Council Urged to Support Youth Work Provision in Dundee With More Than Words

At the Policy and Resources Committee on Monday evening 10 February, we considered a draft response to:
"Our ambitions for improving the life chances of young people in Scotland: Draft National Youth Work Strategy 2014-19."

This is my contribution to the debate:

Convener, we welcome this strategy and the Council's draft response. Our young people, deserve quality youth work provision wherever they live in Dundee.

This Draft Strategy for Youth Work states that:

"All young people should have access to high quality and effective youth work practice. It is only by planning young people at the heart of our work that we can begin to develop services and realise ambitions."

These objectives are ones we support.

But the Council's ringing endorsement of youth work and the new strategy appears to be at odds with the budget proposals we will be considering later this week (Thursday 13 February 2014) which propose a reduction of the equivalent of 4 full time Youth Workers. Over two years this would amount to a 7% cut in youth worker provision in Dundee.

Words in a strategy are cheap Convener. Young people in Dundee will judge you by your actions and whether your administration is at least maintaining the number of youth workers in our city.

Youth Projects In Dundee Benefit from Cash Back for Communities

Yesterday morning, I attended the Tayside Joint Police Board deputising for a colleague. At the meeting we heard about Cashback for Communities.

This national initiative recycles cash that is seized from criminals for diversionary work with young people. This means that we are working to ensure that convicted criminals don't profit from their crimes. As a bonus, seized money is redistributed to youth work organisations in our communities.

In the past year, projects in the Dundee area that have benefited from Cash Back for Communities funding have included:

'Bike it' which is an activity where the young people build bikes and get to keep them, run by Dundee community learning department. The BIKE-IT Project is a community based diversionary BMX bike initiative between Dundee City Council and Tayside Police, with funding support from the Community Safety Partnership. BIKE-IT is aimed at young people who have come to the attention of the Police for offending and/or anti-social behaviour in the local neighbourhood.

'Fairbridge' outdoor activities. Fairbridge is a national charity that works with young people aged 13-25, who are not in education, employment or training.

The 'Shore', Dundee. The Shore is a state of the art Young Person's Venue. It is situated right in the heart of Dundee City of Discovery and allows them to take part in Art, Media, Music, Training, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme or just as a Drop-in Centre.

Funding has also been provided to youth groups and uniformed organisations such as the Boys Brigade in Dundee.