Detached Youth Work – The ‘Skate’ Project
Base 33 has been delivering detached youth work in Witney for the past 7 years. Detached Youth Work takes place outside and is a model of youth work practice targeted at vulnerable and excluded young people that mainstream youth work and other services may not reach.
At Base 33 our detached work involves
- Working on the streets of Witney at the Leys, Burwell and Smiths estates (particularly at the shops), at Thorney Leys recreation area, Tesco and Witney Town Centre, meeting young people on their territory and developing positive relationships and trust with them.
- Using this relationship to understand issues (often drugs, homelessness, anti-social behaviour and lack of places to go and things to do) and working with young people by offering support, guidance and information
- Working with young people to develop projects and divert them away from problem areas on the streets.
- Encouraging young people with chaotic lifestyles to access appropriate services by signposting them to relevant agencies and in some cases accompanying them to meetings
Our detached is funded via West Oxfordshire District Council’s, Community Safety Fund. We operate a partnership approach working with members of the West Oxfordshire Community Safety Partnership to divert young people from problem areas and provide alternative activities.
Base 33 is currently expanding its detached youth work provision and we are keen to work with Town and Parish Councils to provide sessions in areas outside of Witney.
We recognise that some smaller parishes may not have the capacity to fund regular sessions in their areas and we would like to develop cluster groups of Parish Councils and work with them to share resources and provide detached youth work in rural areas with little existing youth provision.
Detached youth work sessions tend to be two hours long and workers take with them basic sporting equipment and leaflets/information. These sessions can also be a useful way of consulting young people that are often hard to reach.
Base 33 co-ordinates the work, providing CRB checks and a payroll service.
