One of the key developments to come from the West Youth Forum was a mobile youth club that could be used to provide youth services to the out lying part of the Borough. Imaginatively it is to be known as THE BUS. As the original idea came from the West Forum, young people from the West have been consulted at every stage of development and young people from Blaydon Youth Club have been involved from the very start. . When The Bus was nearing completion a final consultation event was held at Derwent Park with the aim of designing the external decorations and the inner content and equipment. Staff from the Club took a group of young people along to the event. The day turned out to be really fun day. There were various activities including football, dance, climbing wall and a live band. Food was also provided but the two activities which our young people enjoyed the most were the jousting (you had to sit on a round beam and try to knock your opponent off using a foam club) and the sumo wrestling for which you had to wear a fat suit and grapple each other to the ground, this provided some of the funniest sights of the day. Paul Nichol Part Time Youth Support Worker

P Nichol ( Part Time Youth Support Worker )

A group of young people from the senior youth club got together to plan an out of centre activity. The decision reached was to go Ten Pin Bowling. The group wished to apply to the Keyfund Organisation to fund the activity. The Keyfund Organisation gives out grants to groups of young people who in return have to go through the Keyfund learning process and carry out key skills in order to obtain the grant. In this instance the group worked together as a team to come up with the original idea and then had to find costings for the bowling, a meal afterwards and mini-bus hire for the event. After all the planning had been done the group sat with a Keyfund Facilitator who discussed all aspects of their application with them. It was agreed that they had fulfilled all of the necessary criteria and the application would be approved. The group made all of the bookings when they knew they would get the money. The event took place at the Metro Centre Bowling Alley. All of the young people who had worked towards this had a great time and were eagerly looking forward to perhaps doing another Keyfund application at some time in the future.

Alan Livingstone ( Part Time Youth Support Worker )

Well what can I say I’m still here and loving it.

Having taken flak for some time about the state of the pool room (it having been previously decorated by young people several years ago). We have started a project with a group of girls to redecorate the room. It’s not just painting it a different colour, as the group has decided to decorate the walls with local land marks and to help with this we have visited a few; the Angel of the North and St Mary’s Lighthouse to take photographs which they are going to transfer onto the walls. Making it more their club. This project will be recorded as an accredited course and the girls will get a ‘Liferoutes’ certificate at the end of the project Another highlight is that we have the same group of members who come to the club on all club nights and really enjoy their time with us. The banter we have with them is excellent and the young people are very much at ease with the staff team. Although our roles as youth support workers seems to be constantly changing working with the young people is a pleasure. I look forward to the next year and what it will bring and to working with this group of young people and others in the years to come.

Linda Jones ( Part Time Youth Support Worker )

Over the past 12 months the Inclusive Club has grown from having only 2 or 3 members to where we now have 19 active members with 10+ attending most weeks. Activities include football, pool, cookery, games in the sport shall, arts and crafts and playing on the Wii with most of the young people very keen to participate. With so much going on this helps to create a good atmosphere during sessions and for me Wednesday night is the best session of the week. As a change we decided as a group, to go ten pin bowling one night and apart from those members who were on holiday everyone wanted to come along. One of the plus points with this group is that they return consent forms without fail. So on Wednesday 19th August off we went, a full minibus and two cars to XL Superbowl at Long Benton. The young people were very keen and excited and surprisingly one or two were quite competitive. As you would expect with this group standards of play varied greatly, however with the sidebars in place everyone was able to play to some level. Halfway through we stopped for a drink and something to eat. When the game was over it was time for home with everyone saying that they had enjoyed themselves and could we do it again soon? I think a point to make is this group come along to the sessions with the intention of enjoying themselves, which they certainly do, and this makes working with them a pleasure.

Paul Nichol ( Part Time Youth Support Worker )