What Is Youthline?
Youthcomm Youthline is a cutting edge project of the Worcestershire Youth Service. It is based on an original idea of the Worcester Youth Council who won three 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.
The Past...
During the first three years of Youthline, a partnership steering group was established to co-ordinate 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.
The Present...
Youthline has now expanded into Gloucestershire and regularly takes calls from young people all over Britain. The project has a high national profile due to work with the LSDA and other organisations. It represents a contemporary form of youth work provision, combining service delivery with accredited volunteering and active citizenship. Enquiries regarding the service and how it might be developed for young people in your area are welcomed.
The Way Forward...
The key to Youthline's success is the involvement of young people at every level of operation, management and delivery of the project. Youthline 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 lies at its heart, with additional incentives to participation such as Millennium Volunteers adding to the overall package.
Youthcomm Youthline is about a radical new way of delivering services to young people by their peers. Youthline has young people at its heart and can only reach its full potential through their involvement.
