YOUTH CONFERENCE REPORT

Transcription

1 YOUTH CONFERENCE REPORT 2014

2 CONTENTS Executive Summary Background Partner Organisations supporting Conference Recommendations by young people " 1." Community Safety " 2." Physical Health/Mental Health " 3." Education & Training " 4." Youth Provision " 5." Physical Spaces The Panel Responses Young People s responses Appendix 1 - " Priorities & s from Youth Conference February 2013 Appendix 2 - " Priorities & s from Youth Conference February

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Young People feel left out of their communities and are attached to so many stigmas. They themselves are involved in so many positive actions but rarely get the recognition for it. (Quoted from a youth worker from Conference 2014) This quote reflects in many ways the voice of many young people on conference when they are challenged to address the wide ranging issues in North Belfast. This report will demonstrate the frustration of young people but will also voice their desire and motivation to be involved in changing their communities. Each year between young people from most communities within North Belfast come together to showcase their voice and that of others from their areas. They grapple with the hard issues but more importantly come up with practical and wide ranging solutions to many of the issues affecting them directly. In the last 3 years of youth conference reports (2012 & 2013 included in appendices) young people have repeatedly mentioned the following as an issue and have made the recommended actions: Mental Health, namely suicide and bullying. Young people to have more involvement in the design of campaigns and resources. Learning styles within Education to meet the needs of all as well as focused on the achievers Training for employment to begin earlier and more focused on skills & techniques Greater access to youth provision at relevant times with achievements promoted and celebrated. Also more information around services which exist. It s believed by young people that if all services promoted good experiences, and helped them gain confidence whilst being in itself motivational, then many of these issues discussed would not exist to such a severe degree. 2

4 CONTEXT Youth Conference is an annual event held every year for young people between the ages of from within North Belfast. Young people get the opportunity to express their opinions on particular issues that affect them. The aim of the conference is to allow the young people to have a voice within their community. Youth Conference for the North Belfast Area Project is a significant event as it undertakes the key elements of youth work & subsidises the core principles of the youth work- model for effective practice. Youth Conference provides opportunity for each young person to participate and have a say within different community related workshops, outdoor activities and team building. Young people are also given the opportunity to develop certain individual skills such as communication, leadership and problem solving. BACKGROUND The Youth Conference is an event ran annually by the North Belfast Area Project with support from other organisations. The conference follows stages that look at youth participation. Below will be step by step instructions highlighting the stages. Youth Forums/Youth Club reps - Young people are recruited through local youth clubs, detached events and street work throughout the year and PSD groups which the organisation run. This would therefore allow young people to work throughout the year to tackle issues, look at relevant research & attend the conference with an understanding of workshops etc. Youth Conference (February) - 51 young people attend Castlewellen Castle from throughout North Belfast areas, aged years old. Young people will get involved in activities, workshops and entertainment. Activities and entertainment would more be for the young people to engage with others on the conference who aren t from their own areas. Workshops would look at issues that effect young people and they come up with potential outcomes/solutions to making the issues non existent or have a goal to work towards. Delivery from Conference- Other years there has been manuals developed that are delivered by youth workers throughout the city that tackle the issues which were raised at the conference. The manuals were Peer to Peer which looked at issues around Suicide, Self-Harm, Motivation, Bullying etc, this has been a major success throughout schools, programmes and centres. Also there has been an Anti-Bullying Campaign manual produced for again other youth workers to deliver throughout the city. From this year there is ongoing an application which young people will be able to download onto their phone. Since the conference ending funding has been secured and the beginning stages of the community safety app development has begun. 3

