hours from this post to uplift the other

part time youth worker’s hours and along with the allotment additional hours this has allowed the team

member to leave their second job and will allow them to be more flexible for Network Ryde and the

needs of the young people.

Our Session Lead Youth Worker is currently 20 weeks pregnant, so we are planning how we cover their

maternity leave.

Premises

As you know we are limited with the space with have available at 147 and this has been exacerbated with

Covid-19 guidance with social distancing rules. We have explored with Ryde Town Council and has been

agreed to start the procurement process of St Thomas’ Church͘ The space will allow us to replicate the

elements of 147 that young people have asked for such as the IT and gaming but also allow us to have a

full kitchen space and significantly more space for activities and young people. There would also be a

dedicated safe outdoor space for young people to be outside instead of being on the road/pavement at

147. This move would be a big project as St Thomas’ is in a state of disrepair but presents an amazing

opportunity to have young people involved designing the space and an increased offer of activities to

young people.

Young People Data - Provided by Maiya Dixon

This data covers the period of 06.07.2020 - 22.09.2020. We have sectioned the data into the activities

that we have been running.

Virtual Youth Club: A B C D

F G

New Instagram followers - 33 (276 since the start)

How many VYC sessions - 24 (80 since the start)

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How many YP viewed our sessions -984 (4167 since the start)

How many YP took part/recreated our sessions - 18 (232 since the start)

How many other organisations have been mentioned by us & our Young People - 12 (42 since the start)

HAZ project: A B C D

F G

How many YP involved - 5

How many sessions have been run so far - 6 (including the Flower Market)

How many other professionals are we working with - 3

Sessions run in & from 147: A B C D E F G

Hot choc and Toast takeaway - 33 YP attended to book into sessions

Sessions @ 147 - 5 sessions (48 YP together)

Fishing Sessions with Vectis Fishing Club- 2 sessions (8 YP attended)

Allotment - 1 session (8 YP attended)

Duke of Edinburgh - 1 session (5 YP attended)

A Working with disadvantaged young people who participate and engage in sessions.

B Delivering safe and secure places for young people to go.

C Improving health, wellbeing and feeling / being safe.

D Improving young people’s confidence and self-esteem.

E Supporting the delivery of the Duke of Edinburgh’s ward͘

F Contributing to improving young people’s educational / training / employment outcomes͘

G Improving young people’s knowledge in relation to: sexual health, relationships, education, healthy

eating, physical exercise, substance misuse, crime prevention, mental health, smoking cessation, life skills,

equality

and diversity, anti-bullying work, volunteering, housing support, etc.

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