The Story So Far...
A detailed insight into Youthcomm services
Youthcomm is a cutting edge project of the Worcestershire Youth Service started with 75% funding from Central Government through an Invest To Save Grant and 25% from Worcestershire County Council and other Partner organisations. The grant period started in April 2000 and ran to April 2003 with a total package of £560,000.
The project is based on an original idea of the Worcester Youth Council who won 3 years grant funding in November 1996 to establish, staff and run an information, resource and support free telephone service for 14-25s in Worcestershire, operated by 16- 25 year old trained volunteers.
During the first 3 years of Youthline, a partnership steering group was established to coordinate the work and a number of additional initiatives were conducted by the Youth Workers and Volunteer Teams who ran the project which were destined to shape the future of the work. It became apparent that there was great potential to reach and involve young people in the delivery of services to their peers through the use of technology. It was also clear that there was enormous opportunity to give young people a high quality accredited training and volunteering experience through the operation of the project.
In November 1999 a bid was submitted to the ISB which outlined a radical new approach to the delivery of services to young people by young people. The vehicle for this was the development of an Integrated Communications Platform that combined different mediums of communication including; the existing Youthline free confidential phone service, an Internet Radio Station webcasting 24/7, supplemented by 6 live FM broadcasts in different areas of the County throughout the funding period and a sophisticated Website to underpin the whole service.
The key to Youthcomm's success is the involvement of young people at every level of the operation, management and delivery of the project. Youthcomm aims to offer a quality user led service enabling it to develop according to their requests, needs and aspirations. However a high quality volunteering experience with Open College Network accredited training programmes lies at its heart, with additional incentives to participation such as Millennium Volunteers adding to the overall package.
Youthcomm is about a radical new way of delivering services to young people by their peers. It is not a bolt on luxury to existing services while funds last, it is a way of capturing the benefits of new technology to extend and complement the provision of more 'traditional' approaches to working with young people. Youthcomm has young people at its heart and can only reach its full potential through their involvement. Challenge is one of the keys to success of the project so far. It has become eminently clear that given a challenge worthy of the commitment of a young person's time and energy they will rise to it and become a vital part of the operation of the project whilst learning new skills and gaining valuable experience at the same time.
In the last year, Youthcomm has been relocated to the St Johns area of Worcester, making further expansion of the project possible. Additionally, Youthline has spread across the county and beyond through the creation of several new satellite offices, thus allowing the service to be more accessible for those young people who want to get involved and volunteer.
Furthermore, Youthcomm has recently received the excellent news that it has been awarded a permanent Community FM radio license from the radio regulator Ofcom.
