01 March 2013
Nearly 60 youth workers, volunteers and young people are gathering this weekend to explore the ‘Places Promise’ at the Youth Service annual conference at Hautlieu.
The focus of the day will be how staff and young people can get involved in improving their premises to make sure youth projects are safe and inviting places to go.
The Youth Service launched its ‘Promises’ last year to highlight four important areas. They are:
- places
- opportunities
- equality
- voice
The service decided to use this year’s conference to focus on places after receiving feedback from a survey of young people who said they would like to improve facilities and the appearance of the buildings they use, both inside and out.
During the day there will be workshops on specific issues that can help keep youth projects safe, and the youth service policies on confidentiality, alcohol and drugs, counter-bullying and boundaries of behaviour will be discussed.
The conference takes place at Hautlieu School from 9.30am to 4pm on Saturday 2 March.
Mark Renouf, Deputy Youth Officer and conference organiser, said: “The focus this year will be on finding practical ways to make the Places Promise happen. The aim is to get young people involved in fundraising for new equipment and in giving them a say in what they would like. We are also working on the Brighter Buildings programme to help improve our facilities.”
“We have clearly set out what young people can expect from the Youth Service in these areas and in return we in return we would hope that young people are able to respect our staff, the premises and each other,” Mark added.
Deputy Rod Bryans, the ESC Assistant Minister for Youth and Culture, will be opening the conference. He said: “Jersey’s Youth Service is an incredible asset to the Island. It is consistently making a difference to young people’s lives and this conference acts as a melting pot for ideas and a chance to remind ourselves of the core values that have made the team so successful.”
Mark Capern, Jersey’s Principal Youth Officer, said: “This is a valuable opportunity to get all our staff together from around the Island and share some of the excellent practice and work that everyone is doing. It is important we see how others are addressing issues in different ways as this enables us to learn from each other and give our young people the best possible service.”
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