Membership-wise, the last year has been hard, last summer our core group of 14- 16 year olds stopped attending the club overnight and we experienced a period where there were no young people attending the club at all. During August and September the staff worked hard at attracting new members to the club in various ways, we went out and did outreach work in Green Gates Park and the Bleach Green Estate areas, we did detached work in other areas such as Blaydon Bank, Loup Farm Estate, Blaydon Burn and Winlaton. We printed flyers explaining what the youth club was about, what the young people could expect and inviting them to come along and try one or two of the sessions but to no avail. We then decided to try working with a group, younger than our target group as there were no seniors available. Starting an intermediate session on a Monday Night, and attracted two or three 11-12 year olds who had shown an interest in the club we encouraged them to bring along their friends and as numbers increased we moved them to Senior Club on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. Slowly this approach seemed to work as numbers increased and crucially so did the age of the young people attending, so that we now have a membership of over 60 young people who all attend the club at various times. Hopefully this number will continue to grow and Blaydon Youth Club will continue to provide a sporting and educational venue for the youth of Blaydon and surrounding areas.

Paul Nichol( Part Time Youth Support Worker )

We were approached by Councillor Steve Ronchetti who asked us to produce a display in the flower bed next to the club, for Britain in Bloom. We invited our young people to produce a design for a flowerbed, we did some drawings and eventually a decision was made on how it would look and what plants would be used. A group of young people then had to make sure that the flower bed was hoed and free of weeds, and then the pattern for the display had to be mapped out using garden twine. When the plants were purchased the weather (heavy rain) was to play havoc with the planting. The group however were not deterred by this and although it took several sessions to get it finished the outcome was really good. The group did not stop there, opposite the club is an garden area that contains perennial plants so some of the group spent a evening just weeding this area. Others helped by litter picking around the club. The above effort by the young people will be going towards a “Life Routes” accreditation. Great work everyone. 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 young people in the years to come.

Linda Jones ( Part Time Youth Support Worker )