News and stories

Over the last few months, Architect students from UWE have gone above and beyond to engage with the community in Ashton Vale. This is the beginning of their masters project. Local Councillor, Tessa Fitzjohn, gave the students a brief to look at the wetlands adjacent to the Longmoor Village development. The brief was written in hopes that it would create sustainability for the area but also create an understanding for the value of the natural environment.

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Their first meeting with Young Bristol was on the 5th October. Using Ashton Vale Club for Young People, the University group met with Tessa Fitzjohn and the TVG friends’ group. During this meeting, they discussed the initial aims of the project. This meeting lead to the students being guided around Ashton Vale, familiarising themselves with the area and the context surrounding the wetlands.

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On the 25th October, Young Bristol’s Silver Social welcomed the University students to their session. Members of Silver Social were some of the first people to ever live in Ashton Vale.  The chat they had was very insightful, finding out how some of the locals may use the wetlands and what improvements could be made to the area so more locals can access it. It was great for everyone at the meeting to learn the history behind Ashton Vale.

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All of their findings from meeting with Young Bristol and other organisations such as Ashton Vale Primary School, Manor Woods Valley Group, and Bristol River Avon Trust, were collected together. This gave the group a chance to reflect on all their findings before presenting. They were able to create a number of storyboards and interactive models to present to Ashton Vale’s local community.

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Yesterday, 8th December, was the day that the UWE students presented their findings to the local community at Ashton Vale Community Centre. A large group of local residents were able to attend to see their findings, as well as a few people from local trusts and organisations. UWE students proposed that a boardwalk is built around the wetlands. The boardwalk will deter visitors from walking across the wetland, helping preserve the valuable area. Their idea was inspired by Iron Line, located in Cumbria. The local residents engaged with this presentation very well! Some attendants even presented their own ideas to everyone and offered their help to try turn this idea into a reality. From this presentation, a Facebook and email group has been set up, where everyone can continue the conversation and keep the idea alive.

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We hope that their development can come to life in the future. The boardwalk and visitor centre will allow us to take young people on nature walks around the local area. This will get them exploring their local community and encouraging healthy activities.

This week at Ashton Vale Club for Young People, staff from across the youth club network came together and took part in team building activities.

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The evening started off with a game of staff bingo. This was an activity for the group to walk around, talk to new people and get to know facts about each other. The group used the bingo grid to ask staff questions such as “do you have a cat?”, “do you have a sibling?” and even “can you hula-hoop?”. A great ice-breaker to start the evening! We had two groups win this activity, BS14 Stockwood Youth Club and Hartcliffe Club for Young People.

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The group then gathered into smaller groups. In these groups, staff discussed what is going well at their clubs, and what they think could be improved. They wrote this on an A3 sheet of paper, separating it to discuss each person’s club. The small groups proceeded to share their discussion with the whole group. There was even some cross-group discussion, some agreeing with points made and others arguing against ideas. It was great to see healthy debates among the groups.

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The evening finished by asking the groups to think independently, what events the youth clubs and young people would like to see across the club network. The group came up with some amazing ideas and even talked about how they could host these ideas next year. We are excited to see some new inter-club competitions and events next year!

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To find out more about our Community Youth Clubs, click here.

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Young Bristol have partnered with Super Sliders UK and took young people to try out new sports!

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What a great way for young people to start off their weekend! Young Bristol Outdoor Employment Programmme Trainee’s, and other young people from all over the UK were invited to University of Bath’s Sports Training Village to take part in the Bronze Super Sliders Programme. The programme was packed full of fun activities, where young people learnt how to bobsleigh and skeleton.

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The day started with “off-track” workshops. The group were lucky enough to have this first workshop hosted by GB Bobsleigh legend, Lamin Deen OLY and Skeleton champion, Abi P! This workshop is where the group practised techniques and getting used to the bobsleigh and skeleton equipment.

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The day continued onto “on-track” sliding sessions, getting the group on the track to practice bobsleighing and skeleton. The “on-track” sessions were led by GB legend Ben Simons MSc OLY and Donna Creighton, champion from British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association. The group were able to take it in turns to push themselves down the track, using the techniques they had learnt from the first “off-track” workshops.

Bullying can happen to anyone. If you are being bullied, whether it's online, at school, at work or in any other environment, you are not alone! It can feel very difficult to reach out when you feel alone or isolated. Young Bristol have collected information about bullying and resources you can use for advice in light of anti bullying week 2022.

