Outcome 3 - Be Enabled and Empowered
What our young people said....
This strategy will give young people places to go to make friends, feel safe, participate in social and recreational activities, have more support and something to inspire us.
Why is this important?
Adolescence is a time of brain development that requires young people to take part and gain experience. They need to develop and practice the skills that will carry them into adulthood. Through this strategy, we need to have young people's real-life experience at heart and embed this approach across all adult led organisations enabling young people to work alongside friendly, trusted adults who will give them a chance.
Despite our best endeavours, if young people do not have the confidence and capabilities to craft the lives they wish to lead, they will always struggle to express their needs and to engage with the support they are offered. As a city, we need to encourage young people to remain curious and develop the skills and selfawareness they need to navigate life.
What is already happening?
In partnership, Preston North End Community & Education Trust (PNECET), Vault Youth zone, Lancashire Youth Challenge, McDonalds, Police, Lancashire County Council and the Foxton have delivered detached youth work in the city centre, working with those young people who are engaging in risk taking behaviours.
In partnership, organisations from the Youth Forum worked with young people to create the question set used in the Youth Consultation for this strategy and have continued to involve them in the development of this strategy, specifically the prioritisation of issues, collating meaningful quotes and developing the 10 year vision.
Youth work support is taking place in local neighbourhoods across the city providing safe spaces for young people to engage in social and recreational activities that boosts their confidence, social skills and resilience.
Preston has a large faith based and uniformed based youth engagement network which instils beliefs and values in young people while developing life skills which have a positive effect on their future goals and aspirations.
The WHAY App, QR code access to consultation and SoundSkills in Brookfield give young people the opportunity to engage digitally and utilise technological developments to link with local services.
What are we going to do?
Through the Youth Forum, organisations will:
Work in partnership to deliver practical preventative interventions on the things that matter to young people, families and the professionals working with them, including:
- Exploring values, beliefs, morals and motivation
- Instilling a growth mindset to enable greater resilience
- Understanding the value of eloquent challenge and critical thinking - exploring and appreciating different opinions and beliefs
- Exploring the benefits and challenges of digital and technological developments
- Developing innovative and creative mindsets and an entrepreneurial spirit
- Recognising the value of mistakes as a vital part of learning and personal growth
- Developing the necessary skills required to express their needs and the challenges they face.
- Work with young people and help them discover their agency, be involved in problem solving and develop the skills they need to navigate life.
- Increase the numbers of trusted adults available to young people and develop those working with them with training and awareness sessions so that they can make every contact count and help young people develop the skills they need.