5 PARTNER ORGANISATIONS SUPPORTING THE CONFERENCE A total of 14 partner organisations reflecting most communities took part in the youth conference The engagement of partners began in September 2013 with the intention of appealing to all known youth providers in the North Belfast area. Below is a list of all who responded and attended the conference. 51 Young people from North Belfast Areas North Belfast Area Project Belfast Activity Centre Streetbeat Youth Project Hammer Youth Club LCAP Youth forum (This covers a spread of organisations from Whitewell, Mount Vernon, Skegoneil, Tigers Bag, New Lodge, Carrickhill & Cliftonville) WAVE Trauma Centre Ardoyne Youth Club Ligoneil & Ballysillan detached youths Ligoneil Improvement Association Glencairn Youth Initiative Newlodge Youth Club Rathbone Fortwilliam Youth Centre ISCYP Shankill 4

6 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE ISSUES BY YOUNG PEOPLE Each workshop during the conference was designed to explore issues within the concept of Shared Spaces. The workshops provided each young person with the opportunity to share their own personal opinions, and allow for them to create their own recommendations that can be shared to those within their communities, and also to those who have the power to make change. The following section will give details of these recommendations under the five areas covered during the conference. PRIORITY 1 COMMUNITY SAFETY The young people indicated that a possible reason for organised fights happening within their areas, aside from its intrigue, may be due to the lack of community belief in young people. Alongside the lack of support and understanding that youth culture has changed over time. Each work shop group stated that if young people were given a greater role within their communities this may change. Below are the following recommendations for combating organised fights; - Greater access youth provision- give young people greater access to youth provision at times when anti-social behaviour is high i.e. weekends and holidays. - Communication- young people feel that there is a lack of communication between community members, community organisations, the police and young people, with a greater emphasis needed on youth representation. - Education- further funding is needed to ensure that young people are made aware of the consequences of organised fights and the impact this could have on future life. 5

7 PRIORITY 2 PHYSICAL HEALTH/ MENTAL HEALTH When discussing all aspects of community safety and the impact of growing up within a divided society, suicide was again highlighted as a major concern for young people living within North Belfast, the groups indicated that there is not enough being done to help young people share their problems, the groups came up with the following recommendations: - Suicide awareness- campaigns in schools, clubs and within the community are needed and that young people should have a greater say in the development of current campaigns eg. youth groups could come together and hold a week of campaigns twice a year that focus on young people sharing their problems with each other. - A review of drug and alcohol programs- the young people had indicated that the current drug\ alcohol programs had little impact and feel that prevention is no longer enough. The young people would like these programs to still inform of the risks but also focus on the reasons why and issues facing young people. - Greater access to sport facilities- the young people recognised the link between physical fitness and mental health; they propose that schools, centres and projects should offer more programs that promote this i.e. running clubs, boot camps and nutrition programs. 6

8 PRIORITY 3 EDUCATION AND TRAINING Education, training and youth unemployment is a major concern for young people with an increase in young people leaving school or training resulting in claiming benefits. The young people admitted that employment is one of their biggest fears and that this could potentially lead to depression. The group came up with the following recommendations; Work placements - young people would like work placements in schools to happen earlier and to be worthwhile so they can build on experience for their working lives. Volunteering - although most of the young people are involved in their youth clubs and community, they felt that if there were more worthwhile volunteering opportunities made available for year olds this would help them with later employment. For example like well known volunteer programmes such as YWIC (Young people Working In their Communities) 7

9 PRIORITY 4 YOUTH PROVISION The young people indicated that they are aware of most local youth provision within their areas but are unsure what is on offer. The group also noted that the image of young people is not represented well and that the positive actions and achievements are not reflected. Below are the following recommendations by the young people; Longer opening hours - the young people would like greater access to clubs and centres at weekends. Young people feel that this would have a greater role in reducing anti-social behaviour. Youth celebrations - more opportunities to celebrate the achievements by young people, i.e. greater emphasis placed on youth awards, also a community Youtube channel to show case the positive work carried out by young people Research - the young people suggested that if there was adequate research carried out to show how many young people are involved in all areas of their community this would help show young people in a positive light and would change how young people in North Belfast are viewed.

