Youth Innovation Zone
Bedford Borough Council has been awarded £36,000 from the Local
Government Association as part of an innovation programme for young
people’s services from June 2012 – March 2013.
The Youth Innovation Zone
has been developed to achieve recommendations in the Government’s
“Positive For Youth” strategy, which sets out a number of different
areas that councils and other organisations should be providing to
ensure that all young people have access to high quality things to
do, places to go, support services and can achieve their
potential.
In August 2012, 15
organisations applied for the fund with 9 areas being chosen by a
panel of young people and senior managers. Each Youth Innovation
Zone has £3000 to spend between September 2012 and March 2013 on
positive activities for young people in their locality. The 9 areas
that were selected from across the Borough are:
- Midland Road
- Queens Park
- Kingsbrook & Cauldwell
- Brickhill
- Stewartby
- Shortstown
- Harrold
- Great Barford
- Autism Bedfordshire
£9000 is being held
centrally to provide equipment, resources, training and support to
the 9 areas during the Youth Innovation Zone, with any unused funds
going back out to them in early 2013 to top up their local pot.
Each area is trying something slightly
different – please get in touch with them to find out more!
Autism Bedfordshire trips and
activities for young people with Autism. Contact enquiries@autismbeds.org
Brickhill pizza nights and
holiday activities. Contact clerk@brickhillparishcouncil.gov.uk
Great Barford youth club
activities. Contact greatbarfordparishclerk@hotmail.com
Harrold outreach youth work
and youth club activities. Contact clerk@harrold.org.uk
Kingsbrook & Cauldwell
after school activities using music, art, adventure and personal
development activities. Contact info@inspiredlife.org
Midland Road trips and arts
based activities from the Create123 shop. Contact jennies@bedfordcreativearts.org.uk
Shortstown Great events
/ trips for Shortstown teenagers. Contact 01234 740464 or
07743394920 steve_rutherford@btinternet.com
Stewartby movie nights and
outdoor activities. Contact stewartbyclerk@yahoo.co.uk
QueensPark
trips and music based activities. Contact neslyn@faithinqueenspark.org.uk
To help the Youth
Innovation Zones, a positive activities information sheet has been
developed with information of activity providers, venues and places
where equipment can be borrowed. This list is not an endorsement of
their services but a signposting tool.
CLICK
HERE for the positive activities information
sheet.
Story so
far
July
2012 Funding confirmed by FPM, Government’s contracted
lead for the Youth Innovation Zone programme
Bedford Borough Youth
Innovation Zone launched with organisations asked to say in no more
than 150 words why they should be considered for the Youth
Innovation Zone programme
August
2012 4 young people and 2 senior managers reviewed all
submissions selecting 9 out of the 15 areas.
September
2012 45 young people and 14 adult volunteers from 9
projects attended an induction event to learn about the project,
develop ideas for projects and receive their toolkits. Project
areas have started to survey young people locally to see what ideas
they have, what they want in their local area and to recruit
members to their steering group
October
2012 15 young people and 9 adult volunteers from 7
projects attended a training and networking session to share where
they are up to so far, receive toolkit top ups and develop their
project ideas further. Surveys carried out in 8 project areas
November
2012 Project areas have started to carry out activities
such as outreach sessions, movie nights, young people inputting
into and deciding on local provision and purchasing new
equipment.
December
2012 21 young people and 12 adult volunteers from 9
projects attended a training and networking session, learning about
social media, taking part in a music studio taster session and
meeting 6 organisations that can provide positive activities
locally. 5 areas now have received their full £3000 with 4
areas having received their initial £1000 and making plans for
their final installment in January.
Learning so far…
- The networking and training event run by
the central team was very useful especially the funding seminar as
we now know there is more funding available locally
- Some skills and attributes gained by the
young people have been confidence and self
esteem, speaking and presentation, money and budgets, communication
skills, working with others
- Improvement in behaviour in
school of those taking part in outreach youth programmes
- The social media training offered
to all the groups was really good and gave us lots of ideas on how
to develop this for the future in our area
- Young people are learning about deadlines and
processes and the importance of doing research and making decisions
early and effectively so that their project can move on
- There are more opportunities and
facilities available locally that we thought!