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Working with young people: A profile of projects funded by the Partnership Drugs Initiative
Forth Valley: HOPE Detached Youth Work Project
This is a youth work project which is intended to extend the scope of HOPE, a substance abuse project based in Bo'ness. The project aims to promote harm reduction and early interventions with young people in the Falkirk area through group work and the provision of diversionary activities.
October 2002
The detached youth work project team has four staff, one full time development worker and three detached workers (each working 9.25 hours a week). The development worker is a qualified education worker. Two of the three detached workers have experience in youth work and one is in the process of obtaining a degree in community education.
The project aims to work across the Falkirk area.
Workers engage with young people on the street, but work can also take place at the project office.
Young people aged 11-18 years who may be beginning to experiment with substance misuse. The project also targets young people whose parents are involved in substance misuse.
The team plan to use the Streetwise database for recording their detached work sessions, piloting it for a six month period to see how its working. From past experience, this is seen as being a useful tool for ensuring follow-through, so long as staff are adequately supported and feel confident using it. As a back up, the detached team also plans to develop paper-based systems for the pilot period.
Recruitment problems within HOPE and within the detached project itself, have delayed the project's progress and, to date, the staff have yet to make direct contact with young people. Since coming into post in October 2002, they have made considerable headway with preliminary work such as establishing systems and policies, developing an information resource and mapping the local area. The team follows a 'young person-centred' philosophy and plan to develop their programme in line with the needs expressed by young people themselves. They also plan to encourage young people themselves to play an active role in the development of the project.
As noted above, the detached project team plan to recruit young people through their mapping exercise. They also anticipate that, because few local services exist for the 11-18 age group in Bo'ness, they may become over-subscribed at an early stage and have to prioritise who they work with.
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