A National Youth Centre?

March 5th, 2008 by mas | Filed under Courses & Events.

I responded to a blog on the Innovation Exchange about the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council who are apparently interested in setting up a programme that brings together groups of young people within the UK to share ideas & experiences etc. The idea in fact sounds exactly the same as what we were doing on the Young Movers programme for the past 7 years.

Incidentally my reply hasn’t actually appeared on the Innovation Exchange Site - and incidentally too the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council have yet to reply to a query I sent to them on a separate matter last week so if anyone picks up this please ask somebody to reply!

The ‘coming together’ of groups from different areas is a powerful experience - people get to appreciate they aren’t suffering their problems in isolation and very often realise that perhaps they don’t make the most of what they have got when they hear others stories.

Something that people also got from the Young Movers experience was a place they could call their second home! Mnay of the young people that attended Young Movers courses were on their fist residential experience - for some it was their first time away from home. Once they’d got over the excitement (& sometimes fear) of being away, very many signed up to return to volunteer for future courses and we would take on as many of these as possible.

What ultimately happened was that on courses there was a family atmosphere - this despite the fact that the staff on courses were made up of volunteers who may never have met before - the atmosphere was something that was passed on between the many different people involved.

Outside of the courses we were a resource for both volunteers and adult workers and also the odd parent - I had a very many long conversations with people about the different problems they were facing after going back from courses in getting their projects off the ground as well as hearing back about how well things had gone and how some of the young people had ‘transformed’ & so on.

Where I’m going with this is that something I’d always wanted to see was some kind of National Youth Centre. Trafford Hall was formed because originally the training provided for tenants was at hotels and some of the tenants had said they felt uncomfortable at these hotels and wanted somewhere they could call home - a while later they had ‘Trafford Hall - home of the National Tenants Resource Centre (since changed its name).

At one point we were working towards a centre for young people within Trafford Hall. For what was then the derelict stable block we had plans drawn up for a self contained centre for youth residentials and the original concept was that we would seek to develop this so that it could become sustainable in its own right. Unfortunately the original Chief Executive left (with whom I’d drawn up the plans) and his replacement decided to develop the stable instead as an extension to the main hall (actually a very bland shed!).

I’d still like to see a national centre - a place where young people and those working with them could come together, share ideas, develop new skills and network on a regular basis (as in every few months or annually). A place where there was no fear that the young people would upset other older/posher clients who would frown on the noise and their behaviours and of course a place they woudl be safe and feel inspired.

Unfortunately I’m never likely to be in the situation where I could influence the development of such a resource, but who knows maybe one day somebody else will (if a few organisations egos allow it!)

In terms of a UK exchange type programme the interview about it on YouTube suggests that they would need a pilot programme - this would be pretty silly given that in effect we’ve already done the ‘piloting’ and had it researched! The model is already there and I’d be very happy to see it used.

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Viewing 4 Comments

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    Interesting points.

    I'm just waiting for the list of delegates from the event where I captured that video to come through so I can find Helen's direct contact details - and I'll be sure to make sure things get linked up.

    Would be great to point them towards your evaluation reports.

    I like the idea of a National Youth Centre... it could link perhaps to ideas and funding around Youth Leadership... hmm, will have to explore that more...
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    thanks Tim - hadn't thought of the leadership angle although all I know of this is the press releases - I'm awaiting the details in the summer with interest (although suspect most of that funding is already labeled as these sorts of things usually are!)

    The CYEC website doesn't list their emails (not helpful) and they don't seem to reply to ones not sent to the main email given (also not helpful!). But it would be good to know that if nothing else they take advantage of the work already started if they're serious about wanting to develop that idea.

    I think the biggest issue to do with the idea of a national youth centre is how unlikely it would be to get the various national youth organisations on board - the only chance would be if someone with considerable influence championed it. It would be interesting to know how much money these organisations spend on conference centre fees, residential training and meeting spaces - I suspect its a considerable sum (especially given that I hear at least one organisation is having to practically throw its cash on fancy accommodation to try to shift underspend!) - but if this could instead be spent at a national centre operating as a social enterprise I bet it would be well on its way to covering the annual running costs and in doing so contributing to supporting young people to use such a facility. And wouldn't it be satisfying to know that the money on events was contributing to this instead of profit making hotels & conference centres.
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    fao mas
    hi mas its michaela from barrow god your a hard man to track down hows everyone doing been trying to get intouch with you have you got a personal email adress so i can have a chat with you this is me mams email [email hidden] hope to hear from you soon.
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    hiya stranger! - have sent you email

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