What out-of-school activities do you do and where?

The Education Select Committee at the House of Commons is conducting an inquiry into what services are provided for young people aged 13 to 25 outside school, and wants to hear from young people.

Do you attend a youth club, sport or music project, are you a Guide or Scout, or do you participate in any other organised activities? If so, tell us what you do, where, whether people outside your family help you take part, and why it matters to you.

Parliament wants your view!

Please see our other threads and get your views across!

Are you a volunteer and what do you do?

Would a summer programme for 16 year olds leaving school interest you?

If you were in charge, how would you spend money for young people in your area?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1

LisaHammond

I am a motivated student at Skegness Academy and in my spare time I volunteer at Skegness Youth Centre, not only does the centre open up great opportunities for me but also the community. I think the centre is a great place for everyone to go to be part of something, to relax in a comfortable environment and i also think it provides the community with a sense of support. There is so much to be a part of at Skegness Youth Centre, whatever interests you have the staff at the centre will help you to push yourself to get to where you want to be. Music, dance, sport, art, key skills etc, there are many more subjects that the Youth service has to offer.
There is an accreditation evening where young people can get involved in great things such as ASDAN and Duke of Edinburgh Award, also they can get involved in gaining qualifications for example Food Hygeine, First Aid and Health and Safety. These opportunitys widen the horizens for these young people that perhaps wouldnt know how to go about working towards them without the help and support they recieve here.
When young people come to the youth centre they know they arent going to be judged and they can be who they want to be, for some of them it gives them a break from stresses outside the centre and i think without this they would feel lost and deeply saddened.
On Monday evenings the centre hold a night for the disability group, this gives them a chance to communicate with their friends and relax. They thoroughly enjoy the services they recieve here, sometimes we get them cooking, joining in discussions, playing sports, showing their artistic talents etc. the key thing about this youth service is that equality is key and it means so much to everybody that comes here.
The Youth centre offers young people opportunities in and out of school time, during holidays they can get involved in all sorts of things, they take the young people out on trips and give them freedom, some of the children see this as a holiday from home and they love it, these young people might not get the chance to do some of the things they do here without the centre.
The support and help offered by the youth services is so huge, the young people couldnt ask for any more. anything they are worried about at all, could be drugs, pregnancy, abortion, schoolwork, bullying, it really doesnt matter what it is teh staff here are willing to help, i dont know what would happen without them.
Overall i think that Skegness Youth Centre helps the young people in skegness dramatically! without the services they recieve they wouldnt know which path to take and as you can imagine this could be very daunting at a young age and they could possibly take the easiest route which in most cases isnt the best. It would be heartbreaking to see these fantastic young people suffer.

Reply 2

sexysophie1996

My name is Sophie i am 14 and i have been coming to the youth club for a while know and i have found them not to be not just youth workers but a part of my familey. My youth worker at skegness helped me to get in a school which i was very pleased by because i went to skegness acadamy and it didnt suit me and know i go to king edward (spilsby) and know i feel much more confitible.
Dont think me and my mum would have made it threw it with out them.
so the youth centre is not just for young childran it is for adults as well.

I started coming here last year on a monday night because i have autisum and i felt like i fitted in. i had help with the autisum and other things around me. The workers here are so help full and they really help me threw it.
The other reason why i think we should stay open is actually for the monday night aspecially becase people with disabilty dont have that much to do. but when they come to the youth centre they have fun and have a good time and dont have to feel differant.

