 Region and town / city operating in: Towcester, Northamptonshire Beneficiaries: Young people aged 11 – 19 years old. Around 50 individuals attend the café each week. Contact name: Steph Collier, Youth Participation Worker Email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Activities of the organisation: The youth café aims to provide a safe and exciting place to go for young people in Towcester. It provides them with something to do and people to talk to. Vision offers drop in services, free internet access and entertainment via computer game consoles, music, a pool table and refreshments to name a few. Vision offers its beneficiaries life skills workshops that they wouldn’t otherwise find easy to access, for example babysitting and healthy eating/cooking. They also hold “Sound Box” and “Band Night” events open to all along with aerosol art and street dance sessions. Vision is run by a team of young and adult volunteers alongside a youth steering group which is made up of a young panel of 11 volunteers. The steering group has a completely inclusive structure with the young people being very much involved in the decision making for the café. Vision devised this model for the youth café, it was groundbreaking in terms of being run by young people for young people. The young people have so much influence that Vision conducts an annual consultation to establish exactly how the young people would like Vision to continue and move forward. For example changing the colour of the building/ furniture and/or if they would like different game consoles available. Employee numbers: 1 (Youth Participation Worker) Volunteer numbers: around 10 Funding and the history of funding: Vision has just completed a Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) funded 22 week project to offer a Thursday night  drop in and positive activities for young people. Steph and Vision’s management team has to be in regular pursuit of funding as the youth café’s funding streams are not constant. To do this they keep an eye on the current agenda for NCC as this may present a gap in provision that they may be able to assist with. This is not where the fundraising ends though, it is also about being frugal with the funds that they have. Towcester Town Council continually support the café and donations from town councillors as well as others have helped to pay for much needed equipment. Vision has had to slightly amend the way that they traditionally do things to make it sustainable for the future; they are now starting to charge a small fee to attend “Band Night” and “Sound Box” events to help cover costs.Organisation’s challenges: Vision has always been successful with any fundraisers that it has undertaken; one hurdle that they have had to overcome is gathering support and maintaining a strong presence in the community. Vision continually campaign to improve the image of young people and the perceived threat of anti-social behaviour by getting young people involved in positive activities and have the community share in their successes. As with the nature of running a youth café, it is important to be constantly reinventing yourself and changing your marketing to make sure that you appeal to young people. Every year is different and the same approach as the previous year cannot be used over and over again. It needs to be new and come from the people they want to attract. Vision also heavily relies on volunteers to staff the café and runs regular recruitment drives for new volunteers and continues to train and develop existing staff. Successes: In 2011 Vision Youth Café was shortlisted for the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, Young Partners Award. This is a great accolade and testament to the volunteers involved. It is this determination and enthusiasm that has made Vision the success that it is. High on Vision’s agenda is recognising the commitment and help that the volunteers provide. Vision presents a ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award and organises volunteer away days and celebration events. These events are particularly important as often the parents of the young people involved are often unaware of the value of being involved in such an organisation, to reward them for their time is important. Vision has already been a great success, but to continue, plans for the future must be put in place. “We would really like to grow the organisation in order to be able to offer more services and cater for more people” said Steph, Youth Participation Worker. “In an ideal world we would love to be able to open the café seven days a week.” Hints and tips for others: Working with young people is particularly rewarding but the most important aspect is to keep changing and updating to be what young people want by involving them as much as possible. Secondly, be prepared to face knockbacks and come back fighting. |
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NVC Northants - State of the sector report|
Vision Youth Café
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