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New
Branch in
Macclesfield More : Worth Unlimited Macclesfield is a development of the Cre8 Youth and Community Project based at St.Barnabas church on the Moss Rose estate. Cre8 began in the summer of 2005 as an initiative of Churches Together in Macclesfield who wanted to serve the community by doing something positive in an area with the worst reputation in the town. Macclesfield is a high wealth generating area on the edge of the Peak District; yet there are many young people here who rarely leave the estate. The relative poverty and poverty of experience here can cause profound difficulties for young people. Because the estate is small (around 680 dwellings) and surrounded by such affluence; it is not easily recognised as a deprived area; to many people it simply doesn’t exist. Worth Unlimited Branch Director Rob Wardle worked with one young man aged 17 who hadn’t left the house for 3 years because he’d been so badly bullied, when he came out with Rob, the skin on his face turned red as it hadn’t seen daylight for so long. See more information about the Macclesfield Branch>
Working
towards a
World Worth
Living In: Worth Unlimited are excited to be relaunching our flagship programme “A World Worth Living In” which encourages young people to think about their place in society and helps them develop the skills and personal attributes to gain a foothold in society. For the first time the programme is going to have an OCN accredited option which will add value to the programme for young people who are motivated to work for this award. In addition the updated version includes more user friendly features such as an online portfolio building facility and easy to use worksheets that capture evidence of learning. The familiar themes of My Inside World, My Outside World and My Future remain as well as features such as the Residential and activities that cater for a wide range of preferred learning styles. Now the programme can be accessed at four self contained levels which each carry accreditation and build on one another to fit best with local needs and contexts. Melanie Glass is our new programme coordinator and is available to provide support and training to any agency interested in making use of this programme. She can be contacted through our national office. Contact
the National
Office>
New Mobile Youth Venue A converted bus has arrived in Waltham Forest and managed by Worth Unlimited on behalf of the Local Authority Youth Service, giving young people a place to call their own, to relax, play music, access the Internet and enjoy social time with friends – a place to call “My Venue”. The “My Venue” bus is a good example of the potential that can be achieved when a local authority and voluntary sector group come together in partnership. Waltham Forest Local Authority took the bold decision to commission Worth Unlimited to create a flexible and creative resource with young people and now the Mobile Youth Venue has arrived, Worth Unlimited will be responsible for making the resource available across the borough. “My Venue” has been a long time coming,” reports Andrew Musgrave, “We have been working on this with the young people for over 6 months. The young people have been involved in all of the stages of development advising on the colour schemes and the facilities that are on board. I hope that they are really proud of what they have achieved. “My Venue” responds to two important issues when it comes to supporting young people. Firstly it takes seriously the challenge to make services accessible to young people by taking them to where young people are at and secondly it recognises that not only do young people need places to go that are specifically intended for them but also they need to be listened to. Our team of staff and volunteers are really keen that this resource be a place which young people can call their own and where they find adults who will listen to them and take them seriously. “I think that “My Venue” is going to be a really important resource in helping young people across Waltham Forest achieve their potential and play a positive part in the life of our community and it has been great to share with the Local Authority in developing a resource which will contribute to this vision.” The Waltham Forest team expect the bus to engage with over 150 young people each week once funding has been secured. You can see more information and images on the Worth Unlimited MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/worthunlimited Find out more about Worth's Outreach work More>
Coming together to be at the heart of a Professional Community of practitioners Worth Unlimited and Dare2 have come together to form a single entity under the one umbrella of The Worth Foundation retaining the Worth Unlimited identity and branding. Resources from Dare 2 have been transferred to Worth Unlimited in order that the purposes of both organisations can be better served through the one strengthened organisation. In recent years both organisations have been working together to be at the heart of a professional community of practitioners serving marginalised and excluded young people. Chief Executive Tim Evans anticipates the coming together of the two organisations and being a great opportunity to move forward with this work and Worth Unlimited being an important resource to this community, developing research that informs practice, offering specialist training and consultation for youth workers working in this field of work and delivering specialised residential experiences for young people on behalf of other agencies. “As well as our branches across the country, we want to work with other groups of youth workers who are already working with marginalised and excluded young people or thinking of doing this and together build a network of learning practitioners who are committed to finding the best ways to engage with youth culture and help young people escape the effects of exclusion. By developing a professional community we want to serve young people, helping them find themselves a place within the society of which they are supposed to belong.” “This coming together of our two organisations, gives Worth Unlimited a strong platform to build on. The business expertise and specialist skills of Dare 2 combined with the direct face to face experience of Worth Unlimited youth workers, presents us with a great opportunity to work towards really understanding what works with young people and disseminating this out to others in this field and beyond,” said Tim Evans.
Italian Adventures Holidays are an important part of healthy and whole life living and in particular of family life providing an opportunity for children and parents to spend quality time together away from the stresses of ordinary day to day life. And yet the centre for Tourism and Cultural Change in Sheffield report that as many as 45% of the UK population do not have access to a regular holiday away from home and instead can feel isolated and marginalised. Worth Unlimited staff are seeking to address this issue and help young people and their families overcome barriers to exclusion by helping them access and afford a holiday abroad. Working with contacts in North East Italy, our staff are intending to work with a number of families in the UK so that in the summer of 2008 they can enjoy a holiday together that is affordable and fun for everyone. “For some people it is an issue of finance and we want to work with those people to raise funds to make a holiday abroad an affordable experience.” Said project manager Andrew Musgrave, “For others it is a matter of overcoming barriers such as filling in forms and booking accommodation in a foreign country. Again we hope to help people overcome this barrier. For others they will need support while they are on holiday coping with being in a foreign country. We believe that there is great value in experiencing a different culture and environment as this can be so refreshing and revitalising and so we are going to be on hand to support families whilst they are abroad” “I
read that
one professional
working
with families
observed
that,
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NEW
STAFF ACROSS
THE COUNTRY Karen Watson is leading a team in Redbridge which included Idris Jaulim and Annette Clarke two students at the George Williams Youth Work College in Custom House. Lance, Paul and Steve join the team in the Midlands
LET'S
TALK ABOUT
SEX Romance Academy is a project designed to help young people get to the heart of who they are. It provides an opportunity to young people wanting to find out how to get the best out of life, love and relationships. The project challenges cultural trends and attitudes among young people towards sex and asks the young people to delay sexual activity for the 5 months of the programme as a way to create space to think through the issues. More>
KEY
SKILL SUCCESSES “We are delighted with the number of young people who have completed the Bronze Award this year and I am particularly pleased that so many of these have also completed the Key Skills qualification as well in our first year of piloting this programme” said Branch Director Matt Perry. More>
WE
DARE 2 The extensive on the street experience of Worth Unlimited teams and the research, training and innovative outdoor adventure skills of Dare 2 are being combined to create a professional community offering experiential learning to marginalized young people enabling them to make the best choices in life, to fulfill their potential and to enable them to make a worthwhile contribution to society. More>
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