New free youth centre opens in Blakenall (2024)

Express & Star

A new free youth centre has opened in Blakenall, Walsall

Transcript

00:00 Daniel, what will the Expressen star? We're standing here in the new, it's the POP Youth

00:04 Club isn't it?

00:05 Yeah, POP.

00:06 POP, POP, POP Youth Club with Sue Phillips, the Youth Development and Centre Manager.

00:10 So just talk about, it opened in February was it?

00:12 Yeah.

00:13 So just want to talk a little bit about how it's been since it opened.

00:16 Yeah, so to launch we did a Family Funday on the 12th of February during the February

00:20 half term. We wanted to offer something free to all the local families to let them know

00:23 youth services were back in the local area after a lot of bad press. We were back and

00:28 we were here to offer something really positive. All throughout that week, so we did a Family

00:33 Funday on the first day and then throughout the rest of the week we did free activities

00:37 for the young people. So our parents came to the Funday, signed up to register the young

00:41 people. We created a database and then what we did from then on was built the beginnings

00:46 of what, we're at the beginning stage of what's going to be our youth provision. So from that

00:52 point we started operating after school and evening youth club sessions, which is just

00:58 to begin with. Our hope is in the next couple of weeks to a month we're going to open out

01:04 to four evenings a week and a Saturday as well. With the IME being a Saturday it's going

01:09 to be like a family session because we just feel like the younger you get involved with

01:13 the young people, the more you get a family involved, you have a holistic approach then

01:17 it's just a much better thing for the whole family to see this is what's here. As you

01:22 will have just seen from being in there, on average we're getting, to our 7 to 11 sessions

01:26 we're getting on average about 30 children, which is fantastic. Our 12 to 16 groups, it

01:32 differs slightly, our 6 to 8pm session is really popular and we are getting anything

01:37 between 12 and 20 attending that, which is really fantastic because this is 12 to 20

01:42 local young people that would have been on the streets before then or not having something

01:46 to engage with. Absolutely, it definitely shows that there's a decent demand in the

01:50 area. I mean we saw in there, the room was pretty much packed in it, it's only the starting

01:54 of it. There's obviously a good demand for these types of services in this area. Which

02:00 I think is something that we could definitely do with more in. So what's the future of

02:04 the youth club looking like? You've had a really strong start, what's the middle

02:08 looking like? So from the beginning of it, what we're looking at at the moment is we've

02:12 obviously promoted across the board. Word of mouth is a fantastic thing, so if somebody

02:18 finds all of it's free as well, which I think is really good. The only thing we charge for

02:21 is we do run a tuck shop, but everything is free. So we offer free toast during every

02:25 session which we've linked with Warbitons to get free bread. We offer fruit, we offer

02:29 obviously all the activities are free. So I think that's been a really positive because

02:34 we're in one of the most deprived areas of Walsall, people don't have the spare money

02:37 to pay for youth activities. But it doesn't mean that the children don't want it and

02:40 the families don't want to engage. So like we say, at the moment we're running two evenings,

02:45 an evening session and an after school session for both age ranges. We're recruiting a third

02:51 member of staff, we're just in the process of her starting. And as soon as we've got

02:54 her on board and we've got our full staff team of three full time and one part time

02:59 staff, we'll be operating four evenings a week. So we'll have two after school sessions,

03:06 two seven to elevens and two twelve to sixteens after school. As well as that we've got our

03:10 Pop Health and Wellbeing Programme which is funded by Public Health. That's got more of

03:14 a one to one and a support focus. So rather than the older age coming in and just playing

03:19 a game of pool, although they can come in and do that, we also follow national campaigns.