10 PRIORITY 5 PHYSICAL SPACES Living within North Belfast presents a number of challenges for young people when looking for spaces to socialise with their friends. Most young people on the conference had indicated that, at some point, they and their friends have been moved on by police, paramilitaries or older members of the community, below are the recommendations made by the young people: Parks - most young people occupy parks at the weekends as the feel the can t use their communities. If the councils opened the parks longer and held events for young people this would create a safe space for young people. Feedback - young people do not like at times how they are treated by the police, in terms of attitude and approach. If there were opportunities created for young people to express their views to the police this may assist in changing each others attitudes. Safety - safety is a major concern for young people. Even though they choose to go into parks and other communities at the weekends they feel put at risk. Therefore a young people s safety strategy is needed to help reduce the exposure of young people to risk.

11 THE PANEL RESPONSES Young people from the youth forum made the suggestion that the information generated from the conference should be presented to the relevant people within the community that can influence change. This also allowed the opportunity for feedback to be given on current issues and youth provision. The following organisations and parties where invited to attend the open panel on the final day of the conference Sinn Fein SDLP DUP PSNI BELB NICCY All parties excluding Sinn Fein and SDLP were able to attend the event with the latter two expressing interests of support with any findings and possible outcomes of the conference. Examples of responses from the panelists The issues raised by the young people here today have had a profound effect on me. The BELB are constantly working to improve the services to young people. And with the recent additional monies from the minister, we are putting more detached workers on the streets and have given centres extra hours to ensure they are able to open longer and work over seven days a week (Stephen Moore BELB) It s great to see so many young people take an active role within their community, the information today has not fallen on deaf ears, as an elected community representative it is your views that will help make change, I encourage you to take this further and will offer any support that I can. (Guy Spence DUP) Thank you for having me here today, I understand the strained relationships with young people and the police, although it is events like today that are making the vital steps to change this, I agree that the celebrations of young people are not recognised for what they are and I would like to help change this in whatever way I can. (Brian Caskey- PSNI) You young people are a credit!! I want to say how impressed I am by what I have seen here today and NICCY is always looking for young people to support and I feel that today is the start of something wonderful, and I hope to support you in influencing change. (NICCY) 10

12 RESPONSE FROM YOUNG PEOPLE Feedback from the young people who attend the conference was extremely positive with 98% of young people scoring the conference 10/ 10 during the final evaluations. Below is a sample of the feedback from the young people: It was a really good experience and has made me rethink things! I ve made loads of new mates and had good craic I wish it was longer! I enjoyed it because I got to give my honest opinion on things that normally I would not be allowed to talk about! I found the mental health workshop the best, because it is really important to me and has affected me, we need to do more stuff like this. I was really interesting and want to get more involved in more things like this I just hope the people that came to watch us do something to help The feedback and recommendations from the young people will be used to help influence future programs and strategies in North Belfast. Funding has been sourced to begin developing a community safety app based on the information presented. The findings from this report will be made available to all youth providers in the North Belfast area and relevant agencies. 11

13 Workshops Appendix 1 Addressing Anti-Social & Risk Taking Behaviours Priorities & s Addressing Low Educational Attainment & Youth Work in Schools Access to Provision & General Youth Provision Youth Conference February 2013 Participation & Aspirations Physical, Mental & Environmental Well Being PRIORITY 1. Theme: Participation of young people & Partnership Working ADDRESSING ANTI-SOCIAL AND RISK TAKING BEHAVIOURS Young people identified the 6 below as the top risks affecting young people s - Access to drugs especially cannabis and meth- There is a stigma of walking into shop front agencies as they are too visual; they need to be somewhere private. Also young people disclosed that they were not aware of all the services available, the young people stated that all provision should have information regarding different services that is in a central place in the club. Young people also shared that a social network support should be used. - Organised fights- via social networking sites including weapons Young people shared that social networking is now commonly used to arrange fights which can include knives, hammers and other weapons, the young people also disclosed that this was more within same communities and centred on territory rather than religion. Young people shared that there should be group work facilitated by youth workers about the dangers of organised fights. Young people shared that this involvement was due to boredom, or lack of provision within certain areas, identifying that many clubs cater for the younger generation and don t appeal to the older crowd. Having young people design or get involved in the delivery or design of programmes will help tackle this. - Riotous behaviour and vandalism- no alternative Youth workers should target interface areas to provide an alternative to rioting. Again the top reason for getting involved stemmed on boredom, however links to alcohol and drugs were also an issue encouraging young people to get involved. Having natural high programmes or high adrenalin activities would work as a deterrent and provide the same buzz in a positive way. - Alcohol drinking to get drunk The young people share that confidence was the main factor for people drinking to access, stating that image, fitting in, normalisation in communities i.e. bars serving alcohol to underage teenagers and confidence to talk to others all playing a part in this issue. Young people were also disclosing that having no aspirations in life as a reason to get drunk as it helps to forget about the disappointment of failures in school and employment. 12