Here at the youth centre we do loads to help with charaty,
like 2010 we did childran in need i dressed up as pudsey it was a good night and we raised £207.38 it was a good night.

lots of love
sophie evans xx

Reply 3

The Polar Dude

Well i am part of a youth group called BYM2 and we have weekly meetings to discuss how young people in our borough can be more helpful and we have many various discussions which is passed onto the youth pariliament.

i will join st john's ambulance very soon so that would be really cool and a part of my out of school activities

Reply 4

Lucie

Hello My Name Is Lucy I Am A Student At Skegness Academy And Attened Skegness Youth Clubs Evrey Saturday Monday Wednesday And Thursday Because I Really Enjoy The Activities And Meet New Friends And It Makes Me Feel Comfortable In The Enviroment There Is Alot More To Skegness Youth Than Just A Couple Nights A Week With My Friends Skegness Youth Centre Has So Much More To Offer I Have Also Made A Cd And Performed Songs For ASDAN I Really Hope Skegness Youth Centre Dosent Get Closed Down There Will Be Alot Of Unhappy Faces I Think Alot Of My Friends Will Be Upset.

On A Monday Night The Disability Group Comes In And That Is The Only Night Of The Week They Can Socalise With Friends And Be Comfortable Without Being Juged For Who They Are. :smile:

xx

Reply 5

chloewilkinson

my name is chloe and i go to skegness youth centre and i come here because it time were you can spend time with your friends and its a good place to chill. we all feel safe at our youth centre and its like a second home to some of us. We do children in need stuff eg raising money by dressing up in fancey dress we all had a laugh and it were for a good cause. We have a disability night were a lot of disabled people come to and we help them. This is a good opportunity for them as they can do things here might not feel comfortable outside the youth centre. I ve been coming to this youth centre for two years now id be lost with out it .
:biggrin:

THANKKS
CHLOE

Reply 6

confuchaz

this is a ridiculously cringy thread. my personal experience with youth workers as well as goverment and council lead volunteering is that it rarely manages to do anything other than tick a box for opening up participation.

The department of education has lots of other more important things to fund other than ridiculous surveys.

Reply 7

MrsCrackFox

Don't even bother.
This is entirely pointless.

Reply 8

MrsCrackFox

Original post by confuchaz

this is a ridiculously cringy thread. my personal experience with youth workers as well as goverment and council lead volunteering is that it rarely manages to do anything other than tick a box for opening up participation.

The department of education has lots of other more important things to fund other than ridiculous surveys.

I completely agree with this.

Reply 9

stroodyouthcentre

hi my names warren and i go to strood youthy club. i play football at strood sports centre and pool down at strood snooker club. i go to rochetsre maths school.

Reply 10

mjeezy

Well I live in America, so that probably won't help you, but I play ultimate (flying disc), build robots, and am in a Cadet Corps at a major U.S. university.

Reply 11

No Future

17

Original post by confuchaz

The department of education has lots of other more important things to fund other than ridiculous surveys.

This.

eg.

-Bring back EMA
-Scholarships for uni students

Reply 12

confuchaz

Original post by No Future

-Bring back EMA
-Scholarships for uni students

I think the goverment will find a group of young professionals in serious debt in about 6 or 7 years. I've lost all faith in this goverment.

basically kids, don't bother with extra curicular stuff to get yourself into uni, theres no point, if your parents aren't minted you're going to end up with **** loads of debt and you'll probably find yourself better of financially if you go straight into employment.
and if you do lots of voluntary work, you're doing exactly what clegg-ron wants you to do, fill a gap left by the redundancy of people employed by the state.

Reply 13

mjeezy

Original post by confuchaz

I think the goverment will find a group of young professionals in serious debt in about 6 or 7 years. I've lost all faith in this goverment.

basically kids, don't bother with extra curicular stuff to get yourself into uni, theres no point, if your parents aren't minted you're going to end up with **** loads of debt and you'll probably find yourself better of financially if you go straight into employment.
and if you do lots of voluntary work, you're doing exactly what clegg-ron wants you to do, fill a gap left by the redundancy of people employed by the state.

As an American, this is quite interesting for me.

You said you lost all faith in your government because your generation is going to have some "serious debt" in about 6 or 7 years. Now I don't know how much that is or how long you will have to work to pay it off, so I can't comment on that. However, it intrigues me that you are angry at your government because they won't find a way for you to pay for university. Why is it the government's responsibility to find a way for you to attend college? I agree that they should promote scholarships, attending college, and other things like that. The bottom line is that if you want to go to university then you have to pay. To do that you either need money already, achieve good enough grades to earn some scholarships, or take out a loan. The last one sucks, huh? Well people have been taking out loans and working for their education for a very, very long time. If it isn't economically feasible for you to go to university at that time, then don't go.

