Success in Enfield
Kat Simmonds, leader of Oasis’ youth and community work in Enfield, tells Newsround about how innovations in their holiday programme is equipping local young people with skills for the future.
School holidays are always a busy time for the Youth Team. In February, we changed our approach to offer the young people a range of short vocational courses, and have seen some great results.
The young people can not only choose from a range of courses on offer, they can also gain recognised, vocational accreditation. It has been wonderful to see how proud the young people have been to receive their certificates and accreditations having completed their courses.
For some of them it’s the first time they’ve received affirmation like this.
Cooking and food hygiene, first aid and self deference, mechanics, level one football coaching, music production and multi-sports are all courses now provided for the young people. The cooking in particular was a highlight - one of the 14 year old lads made the best cheesecake I’ve ever tasted!
Dale, one of our boys is on the fringes of gang activity and had been the victim of a bad stabbing in December. He took part in the mechanics workshops and responded really well. Dale has since applied for an apprenticeship at the local garage, putting further distance between him and the gangs.
By the end of the programme, all the young people have grown in skills and confidence.
Our new model also helps our youth workers build much stronger relationships with the young people - everyone has fun together sharing a common project. In my work, these are the special times.