Junior Youth Inclusion Programme
The Junior YIP (Youth Inclusion Programme) is a crime prevention initiative working with young people between the ages of 8 – 12 years. The programme targets young people in a geographical specific area of South Tyneside, Biddick Hall and Whiteleas.
The programme is funded by the Children’s Fund until April 2007.
The Junior YIP targets young people at an early stage in their lives who have been identified as being at risk of offending, becoming socially excluded, engaging in anti social behaviour and/or school exclusion/truancy. The programme networks very closely with partner agencies – Social Services, Police, Local Education Authority, YOS and others to identify young people at risk. Referrals are received on a 6 monthly basis from all agencies, who identify those young people displaying significant risk factors which are associated with offending, social exclusion etc. The young people referred are identified as being at a low, medium or high risk. With the aid of a staff member the young person works on an action plan that focuses on specific issues within their life so they can identify areas for change and be supported in things that are going really well.
Engagement by young people on the programme is entirely on a voluntary basis. All interventions, projects and activities aim to develop skills within young people taking a holistic approach to their personal development and focusing very heavily on them attaining some form of accreditation; i.e. Mayor’s Award and Youth Challenge.
School term time services include; the Mayor’s Award (accredited scheme) in 3 local primary schools during school hours, out of school hours includes a Youth Challenge session (accredited scheme, Monday), Percy Hudson Youth Club (Tuesday and Thursday), Chuter Ede Youth Club (Wednesday), and football training (Friday). During holidays the Junior YIP offers provision throughout all school holidays (except the Christmas break) during the day giving all young people the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of activities and project based work. During the summer of 2005 the Junior YIP gave initial contact to 46 young people and regular support to 147, resulting in 193 young people accessing the programme. Overall the 193 young people who accessed the programme during the 5 weeks made a total of 906 appearances, giving the young people a total of 100 hours support during the summer holidays.