My main point might seem to have gotten lost in that, but here it is in a nutshell:

Don't blame others just because you might have to work hard for something in your life.

That's just my take.

Reply 14

kerily

15

LOL. Graham Stuart is my local MP.

We actually have pretty good youth services round here. I go to a LGBT youth group weekly, I do a volunteering scheme in which I organise projects to help the local community (currently getting young and old people to work together to cook, which may sound horribly worthy but has lead to a lot of people going 'you know, I thought young people were all bad before I started this!'), I do a wind band outside of school, and I have a job with the council.

People knocking youth services - just because they're not aimed at your demographic doesn't mean they don't massively help the people who do use them. If you find that they're just ticking a box, don't bother with them. For the people who do need them, they are often a lifeline.

Reply 15

E_Blackadder

Original post by mjeezy

Well I live in America, so that probably won't help you, but I play ultimate (flying disc), build robots, and am in a Cadet Corps at a major U.S. university.

See, now this is appealing.

I don't have any real issues with "youth clubs" but when I was in school those terms always used to make me cringe. They weren't cool and however much they tried to show otherwise they were run by adults.

The best things in my experience where the small clubs set up by my school, not part of any "community project" or the like. Like the musicians who would meet twice a week after school and just jam for an hour, and would perform occasionally infront of the school. Or the maths groups that relied on passionate teachers intent on helping those that wanted it after school.
I also have family that do drama productions with their school and love it.
The benefits of these sorts of things are massive and I don't think should be underestimated as to how integral they should be to school life.

I think i'm rambling now, but just from my experiences those which stemmed from school always worked really well, at least for me.

Reply 16

Denzilaa

hello i'm Daniel Spencer and i want the youth services to be safe because if we dint have them all i would be doing is basically hannging around outside the shopping center causing trouble like i did before i knew about the services so they should stay or street crime may increse again and we will have nutting to to and no help with jobs college ect xx

does xbox count? xx

my name is stephen and i am 16, i have been coming to skegness youth centre for almost 2 years. in this time i have gained first aid and food and hygeine skills. the youth club has also helped develop not only my life, but the life of my friends and family. it has given my the help and support needed to carry on with my post-16 education. me and many other young people in skegness would be lost without these workers as we have grown some strong friendships :smile:

Reply 19

Horanzu

Original post by mjeezy

As an American, this is quite interesting for me.

You said you lost all faith in your government because your generation is going to have some "serious debt" in about 6 or 7 years. Now I don't know how much that is or how long you will have to work to pay it off, so I can't comment on that. However, it intrigues me that you are angry at your government because they won't find a way for you to pay for university. Why is it the government's responsibility to find a way for you to attend college? I agree that they should promote scholarships, attending college, and other things like that. The bottom line is that if you want to go to university then you have to pay. To do that you either need money already, achieve good enough grades to earn some scholarships, or take out a loan. The last one sucks, huh? Well people have been taking out loans and working for their education for a very, very long time. If it isn't economically feasible for you to go to university at that time, then don't go.

My main point might seem to have gotten lost in that, but here it is in a nutshell:

Don't blame others just because you might have to work hard for something in your life.

That's just my take.

Indeed, why is it the government's responsibility to find a way for me to attend university? In fact, why is it their responsibility to pay for my primary and secondary education? And why on earth should they pay for my healthcare before I'm able to contribute to the state through taxes? If I want to live, I should pay. Or maybe my parents can pay for me, and well, it's obviously my fault if I come from a low income background.

Actually, if the state's not going to provide for me until I can provide for myself then what's the point of the government? What's the point of democracy? Each man for himself, eh? Yes? YES?

No.

***END RANT***

What out-of-school activities do you do and where?

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