Wharfedale Observer

£29,000 help for troubled young people

From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Friday 7th Jun 2002.

A new project to capitalise on young people's skills and help them stay out of trouble is being set up in a Bradford village.

The scheme in Queensbury has been awarded £29,000 from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, which in Bradford South has been designated to go towards anti-crime projects.

It will run over 12 months and 20 youngsters will be given individual learning plans to help them make the most of their abilities.

Dave Hay, area manager for Bradford Youth Service, said the scheme would build on existing projects already being run in the village and work closely with schools, the police and the Youth Offending Team.

He said it would be through these links that the 20 youngsters would be identified and referred to them.

"These young people have got quite a lot of complex personal, social and economic problems which lead them to not go to school," said Mr Hay.

The individual learning plans will be developed through talking to them about what they want to achieve in their lives.

Mr Hay said one example might be a youngster who had been excluded from school. Their help could involve trying to get him to understand what he had done and acting as a contact between the youngster and the school.

Mr Hay said conditions might be attached to the plan or the youngster could be given additional support in literacy and numeracy if necessary.

"If they can't read or write as well as others, they might start being disruptive," he said.

Particular skills or interests will be developed, such as sports or music, and they could be introduced to other groups or organisations to work with.

The aim would be to get them back into mainstream education if possible. "A lot of them have a lot of skills but don't know how to access them," said Mr Hay.

"It's the idea that if people have got something positive to do, they can be seen as somebody who's got a positive contribution to make. It's about breaking negative stereotypes."

Staff are being recruited for the project, which will provisionally target youngsters aged between 13 and 19.

It is intended to start the scheme as soon as possible.

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