03:24 We might have a topic of the week where we might talk about mental wellbeing and we might

03:28 invite external agencies to come in and do talks, which we don't do in our youth sessions

03:32 as much because the point of the youth club is you can come and just chill on the sofa

03:35 or have a game of pool or make some rice crispy cakes or whatever it is we're doing that week

03:40 and that's the point, it's there. Whereas Pop Health and Wellbeing, we want to put the

03:43 message across that there are young people that perhaps just have got quite isolated

03:47 after Covid, have left school and aren't sure what to do, so we can give CV advice and things

03:52 like that as well for that one. Absolutely, yeah. And like you were talking about with

03:55 the members of staff as well, one of the major things I think is in this area specifically

03:59 as well is role models, positive role models. Yeah, definitely. The youth centre staff members

04:04 that we talk to, they seem like great role models for the children. Like you said, they

04:08 come out of school, usually these are normally kids who would be on the streets, maybe picking

04:13 up bad role models. Or they just go home and sit on their phone or just go home and be

04:17 isolated and I think there's some that do go and be isolated and there's some that go

04:21 out and cause trouble or the opportunity to get into trouble probably is a bit higher.

04:26 And the type of young people that they are, at least they've got somewhere safe. I think

04:30 for us, when we first got the funding out, our argument has been we've papered over the

04:34 cracks for a lot of years and I think we've got to get to the root and we've got to get

04:37 back where we've got permanent, like you say, positive role models and I think it's nice

04:42 to have someone that can question them about someone that's in an authority role, that's

04:46 not the police, that isn't children's services, that might say, "What are you doing that for?"

04:50 You know, in a softer way than anybody else would. So I think that's the aim. No, that's

04:57 fantastic, that's perfect. And so where's the end looking at? I mean, what have we got

05:00 coming up then? So, from a point of view of Walsall Council, obviously spoke to us and

05:07 have funded it. It's provisionally two years that we're looking at, however, there is the

05:13 hope to extend it beyond that. I think we've just got to prove that there's a need and

05:18 I think in a month and in five weeks, I think we've proved that there's a need, you know,

05:22 there is a need, there's a demand definitely. We don't open the doors and twiddle our thumbs

05:26 waiting for anyone to come. It's kind of like, I think when I pre-warned you, they're going

05:29 to descend, be prepared, they're going to descend. I think it's a really positive thing

05:33 to be able to say that how busy it is and the families are loving it and the families

05:37 engage. And we've had so many thanks from parents because I think there's parents who've

05:41 been bringing children up that are very worried to sort of live in the area. And I think Blakeney

05:44 itself has had some quite unfair, bad press. And I think just like with changing the letters,

05:50 we want it to turn something that's been used as a negative into a positive and gives them

05:54 a positive future and hope that this is the future now. You know, we've been through some

05:58 darker times, but I think this is the new generation and they are engaging. So from

06:04 our point of view, from a long-term point of view, we want this to be something that's

06:08 constantly there. You know, I think if these young people are at the age of seven, we want

06:12 them at 16 to still be coming to the youth clubs, you know, so this is just the beginning

06:16 really hopefully. Absolutely. And I guess in turn as well, turning into role models.

06:20 Yeah, definitely. On our POP Health and Wellbeing programme, what we encourage is young people

06:25 who have been attending for a while and have maybe made some positive changes. They become

06:29 something called a POP Buddy. So the POP Buddies encourage new members. So if they're coming

06:34 in, it's somebody coming and sitting on their own, so you get referred into POP Health and

06:37 Wellbeing. So if somebody's been referred in and doesn't know anybody else, we'd encourage

06:41 a buddy. So they wear a badge that says that they're a volunteer buddy and they encourage

06:45 them and they might say to them, "Do you want a game of pool? Would you like a drink?" They

06:47 might encourage them to take part in a quiz we might be doing. But I think it's nice to

06:51 know and for those young people, it shows the growth in a lot of them because some of

06:55 them that have become buddies were our alternative education students last year and I could never

07:00 have imagined them doing anything kind. So the growth that shows. So what we encourage

07:04 is actually, you know, you could have somebody that's going to help with the toast monitor.

07:07 You might have somebody that's going to help do something like that, you know, and for

07:11 us that's a really positive point of view that it shows the growth and it shows, like

07:15 you say, you're a positive role model and this is the behaviour we want you to model.

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