14 - Bullying- social physical and mental (identifying ASK FM as a risky website) Appendix 1 Priorities & s Using ASK FM or an alternative website in a positive way, monitored by youth workers as an immediate support. Again have sign posts within youth clubs to identify supports that can help a young person who is getting bullied, such as parents youth workers counsellors, social workers or peers etc. training young people up as a support mechanism for young people who are getting bullied. - Suicide Youth Conference February 2013 Theme: Participation of young people & Partnership Working Identified as a serious issue and stemming from some of the list above such as bullying, drugs and alcohol misuse. Having young people trained in dealing as a first aid to suicide so young people are not afraid to deal with the situation may it arise. Also signposting with provision to create awareness of supports Young people also identified that confidence within their lives was a factor leading to all of the above. PRIORITY 2 ADDRESSING LOW EDUCATION ATTAINMENT AND YOUTH WORK IN SCHOOLS Young people identified the 4 below as the main issues - Youth Workers should be in every school Young people said that they would find it easier to talk to Youth Workers about real life issues, as teachers are only interested in how they perform in their classroom, and that the school are only interested in results. They feel that Youth Workers have a more informal approach to things and they can relate to them more. They do not judge and are more willing to give them the right advice. - Improve Work Experience Young people said that schools should make work experience a more important part of school life. They should have to apply for the jobs and be interviewed. This is where youth workers could work with the teachers in helping young people with application forms, interview skills and CV s. It should also be longer than 2 days; it could run over a month to give a real feel for the job. - Youth Workers and Teachers should Work together Relationships between teachers and pupils could be made stronger if youth workers were working with teachers within the school. They could work together in classes like LLW and PSE classes. Youth Workers can relate to the young people and understand their needs as they have more time to spend on the individual. It could be that youth work methods should be built into the curriculum. - More time and Resources into helping Under achievers Young people believe that pupils in the lower bands are not thought of as highly as other pupils. They believe that there is not enough help for people are not academic and that they feel left out. This needs to be addressed and more help given, this does not have to be in the way of subjects but could be life skills and this is where youth workers can help. Youth workers can deliver life skills and course tailored to the needs of the young people, and maybe there should be rooms set aside for this type of programme. 13

15 Appendix 1 Young people feel this could also help with attendance and the difference between finishing school and dropping out. PRIORITY 3 Priorities & s ACCESS TO PROVISION AND GENERAL YOUTH PROVISION Young people identified the 4 below as the main issues Youth Conference February 2013 Theme: Participation of young people & Partnership Working - Provide greater access to young people Young people have stated that opening hours should reflect what young people want. That there should also be a greater promotion of youth service like signs, posters social media and phone apps. - Facilities and activities that appeal to both genders Youth provision should promote ownership of all facilities to both genders, but that there should be a greater focus given to young women. - Every youth provider should have a young people s charter developed by young people. Young people said that every youth provider should have a senior members group, which should take responsibility for the above. This should be signed by every member in the youth group and should be given to every new member. They also stated that it should be highlighted how important confidentiality is within an organisation. - Recognise achievements made by young people Young people said that there should be celebrations after their achievements and that they should be recognised by others like schools, communities, youth forums and senior members groups. PRIORITY 4 PARTICIPATION AND ASPIRATIONS Young people Identified 5 as the main issues - Education Improve career options Young people said that they should be offered courses that they want to do and should be given support to look at their career choice. They also feel that they should be given an incentive such as a bonus if they do well. - Social barriers Young people have said that most teachers in school do not understand young people from working class areas. This could be addressed if more local people were employed in schools, teachers have an induc- 14

