Engaging with Young People

It is important that all young people at the Leys CDI have fun, enjoy themselves and engage in positive activities where everyone has the opportunity to make friends, gain new skills and grow in confidence. Through age appropriate courses and activities like t-shirt design, kids-café, table tennis, video production for children and social enterprise course, job club, youth management committee etc. for older young people project users can develop at their own pace. They pick up many valuable transferable skills that are beneficial well behind their engagement with the project and throughout life.

Diversionary Project

This project aims to support and train young people who are at risk or who had involvement with the criminal justice system.

Often the young people are not used to formal and structured educations. Therefore we work with the young people through multi-media workshops, music production, role play, small group activities and one to one mentoring support to focus on talents, strength and positive development.

Girls & Young Women’s Project

Recognising the growing imbalance between male and female users within the project the Leys CDI responded in November 2012 appointing a new Youth Worker offering a range of activities that support our female young people to fulfil their dreams and aspirations. Since then girls and young women have been creating their own safe platform and organising activities which helps them to grow and develop independently of the boys and young men and also with the boys and young men together.

Youth Job Club

The job club is led by an experienced youth worker  who has a diploma in Advice and Guidance. It provides help with CV writing, interview techniques, job applications, links to training providers, work placements as well as weekly online jobs vacancy listing.

Good links have been made with ‘In Training’, Oxford and Cherwell Valley College (CSCS and Door Supervision courses) and the Green Square Employment Project ‘Whatever’. Recently there has been an upsurge of young men from the wider area seeking support from the Job Club because the helpful positive work of the job club is more widely recognised.

I have a Dream Project

Dreamcatchers

Project

This four week project in partnership with ‘Small Green Shoots’ worked with 13 young people focusing on the Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream’ speech. Young people worked together analysing his speech and discussing issues which affect their lives. They found creative ways to deliver their message to other young people through music, art and poetry at the end of project performance.

Citizenship and Democracy

Young People of the Leys CDI are trained and encouraged to be involved in the governance and leadership of the organisations either at the Youth Management Committee or the YP2 Steering Group. Young People are trusted and are given the unique opportunity to influence the activities and services on offer, to take on responsibility for themselves, their youth project and for the wider community. It is about empowering young people who live in a disadvantaged area where exclusion and lack of meaningful involvement are common.

Personal Learning and Social Informal

Education

The Leys CDI offers both – formal and informal participatory educational activities that promote personal development and active citizenship. Young Peoples’ achievements are always celebrated within the community at showcase events like the Summer Finale, The Journey or the Arts Awards Ceremony.

Courses/Qualification young people completed: Arts Awards, First Aid, Sound Engineering, Radio Production, Door Supervision, Food and Hygiene, Mentoring, Introduction into Youth Work and Dealing with difficult behaviour training.

Social enterprise project

This programme is a business enterprise training that guides young people through the process of setting up and running their own company inspired by a Young Enterprise Business Adviser. The young people are in the process of developing a prototype of their product and pitching their idea to a Dragon’s Den. This programme helps young people build their confidence, business and social skills, knowledge and resilience in these challenging economic times.

After School Club

The Afterschool club runs three times a week for those aged 9 – 15.

Young people can chill out and play table tennis, do some arts and crafts, take part in the DJ mixing workshop, video production workshops, release some energy in the sumo suits or do their homework on the laptops.

In the Kids Cafe young people learn to research for low cost recipes, find the healthy value food from supermarkets  and cook the meal for themselves and their peers.

Summer Project

The Summer Project runs for four weeks during August, daily from 10 am- 4pm and was attended by 119 young people. With support and supervision from the summer project youth workers 10 young people from the youth management committee volunteered their time on a daily basis throughout the four weeks.

Projects this year were:  Bike Fixing, Mural Project, Newsletter, Zumba , MTV project , Street Dance Master Classes, Music Production, I Have a Dream Project, Kids Cafe , Snap Back Design, T-Shirt Printing, DJ Workshops, Ice Skating,  Badminton, Roller-skating, Football, Street Art, Dodge Ball, Swimming, Cinema and a trip to Thorpe park. Every year the Summer Project culminates in the Summer Finale where the young people demonstrate their newly learned skills to the Leys Community and celebrate their achievements.