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What is bullying?

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Bullying is unwanted and potentially aggressive behaviour. This can stem from an imbalance of power and is always a repeated incident over a period of time. Bullying can take place in many forms, however, it is always deliberate and directed. Some specific examples of bullying include:

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• Sexism - bullying focused on someone being of the opposite sex.
• Racism - bullying focused on someone being of a certain race or skin colour.
• Cyber bullying - targeting an individual online. Can be anonymous but can be from someone you know.
• Homophobic - bullying focused on someone being a certain sexual orientation.
• Religious - bullying focused on someone's beliefs or faiths

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Getting help for bullying

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Ignoring bullying will never make it go away. As hard as it may be, bullying needs to be reported to a trusted adult. No one deserves to be bullied

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If you are being bullied at school, your school should have an anti bullying policy in place. Report the issue to a trusted teacher, or a friend who can report this for you. You can also speak to a school nurse, councillor, welfare officer or any one else at your school you may trust. You can also tell your parents and carers, they can report this to the school for you.

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If you are being bullied online, you can report abuse and bullying on any social media channel. They should all have an abuse and anti bullying policy in place. Make sure to keep reporting the bullying until it has stopped. Reporting it one time sometimes may not be enough. Tell a parent, carer or close relative, there are here to help you.

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If you are being bullied outside of school/work, talk to your parents, carers and close relatives. Our youth clubs are also a safe space for all young people. You can report any bullying to one of our trained staff and they can help this to be reported or resolved.

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Where to get advice

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We've discussed reporting any bullying issues, but where can you get extra advice on bullying? If you ever need to talk to someone about bullying, some of our partners are here to talk. We have collected information from partners both locally and nationally who can help you.

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National advice

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• NSPCC - This is a national charity that offer help to young people experiencing abuse, mental health and bullying. They provide services from Monday to Friday, 10:00am - 4:00pm.
• National bullying helpline - This help line was designed specifically to tackle bullying and offers a helpline to anyone who needs to talk about any bullying issues that occur, no matter what environment the bullying is taking place. 
• Young Minds - Your mental health may be affected as a result of bullying. They are a national charity that supports young people and parents with mental health and bullying.
• Childline - A national help service which offers support surrounding bullying, abuse, your safety and the law.
• Mind - If your mental health is being affected after being bullied, it's normal to feel low. Mind is another charity who target helping people with their mental health.

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Bristol based advice

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• Off the record - This Bristol-based charity offers a mental health support team. They also offer hubs that you can attend and talk to someone about any issues you'd like to discuss.
• Bristol Mind - This local Bristol charity offers a wide range of support, counselling and training.
• SARI - The charity is more tailored towards racism and inequality. On their website, you can report hate crimes and they can provide support to any victims of hate crime.
• Unique Voice - This Bristol based company run anti-bullying workshops for schools across Bristol. The workshops they run are eye-opening and can help towards the prevention of bullying. We recommend their programs to all schools across Bristol.

On Monday 7th November, The Grove @ Bedminster Down Youth Club hosted the NatWest Thrive Awards Graduation, joining 8 other clubs who took part in the programme.

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What a great start to Youth Work Week 2022! The Grove were able to attract over 20 young people and adults to the graduation, celebrating all the skills that had been learnt across the course of the programme and the amazing things that young people had achieved!

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The Graduation was hosted by Luke Vernon, who took care of the 9 nine clubs throughout the evening on Zoom. All of the clubs attending were able to introduce themselves and meet new people from across the country. Each club then discussed what impact the Thrive programme has had with their young people and why it was so important to their club. The introductions were followed by a game of “famous failures”. Tensions and excitement were high between all the groups, hoping that they would be the first one to answer the questions correctly.

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It was later announced that there would be a special guest joining the Zoom call. There was a buzz of excitement in the room, with everyone trying to guess who the special guest would be.

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The group all managed to guess that the special guest was Marcus Rashford! He was able to join the Zoom call for an hour and announce the award winners from each club. Congratulations to Max from The Grove who was Young Bristol’s award winner. After announcing the awards, each winner was able to speak to Marcus Rashford and ask him a question each!

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We would like to thank Marcus Rashford and NatWest Thrive for teaching young people about money management. We would also like to thank the NYA for supporting this programme and making the sessions possible. It is great to see all the skills that young people have learnt over the course of the programme!