16 Appendix 1 tion on statistics and issues in the area and if they were given a basic profile on young people in their class. - Experience From nursery through to secondary school. Priorities & s Youth Conference February 2013 Theme: Participation of young people & Partnership Working Young people said that there should be a more positive experience created to give them a sense of encouragement to stay in education. There should be peer-to-peer support programme to help in different transition periods throughout school. They should be given more information and choice when it comes to choosing subjects. - Accredited courses in youth clubs for young people that do not do well in school they need another option Young people said that the community need to advertise the course that they are running. There needs to be more courses based on the individuals need and that employers should recognise these courses. - Youth Identity - Young people s aspirations can be affected by perceptions of others Within both schools and youth clubs young people feel that they need to be supported in a positive way about their future. Enable young people to be the best they can be by challenging them more, and recognise their achievements more often to make them feel better and more positive about themselves. PRIORITY 5 PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL WELL BEING Young people Identified 5 as the main issues - Access to Physical Actives and healthy eating Young people said it would help if there was something like an outside gym, which they could access free, or if the price was brought down in gyms so it would be easier for them to attend them. They also said that schools could provide more interesting activities in PE. Young people agreed that there should be a healthy fast food restaurant and that they should be encouraged more in schools to eat healthy. They also said that parents should be given lessons on cooking healthy meals, and that it is more expensive to eat healthy. - Feeling safe in your community Young people stated that there should be more services for young people and that youth centres should open at relevant times. They also said it would be good if there were one centre for everyone regardless of age, religion, age, gender or colour. Young people said there should be somewhere they could come together if they have been affected by paramilitaries to support each other. Younger people should also have peer support to help them when they have problems. - Addressing homelessness We should work with the Simon community around raising awareness of homelessness in our communities and there should be early intervention work done with young people who are at risk of becoming homeless. 15

17 - Tackling Risk taking behaviour Appendix 1 Priorities & s Drugs and alcohol are too easy to access in our community police need to do more to stop alcohol being sold to under age people and they need to address the drugs issue and deal with the drug dealers. Youth workers can deliver group work sessions around the issue and the effects they have on us. More services needed for young people who have mental health problems, there seems to be none available when you are a teenager. Youth Conference February 2013 A comment form a young person Theme: Participation of young people & Partnership Working IF ONLY SUPPORT SERVICES AND INFORMATION WAS AS EASY TO ACCESS AS DRUGS AND AL- COHOL!!! 16

18 Workshops APPENDIX 2 Education, Training & Learning Priorities & s Image of Young People Unemployment Youth Conference February 2012 Priorities for Youth Homelessness & Housing Mental Health Theme: Every Child Matters Report EDUCATION, TRAINING AND LEARNING PRIORITY 1 Money Give young people an incentive to stay on in school. Stoping EMA for 6th and upper 6th could cause a drop in the amount of people that would want to stay on. s - Keep the EMA system running in schools - Young people need to attend school every day and meet deadlines in terms of work and attendance and also put the effort in to obtain the EMA - A class report to monitor people s behaviour to determine whether they should qualify for it or not. PRIORITY 2 Learning Styles Everyone learns in different ways in school and if you aren t being taught this way thenyou can lose focus quickly and become disillusioned with school. This can cause people to drop out of school early, not go or want to leave. s - Testing young people to find out their style in year 8 instead of the joining test to put you in to the bands. - Informing young people of their learning style so they are aware so if they want to revise they know the best way they learn. - Teachers need to be aware of the young person s style so they can teach in this way and be in the know in terms of what way they should be teaching to the young people. 17

