Active Youth Crosses The Finish Line
Active Youth is a Sport England funded programme that helps young people who are typically inactive or less active to enjoy active lifestyles.
January 2022 saw the end of the project run by UK Youth and funded by Sport England, for which SPACE has been a delivery partner for. The project launched in August 2020 and saw a number of voluntary sector groups take up the challenge to get groups of inactive young people active over a series of 6 x 1 hour sessions.
Initially there was a real excitement around the planning and delivery of some very exciting activities including surfing, online Zumba classes and street hockey. Then we were hit with a partial lockdown in November and a full national lockdown in Jan 2021. This of course offered limitations to what groups could deliver - some did continue to offer activities online but many were forced to close. Luckily the project was delivered in 2 cohorts and all the groups were able to transfer to the second cohort and continue with the delivery of their programmes.
Over the course of the project SPACE worked in partnership with over 15 groups including; Princetown Pavillion Youth Club, Lifeworks, Youth Genesis, Horrabridge Youth Club, Plymouth Youth Sailing and 3 groups at SPACE from The Station (Newton Abbot) and The 100 Club (Exeter).
Activities undertaken during the projects included, surfing, sailing, scavenger hunts, a trip to a local water park, limbo. ‘Floor is Lava’ hockey, Karate, scootering, skating, hill walking, football, Zumba and dancing.
Active Youth Achievements
143 young people completed the sessions.
Clocking up a really impressive 858 hours of activity.
19 Young Volunteers also took the opportunity to achieve an accredited Youth Achievement Award- these young people took part in the activities but also helped plan and deliver sessions and set themselves targets to achieve throughout the process.
They achieved an additional 80 hours of volunteering time to make sure the sessions all went ahead and that they were fun and engaging.
Feedback from Youth Workers:
“We worked with some young people who have ADHD and/or compulsions as well as learning difficulties. They wanted to get into the water; surf, paddle board and wild swimming, all that was led by them and after a long risk assessment, we made it happen!”
“We had an amazing amount of fun delivering this project from online sessions to Hula Hoop pantos for our first Paddleboard out of Lockdown to the inspiration for a sponsored walk organised for the summer on Dartmoor – the Active Youth program has inspired the vulnerable young people we support – Thank you.”
Young people were asked what was their highlight:
“Getting more people doing more sports that they may not normally do”
“The karate was really fun”
“making friends”
“Being with friends and trying new things”
A celebration event is planned at the end of March for all participants to come together and share experiences of the project- a representative from Active Devon will also attend to discuss with groups how they can sustain and continue the activities they have discovered during this project.
“I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to all the groups that worked so hard to deliver this project, my congratulations to all the young people that achieved a Youth Achievement Award and thanks to Deborah, Kate and Sarah at UK Youth for their guidance and support throughout the project.”