Thanks to the staff at Hartcliffe Youth Club, we took over 20 young people on a Barton Camp residential!

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On Wednesday 26th October, members of Hartcliffe Youth Club travelled to Barton Camp for a two-night getaway! For some of these young people, it was their first time away without their families. Before the coaches arrived, the group came together to eat lunch and discuss what their adventures would entail. It was great to hear all young people buzzing with excitement for their trip away together.

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After a long wait for the coaches and an even longer drive, they arrived at Barton Camp. The group had time to relax, unpack and settle into their surroundings before getting involved with the wide range of activities that were on offer.

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The rest of the day was spent doing a wide range of activities, including making jam jar lanterns. As Halloween was swiftly approaching, it was great for the group to do some Halloween themed activities to get them in the spirits for the spooky season.  Young people were able to get stuck into this activity by using a wide range of craft materials. The group created some marvellous lanterns which they took home to display.

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Thursday 27th October, the group partnered with Youth Moves! This gave our young people the opportunity to engage and bond with a new group of people. The group from Youth Moves happened to be from Knowle, who currently have a postcode divide with Hartcliffe. 50 young people, who would never normally meet, joined together to make new bonds and friendships. Amazingly, this broke down barriers between the postcode divide!

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The group finished off their trip with a splash in the pool. They all had endless turns on the slide which was enough to make anyone dizzy. In the pool, the two groups of young people met for the last time before returning home. It was amazing to see them bond once more.

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Friday 28th October, the group said their final goodbyes to Barton Camp. Our young people returned home worn out from their first trip away together. The residential trip was enjoyed by all of our staff and young people!

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To find out about our community youth clubs and how you can get involved with similar activities, click here!

Young Bristol were delighted to host this year’s NABGC Stronger Together Conference at Broad Plain and Riverside Youth Project and The Bristol Hotel, thanks to our corporate sponsors SR2 and The PG Group.

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The conference was the first big event that the NABGC were able to host since the beginning of lockdown and, was an amazing opportunity for everyone to come together, renew their friendships and relationships, listen to inspiring key note speakers and participate in enlightening workshops.

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The day started off with the conference, hosted at Broad Plain and Riverside Youth Project. Everyone at this conference were able to hear from inspirational key note speakers Kirk Dominik, CEO of World Federation of Youth Clubs and Leigh Middleton, CEO of National Youth Agency. Kirk had the opportunity to discuss importance of youth work and what it means to young people while they are growing up. He stated that it is vital for young people to have access to youth programmes and support. Leigh was able to discuss the support and resources that NYA have to offer alongside the importance of youth work on a national and local level.

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The day then progressed into breakout sessions, where 4 workshops were on offer for everyone to partake and discuss within small groups. A marketing and branding workshop was hosted by Simon Hemus from the World Federation of Youth Clubs. Jessica Kirby and Kelly Leach from Berkshire youth were able to present their workshop on Young People and Mental Health. NABGC Training Committee hosted their own workshop where they were able to review the activities and events that they have ran and are going to run in the future. Finally, key note speaker Leigh Middleton had his own workshop where he was able to brief attendees regarding information on the Youth Sector.

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On the weekend, a group of our Outdoor Employment Programme trainees experienced a residential trip away from home, in the mountains. On the trip, they were able to learn and practice their navigation and mountain skills.

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Originally, the Outdoor Employment Programme trainees planned to head to North Wales. However, the weather prevented the trip taking place in North Wales, instead, with thanks to our friends at Maes Y Lade centre, they were able to change their plans and navigate across Brecon Beacons, where the weather was significantly better!

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Overall, the trip demonstrated the importance of understanding and checking weather forecasts before heading out for their adventures. Despite their weather troubles, this was an amazing experience and was well enjoyed by the trainees and some of our delivery staff at Young Bristol.

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We are delighted to announce the appointment of Jason Beckhelling-Terry, Club’s Programme and Youth Voice Lead.

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Jason Beckhelling-Terry has been working with young people for over 15 years. Some of his previous experience includes; outdoor instructor, working at outdoor youth centres and community youth work. While gaining this experience in youth work, Jason also earned himself a degree in Schools, Youth and Community Work. Over the last 3 years, Jason was part of a team that opened and championed a large-scale youth centre in London.

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Jason has a strong passion for meeting new young people and hopes to inspire these young people to reach their goals and wants to help them think about their next stages in life. He is looking forward to working with Young Bristol by creating a programme that can be led by our young people.