19 PRIORITY 3 APPENDIX 2 Learning for life and work classes isn t meeting the needs of young people. It falls short of being productive. Priorities & s s Youth Conference February Teachers with expertise on this subject and who only focus on this subject. Theme: Every Child Matters Report - Becoming a more recognised subject in the school curriculum. - Youth workers in more often delivering informal education in LLW classes. - Talk about relevant topics e.g financial issues affecting young people. PRIORITY 4 Schools to be more tolerant with young people at risk. schools sometimes don t have a good enough support network for these young people so we feel it needs changed. s - Have section within the school to keep these young people attached to mainstream education rather than signposting them to Loughshore, etc. - Doing particular programmes that suit their needs and wants e.g. Anger Management. - Have classes to try and build their confidence so they have pride in themselves. Also if they are with other young people at risk they could encourage each other. PRIORITY 5 Rebranding training organisations bad stigma and sterotypes attached to training organisations. How do we get young people to go to these without being stigmatised and actually making use of their timethere.. - Partnership developed with youth organisations and training oranisations to support those young people who may respond to more personal and social development programmes rather than the other subjects. - Promote the achievements the young people do in the training organisations. - More motivation from teachers and more formal but not to the extent of schools. 18

20 IMAGE OF YOUNG PEOPLE. APPENDIX 2 PRIORITY 1 Priorities & s Young people being unfairly portrayed within the media i.e. newspapers, television s Youth Conference February Good will stories- promotion of young people s achievements in big newspapers not negative stories all the time Theme: Every Child Matters Report - Less stories of young people being blamed for actions or behaviours that are not alone theirs - Media friendly paper for young people solely pointing out positive achievements PRIORITY 2 Stereotyping young people and judging them before they get to know them. s - Build relationships between young people and elderly through shared activities and meetings. i.e. intergeneration projects sharing culture - Meet and talk before acting or judging - Not always youth workers role to take responsibility for this i.e. Increased funding for young people to provide programs for young people. PRIORITY 3 Pressures on young women to live up to unrealistic expectations. i.e. Get an education, look after house and children and look a specific way s - Campaign for marketing to portray realistic images of young women - Training for young men and women around respect. Shared responsibilities and young women within a changing society. - Promotion of positive role models for young women 19

21 PRIORITY 4 APPENDIX 2 Young voices not being heard or acted upon Priorities & s s - Build relationships with politicians and decision makers within the community Youth Conference February Young people to become part of steering committees Theme: Every Child Matters Report - Increased lobbying that ideas do not fall on deaf ears and are actually acted upon UNEMPLOYMENT PRIORITY 1 Education: Education is important for us when we want a job because it gives us the qualifications and skills that we need. - Education is important for us when we want a job because it gives us the qualifications and skills that we need. Its important that it is improved because choices are made for us, what we mean when we say this is in some schools at GCSE level certain bands aren t allowed to choose certain subjects. This means that the jobs we want, we might not be able to get. Another thing that we feel needs to improve is teacher- pupil relationships. Youth workers in school would help us learn as they work in a different environment. PRIORITY 2 Young People: We believe that young people are most important. - We have three key points. They are experience, confidence and motivation. These are key for every job and job interview. Young people should have the motivation not to be on benefits and fulfil their full potential in school or where ever they are educated. Young people will be more able to fulfil their potential if they are committed and also if they are supported by the people around them. Examples of this may be parents, teachers, friends and youth workers. 20

