PAPER C
Youth Work Manager Update - December 2021
Network Ryde @ 147
We have been running since September with a full timetable of drop ins, home education
sessions, Short Breaks sessions and wellbeing sessions as well as reinstating the
monthly “Meet the Experts” sessions. We are regularly having 20-25 young people in for
the drop-in sessions with several new young people registering with us. We have kept in
the enhanced cleaning down after and in between sessions as well as hand sanitizer
throughout the building.
In September we had 59 young people attend at least one session with Network Ryde.
In October we had 75 young people attend at least one session with Network Ryde.
Up until November 23rd we have had 85 young people attend at least one session with
Network Ryde.
We continue to listen to young people’s ideas for sessions and are putting on themed
sessions such as “Bushtucker Trials” and hosting a Christmas Party for the young people
in the middle of December. We have also had Paragon and Space 4 U attend drop-in
sessions to talk about their offer to the young people.
We are continuing with the weekly Instagram quiz as this continues to have a good
following and sharing our activities through our social media accounts.
We will continue to have the flexibility in the timetable to adapt should Covid restrictions
change, and we will continue to ensure we monitor any young people who test positive
for Covid and support the Track and Trace process. As a staff team we are all double
vaccinated and we have lateral flow tests in the centre should any young person or staff
member present with symptoms.
Safeguarding
Since returning to a full timetable we have since an increase in our recording of incidents
on CPOMS - these range from disclosures of historic sexual touching, self-harm,
overdoses to bullying over group chats.
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We currently attend 1 CIN meeting for a young person and supporting 1 young person to
make their video recorded interview with the police. We have seen an increase in
demand for 121 support from the team and more referrals to Tier 2 counselling services.
Network Ryde @ the Allotment and the Ryde Academy Allotment Sessions
We are currently running two different allotment sessions. We are running a general
Network Ryde Allotment session, which takes place on a Saturday morning 10am -
12pm. This session any young person registered with Network Ryde can attend. We tend
to limit these sessions to up to 8 young people to keep it safe and manageable.
Ryde Academy VRU Allotment Sessions
We have started our sessions with Ryde Academy following a delay from Ryde Academy
identifying the young people. We have five Year 8 boys and one Year 9 boy. The boys
have been identified through school at risk of exclusion, antisocial behaviour and 4 of
them have an EHCP in place. We have the Year 9 as he attended the sessions last year
and really benefitted and his behaviour had slipped at the beginning of the term so they
asked if he could return as a young leader for the other boys in the session. Jo is busy
planning some specialist sessions including willow structure making, bioforms and
ecodiversity.
We are redeveloping our plot, playing with the layout, and making good use of our new
allotment toy and the young people are looking to plan a water feature in the plot as well.
Duke of Edinburgh
We completed a further practice and assessed expeditions in September and October for
both bronze and silver levels with myself and Jo braving the spiders that were
everywhere in October!
We are holding an Awards evening on Thursday 25th November where we are presenting
19 Bronze Awards and 2 Silver Awards. The young people have completed these under
extremely challenging times, so we are very proud of them.
Bronze - we have 45 young people at Bronze with 35 of them actively working on their
Awards.
Silver - we have 20 young people at Silver with 11 of them actively working on their
Awards.
Gold - we have 6 young people at Gold with 5 of them actively working on their Awards.
We are currently looking at a plan for the Expeditions for Spring 2022 onwards so that
the young people know when their proposed expeditions are and will hold another
Awards ceremony in October 2022.
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Ryde Academy DofE Group
We are commissioned by Ryde Academy to run a Year 9 DofE group as part of their
alternative provision. This group is in their fourth week, and they are working on their Skill
and volunteering sections at the Network Ryde Allotment. We are looking at using the
RTC paddleboards and Kayaks for the boys’ physical sections and we will complete their
practice and assessed expeditions in the term time.
Kickstart
Network Ryde currently has 1 young person in a Kickstart placement - Briony. This is due
to end on the 14th December and we wish her all the best in the future. We have a vacant
placement for a Youth Support Worker however we have had no applications and only 1
referral for this post so far.
Kickstart vacancies have to be with the job centre by December and can be filled until the
end of March however after December no new placements can be added.
Volunteers
Our previous 3 volunteers have not been able to continue with supporting us due to a
change in their circumstances. We have a new volunteer who is going to run monthly
graphic drawing sessions in our drop-in sessions.
Additional Activities
Macmillan Coffee Morning - we raised £318 at our coffee morning in September
Merry & Bright - we are making a Giant Feature Lantern that will be in the window for the
Merry & Bright event on Thursday 2nd December.
Police and Crime Commissioner’s Youth Commission Conference - Liam and I took 2
young people to this event on Saturday 20th November. This was really good to attend as
there was no other representation from the Island and the young people enjoyed the day.
I have taken the recommendations from the conference, and we are going to ensure that
we cover the priorities through our sessions.
Future Plans
We are currently planning some activities for the February half term following the success
of the summer of play activities.
We are hoping to apply for the “Time to Shine” funding to allow us to look at Friday night
later opening however as we have been involved in the process it is unclear now if we
are able to apply.
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