22 PRIORITY 3 APPENDIX 2 Stronger Government Priorities & s Youth Conference February 2012 Theme: Every Child Matters Report - We feel that the government should be trying to create more jobs by investing in smaller businesses. This would increase the chances of young people finding jobs. There should be a tighter regulation on benefits. What we mean when we say this is that some people are abusing the benefits system and taking more money than what is provided for them while others are physically ill and cant work and are not being giving enough money to live on. PRIORITIES FOR YOUTH PRIORITY 1 How Youth Workers should be: A youth worker should be a positive influence on young people s lives, helping them to grow into adulthood (mature and experienced in life) s - Should be there to talk with and get information from. - Should be good fun to be with and also mature - Should be friendly and treat everyone equal. - Should work across communities - Should specialise on different age group. PRIORITY 2 Aim of Youth Work: Youth Workers should have an impact on young people s lives by providing targeted work. s - Programmes on issues that affect young people. - Courses to get qualifications. - Work in Youth Clubs & on Streets. - Provide activities and residential. - Provide work to improve skills. PRIORITY 3 21

23 APPENDIX 2 Age Range: Young people should be separated into different age groups so that youth workers can concentrate on different topics and focus on the issues of each age group. Priorities & s - The group ages could be yrs start at this young age to gain experience Youth Conference February yrs Young people become more involved in talking about their issues. Theme: Every Child Matters Report yrs Gaining further responsibilities within the community and gaining further qualifications and skills. PRIORITY 4 Targeting: Youth Workers should prioritise in helping young people deal with the key issues within their communities and schools, etc.. In terms of priority youth workers should target - People affected by alcohol and other drugs - Those not interested in education - In trouble with police and community - People who want to engage in youth work - Those who are bullied - Groups gathered on the streets - Those with mental issues - Behaviour problems PRIORITY 5 Youth Participation: Young people can make decisions by having youth conferences and by gathering opinions of a large majority of young people through consulting with them through questionnaires also by creating youth committees in youth clubs and centres. - Youth Committees - Questionnaires with young people in the whole area for consultation 22

24 - Youth Conference APPENDIX 2-2 youth representatives on different organisational committee. Priorities & s HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING PRIORITY 1 Youth Conference February 2012 Challenge the stigma of homelessness and create awareness Theme: Every Child Matters Report - Workshops on homelessness, more money into education in youth orgs. and schools. Schools could also instead of get to know you residential s, let young people experience what it s like to be homeless. - Youth friendly resources on homelessness, guest speakers PRIORITY 2 More available social housing - Government should step in and buy private houses that are empty and put something in place to wave costs i.e. fees - Family hostels - Caps should be put on rent landlords can charge - Money to homeless projects to make available more hostels where people can stay until they are ready / stable to go and get a home. - Government projects were people are taken of certain benefits were they are put into renovate houses in local communities and given extra money for this, as well as a chance to learn a trade. PRIORITY 3 Better, lengthier, more efficient support mechanisms in various areas - Training for education and employment - Support workers ( step by step intense support) - Family support (preventative-before it happens - Mental health issues - why do people become homeless. 23

25 MENTAL HEALTH APPENDIX 2 PRIORITY 1: Priorities & s Experience: People who have suffered from a mental health problems Youth Conference February Talking about how they coped, who helped them through it/workshops Theme: Every Child Matters Report - Role Models - Support groups that people can go to PRIORITY 2: People who have trained professionally in mental health. - Councillor, Doctor, Teachers, Youth Workers and Helpline staff Training - Friends and Family - Teachers - Youth Workers - Train how to listen and how they can help(in different ways) - Informing about the problems - Courses for young people-to learn how to ask other young people what they want, how they feel PRIORITY 3: Raise Awareness: Promotion of the different mental health issues. - Internet, Facebook, TV, Text, MSN, Twitter - Promoting in schools, youth clubs - Making sure people know all the helpline numbers etc 24/7 Help - Hospitals - Crisis Centre- Comfortable, Laid back, GP, Fundraiser - Helplines 24

26 PRIORITY 4: APPENDIX 2 Fundraising Priorities & s - To pay for all the support Youth Conference February Who? Crisis Centre worker coordinate, communities and youth groups linked up Theme: Every Child Matters Report - How? Awareness day, TV, Business, School 25

27 NORTH BELFAST AREA PROJECT CONTACT US: North Belfast Area Project c/o: Mountcollyer Youth Club Limestone Road Belfast BT15 3AB FIND US AT: