• Category: Education and Training, Health and Wellbeing

Organisation: Carmarthenshire Youth Support Service

Provision: Carmarthenshire YSS/Heol Goffa DoE Open Award Group

Contacts: Sarann West/Dan Rogers

The provision aim is to offer Duke of Edinburgh opportunities and support to young people with ALN and disabilities who find it difficult to access the mainstream open award groups.

Our main priorities are to ensure:

• We provide a safe environment where young people can develop the skills needed for them to achieve their award/s with their peers.
• To provide opportunities and experiences that are tailored to meet the needs of the group.

The need for the provision arose from Young people being identified initially through conversations with teachers and parents who had initially completed Bronze, however there were no opportunities at that time for them to progress to Silver.

We involved Young People in a consultation to develop programme content and planning of activities and in drawing down funding with support of youth work staff. Young people also gave presentations in Annual DoE Award Ceremony Evening to over 500 people to further their cause. Through this consultation process young people became empowering young people and able to push their own barriers and limits to achieve things they didn’t think were possible.

Staff tailored their approach to meet the physical, medical, and emotional and communication needs of the group. This enabled the group to grow and develop their confidence and sense of worth and achievement. The staff provided and environment of inclusive practice. Ensuring equal opportunities to protected characteristic young people disadvantaged by their circumstances.

Our approach included the fundamental use of youth work principles and practices e.g., Voluntary engagement, starting at where the young people were at, the young people choosing their own levels of engagement.

COVID meant that the support provided was done so virtually for a period of time. This enabled young people to engage with peers and trusted adults to overcome social isolation as many group members were required to isolate during this time.

The project is flexible and tailored to needs of young people with a new cohort currently coming on board. The provision is constantly evolving as a result to meet needs. We have made adjustments were needed to ensure that all young people were able to complete and benefit from access to the project.

We have learnt how the award is achievable and how the project can be expanded and delivered to more young people with ALN and disabilities.

There are numerable benefits to young people including developed confidence through learning to socialise with their peers in out of school environments supported by youth workers. Young people have been able to develop their confidence enabling them to meet and interact with new people within their local communities and wider afield. The project has provided new opportunities and experiences for young people to be able to access with their peers and friends. The project has helped to break down barriers previously faced in accessing mainstream DoE provision. The experiential learning has transferred to other aspects of their lives including education, personal and social.

The project also highlighted the benefits of undertaking the DoE Award regardless of barriers/issues faced by young people and the flexibility of the award enabled the young people to achieve something beyond their wildest dreams.

Feedback from parents/guardians has been extremely positive and reports of the project enabling young people to be able to cope with lockdown and social isolation. Project breaks down barriers for staff and misconceptions in terms of supporting and enabling a group of ALN and disabled young people.

The projects has raised the profile of the need for youth work intervention for all young people and the benefits that this brings. Has raised the profile of the work of the YSS. The group of young people gave a presentation during the Annual awards ceremony and captivated an audience of over 500 people including local dignitaries and have received extremely positive feedback.

As young people finished school the project has provided invaluable social opportunities for the group to meet with their friends as they all have moved to individual destinations in the next stages of life.

This project has given a range of equal opportunities and access to provision for ALN and disabled young people that wouldn’t ordinarily be available to them. It has also provided a safe space for these young people to interact with their peers and trusted adults.

The Youth work approach has had to be adapted to enable young people with language/speech difficulties to be understood and benefit from intervention.
Young people have been able to demonstrate to others that they’re able to overcome barriers, learn new skills such as BSL, be dedicated to a project over a number of months and in some cases years to complete the highest accolade of the award.

The project has continued and adapted during lockdown to ensure that young people were able to continue to access vital support from youth workers and their peers. The work continues to be supported by the YSS and the school. Funding is an issue of concern and continues to prove on an ad hoc basis.

This year the projects is being offered to a wider reach of young people in the hope that more can benefit from this project.

• Category: Education, General Youth Practice

Organisation: Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Wales

Project: Club Handbook / Leader E-Learning Modules

Contact: Grant Poiner

The organisation developed a Club Handbook to help support volunteers who were volunteering at Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Wales member clubs. The Club Handbook needed to be clear, concise and be easily understood.

To accompany the Club Handbook was the design of two E-Learning modules. These were titled: (a) How to set up a BGC Wales affiliated club and (b) Supporting young people in a Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of Wales affiliated youth club.

This project involved all stakeholders within the organisation. Young people were key to this and were represented via the Youth Forum. At Forum meetings the young people were keen to provide their views of how the Club Handbook should look and what areas were needed to be included.

Even though the Club Handbook was developed using numerous youth work methods, the resource encompasses a variety of youth work methods that are made available for leaders and aspiring volunteers to learn about prior to working with young people or undertaking further youth work training.

As an Organisation we recognise that volunteers start working with young people before they have completed the Level 2 Award in Youth Work Principles and as such both the Club Handbook and the E-Learning modules help them with providing key information to help them support young people.

Both the Club Handbook and E-Learning modules are resources that will continue to be updated annually so that they remain current. As a team at BGC Wales we learned a lot through this process, and we were keen to take on the views of the membership. This included young people, Club Volunteers, Staff members and Trustees.

The resources which were developed have a benefit on clubs and their ability to better support young people through Youth Work programmes.

By improving the structures within Clubs and the standard of volunteering we will provide a better experience for young people so they can fully understand the rights they are afforded within a Boys’ and Girls’ Club. The resources explain what Youth Work is and how young people’s involvement is integral to the process and that their voice is encouraged. These are just some of the ways in that this project is benefiting young people and will continue to benefit young people in the future.

The whole organisation has benefited from its role in this project. Volunteers who supported the production of the resources have learned about other areas that can support their development. As a national organisation, our member clubs have been supportive of the resources and have valued the support and efforts of the staff members.

All these three themes were addressed within the project. All these are key areas for running a BGC Wales Youth Club.

This project will evolve and the resources will be updated on an annual basis to ensure that they still meet changing Government or policy guidelines. So far there are two E-Learning modules but there are plans for additional resources.

For more information visit:

https://bgcwales.teachable.com/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14jtpoHlpgfgwMLEzFyGk_2sI9PWapy5F/view?usp=sharing

https://www.facebook.com/BoysAndGirlsClubsOfWales/

Organisation: The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Title: General good practice within the organisation

Contact: Susan Wildee

During this challenging time dealing with COVID, many of our partners have been juggling with implementing online solutions, furlough and redeployment and young people have struggled with all the well documented effects of lockdown. Our technological response has been multifaceted and is underpinned by our existing digital system eDofE.

eDofE allows young people to enter details of their activity and demonstrate their progress online. The app introduced in 2019 has made this easier, especially during COVID, so young people can add their information using their phone, for example taking and uploading pictures as evidence instantly.

Using eDofE, Leaders can easily access the information for their groups and are alerted when young people interact with the system. DofE can analyse where activity occurs and where further help may be needed, as well as easily quality check Awards from across Wales. We have a Business Information manager and our operations team can call on various reports and breakdowns of the information to enable them to track and best support their centres.

eDofE allows records to be easily swapped between groups, so that a young person’s activity can be continued no matter if they transfer from centre to centre. E.g. going from secure estate back to school or transferring from a school to a voluntary group.

Using eDofE as our base we were able to layer in further changes and virtual alterations to allow many young people to continue or start an Award:

1. We introduced flexibilities to the programme to enable young people to continue their DofE within COVID restrictions. Our ‘#DofE with a Difference’ campaign was quickly under pinned by changes in eDofE to facilitate the temporary changes.
2. We introduced a new temporary Certificate of Achievement (CoA) which would be emailed direct to the participant and encouraged young people to complete the Skills, Physical and Volunteering sections of their award during lockdown. To do this they could take advantage of changes which allow them to swap their activities more than once, mentor family members and we advertised lists of activities which could be completed at home. The CoA recognises young people’s progress through the programme and over 3,000 have been awarded in Wales so far, but they are still able to gain a whole award when Residentials and Expeditions can be completed.
3. We also introduced a unique virtual award presentation (“Presentations with a Difference”) for groups of young people who had completed their Silver Awards. We enlisted the help of Welsh celebrities to record video presentations which were released on social media for young people, their families and centres to celebrate their achievements.
4. We implemented a new training platform using Adobe Connect and created materials which would allow us to conduct online training while leaders were not able to travel and had time to consider upskilling. We trained 244 people in 2020-21. This new way of delivering courses continues to be offered and will remain our main way of ensuring that existing leaders are kept current with developments and new leaders receive the training they need to successfully deliver the DofE.
5. Evaluations rated the training experience at 4.5 out of 5 stars with young people trainees sharing quotes such as:
   • “Brilliant easy to follow interactive enough to keep you engaged”
   • “This was a really useful in-depth course. I am excited to get started in my school as a leader.”
   • “Clear and excellent delivery, great content and enjoyed the interactive aspects. Particularly like the anonymous multiple choice sections.”
6. We released new recruitment and delivery toolkits to help leaders and young people find all the resources they would need to participate and introduced lots more virtual resources including videos in Welsh and English to help substitute for face to face recruitment presentations when young people were learning from home.
7. For the first time, we introduced virtual parent/carer information sessions which aim to take pressure off leaders and give information direct to parents/carers about the DofE and how to best support a young person through their Award.

To support young people who will be finding it harder than ever to move into the workplace, we were proud to undertake a 5 day social media campaign for our Employability Week, featuring bespoke video content, support materials, and insights from business leaders, employers and DofE Award holders from around Wales. These valuable resources remain available on our website.

https://www.dofe.org/notice-boards/wales/resources

In addition to our eDofe Initiatives we have been busy supporting our inclusivity agenda. Please see examples of our work:

Equal opportunities are central to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award with one of our 10 guiding principles being “Achievable by all” – the programme is achievable by any young person who chooses to take up its challenge, regardless of ability, gender, background or location.

DofE programmes are youth led and based on the needs and starting point of each individual, this makes them uniquely flexible as a tool for engagement for all young people whatever their circumstances. The programme is ultimately adaptable for all needs and is delivered through youth work in statutory and voluntary groups as well as in schools and specialist settings including Pupil Referral Units, The Secure Estate and businesses. Wherever DofE is delivered the programme can be adapted to suit the individual needs of the young people without reducing positive benefits for those taking part.

Young people choose for themselves what activities they undertake in each section and are fully empowered to pursue interests and activities which are personally relevant and achievable. No two DofE programmes will be identical and this flexibility underpins the enduring attractiveness of the programme for young people over the past 65 years.

Operations Officers review the need in each centre and help identify and provide support/funding based on individual centre need and have funding available, due to our amazing supporters, to target disadvantage and help break down barriers for marginalised young people. We target and regularly achieve 25% of our participants each year to be from disadvantaged backgrounds.

DofE has an Additional Learning Needs (ALN) working group who combine knowledge and experience to bring best practice across the field and facilitate ALN resources being made available to encourage and support centres who need to adapt the programme to support their young people. This group have recently created an ALN Handbook for DofE staff and a series of masterclasses and independent training for staff is being introduced which will also be embedded into induction for all new staff.

Our ALN Centres and groups are able to reflect the diverse interests of the participants and the ingenuity of their leaders working with the flexibility of the programme to overcome all barriers and surprise even their own parents at times. An Award putting them, sometimes for the first time, on an even playing field with their siblings and peers.

A research report for the DofE charity by Chrysalis Research published in March 2021 on “Participation in and impact of the DofE on young people with additional needs” noted that:
“Evidence captured for this research contained a lot of feedback from teachers and others working with ALN young people, highlighting that the programme design and its guiding principles were crucial in making it possible for their students to access it and truly benefit from their experience.

The programme’s focus on the individual and making sure that each participant’s DofE journey is personalised and is a challenge unique to them was the principle that was highlighted most often. The resulting flexibility of the programme as well as its openness to adaptations, to maximise it inclusivity, were mentioned equally often.”

Ysgol Cedewain in Powys have been very successful in embedding DofE into their school

“All of the pupils at Ysgol Cedewain have learning difficulties, but many also have physical and medical needs. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is so inclusive, that all our pupils are able to take part and enjoy the benefits that the award has to offer, whatever their ability. We have seen our students grow in self-confidence, and all aspects of the Award help with this.

The volunteering is sometimes very daunting for our participants, but as the weeks go on, they gain so much in confidence. One volunteering activity that we do is to visit a residential home for the elderly. They have cleaned, and tidied, for the old people, they have enjoyed chatting to them, and these things were very beneficial to our students. But, on top of that, they organised and ran regular bingo sessions for the residents, who thoroughly enjoyed it. The significant thing is that our students are usually the ones who are having the help and support; so for them to be able to help others in a clear and tangible way, was a joy to see.

We have had a wide variety of skills, from filming, car mechanics, learning board games, camp craft and cooking, to name but a few. We adapt the skills depending on their disabilities, but all of them gain new or improved skills.
Many of our students do not enjoy physical activities! They have to be encouraged to improve their fitness, but they all take part in the expeditions we do with the DofE. Even those that need a lot more encouragement in the beginning seem to understand the importance of the actual expedition and push themselves more. This is also when the team-work, that we work hard to instil, comes to the fore, with all students encouraging and helping each other.”

Portfield School – Pembrokeshire

A participant from Portfield School, Pembrokeshire undertook weightlifting for his Physical activity section at Strength Academy Wales. He trains 3 times a week for an hour and a half each time. The club are so impressed with him that following his first competition, the club hope to enter him into Special Olympic Powerlifting competitions and have been liaising with ‘Special Olympics Wales’.

Woodlands School - Cardiff:

The school purchased specialist equipment for their visually impaired pupils enabling them to get the best experience whilst on their expedition. Jess Rumble, Operations Officer says: “The funding for a talking digital compass had a huge impact on the ability of a visually impaired student to participate fully in and enjoy the Bronze qualifying expedition in July 2019. When used with the voice recordings and the braille route booklet produced by the school, the compass meant that the young person could play a full part in navigating the trail and taking ownership of their own expedition. The compass also proved popular with some of the other young people in the group, and was a useful navigational tool that they were able to use with the route booklet. It’s a simple piece of equipment that can really add to the expedition experience of young people with additional needs, and will add great value to the school’s expeditions for the future.

Ysgol Bro Dinefwr - Carmarthenshire

Ysgol Bro Dinefwr has two learning resources for pupils with severe and complex needs, and recently offered a group of students from its specialist resource base the opportunity to do their Bronze DofE.

Although initially unsure whether the DofE was for them, the students decided to embark on a ‘Donkey DofE’, supported by their school-based youth worker.

They incorporated learning about, and caring for, animals into their activities to build their confidence, volunteering at an animal-assisted therapy centre and following a programme of weekly animal care sessions for their Skills section. For their expedition, the group travelled with two donkeys, caring for and prioritising their welfare throughout the journey.

The Bronze participants reported an increase in their confidence and self-esteem as a result of doing their DofE – and their attendance at school has also improved as a result.

Coleg y Cymoedd

Coleg y Cymoedd’s School of Vocational Access has launched a brand-new bike maintenance scheme to help staff and learners with any bike-related issues they may be having.
The course, which has been introduced after the learners expressed an interest and in response to growing numbers of staff and learners cycling to college, will see them develop skills in bike maintenance and then offer out their services on a voluntary basis.

As part of the programme, staff and learners will be able to bring in their bikes to the Nantgarw campus where the learners, assisted by Vocational Access support staff, will be on hand to help fix any issues. They will be able to provide a range of general bike maintenance services from lubricating chains to checking for faulty gears, brakes, handlebars, and moving parts.

The three learners involved in the scheme are all completing the course as part of the skills and volunteering section of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. With Covid restrictions making many volunteering opportunities difficult, the college created the bike maintenance course as a way for learners to fulfil this element of the award while developing valuable skills.

• Category: Education, Participation

Organisation: RCT – Youth Engagement & Participation Service

Project name: Digital Bench

Youth Leader: Christie Williams

The project aims to engage disengaged young people who have been anti-social in their local community and aims to develop new skills, build relationships and as a result decrease the anti-social behavior.

The young people have been instrumental to all the planning for the bench and since the original bench the young people have changed some of the designs to make it more aesthetically pleasing. Egg Seeds the provider gave the young people a task and then they used their problem solving and team work skills to design the digital bench.

The young people have also developed their woodwork skills and have completed all of the necessary skilled labor to complete the bench. Although this is supervised by the staff the young people have become self-efficient and independent at these skills over time.

The young people have also been involved in choosing the destination of the bench and have spoken honestly about how it would be cared for and respected in their current community, so much so that the young people chose a more affluent area that had good CCTV coverage and area that the young people felt it would not be damaged. One young person quoted “I am not doing all this hard work for someone to come along and burn it down”.

Like any youth work practice we try to develop a supportive environment, which is safe and where the young people are able to express their views and opinions. This has been key to the success of the project and through active listening the young people have developed their own community.

Older young people from the group have also supported younger members, sharing their own knowledge and experience of making the first digital bench in Wales (see link below) to help build the second bench.

The project was run originally indoors as part of a youth club session but due to Covid-19 regulations the project was forced outside, where it now runs more freely and more visible to the local community.

The lesson learned resulted in an increase in anti-social behavior, young people need stimulation and positive activities to engage in, I know Covid-19 stopped so much, but statistics proved that when we resumed the digital bench and youth engagement in the community the levels of anti-social behavior decreased. This sends a clear message that we must work hard to provide a service to young people despite the struggles and strains that may be thrown at us. The introduction of the YEPS purpose built mobile youth vans have been an instrumental part of the RCT Youth Service operating at full capacity.

The young people involved have a developed more respect and consideration for their community, this has not just been done through the digital bench but also through involving the local school and the Crimes and Consequences team to also educate the young people.

A group of young girls who have engaged in the digital bench have noticeably developed in confidence and also acquired a good level of wood work skills which they have told us they have even used at home and helped other family members.

The more hard to reach young people who have been very honest about their anti-social behavior in the community are now more interactive and comfortable talking to the youth workers about their own life challenges, and often come to us when life becomes difficult.

One of the older young people who engaged in the 1st bench has now become a young volunteer with the project and she enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience and supporting younger members.

Finally the young people have also developed relationships with key partners in the community which has allowed them to access more provision, for example the young people are now comfortable and confident enough to access the local food bank as it is run but a member of staff who they have been introduced to as part of the project. So the young people interpersonal skills have improved.

Newydd Housing who are a key partner to the Digital bench, along with YEPS RCT and Egg Seeds have also raised awareness and understanding to local residents. The ASB officer for Newydd Housing shared information on social media about positive activities the young people were involved with and also encouraged residents to not dump rubbish at a known fire site as this was encouraging the young people to set those items alight.

This partnership with all key partners has further strengthened and this has allowed some of this work to continue in the local Secondary school.
Staff and volunteers, like the young people involved have also developed their own wood work skills and it has given them a sense of purpose for engaging with the young people without the usual barriers that have been in place during the detached street based sessions.

The provision has been structured around the needs of the young people, offering open access, where no young person feels discriminated or isolated as a results of their disability, sexuality, nationality, social-economic status, special needs, mental health religion or any other characteristic.

The project has continued to thrive, so much so that an application for additional funding has been put in to offer the opportunity to several sites in RCT.

The young people involved in the current bench are already thinking about their next bench and next project and Hapi through Newydd Housing have secured additional funding to support this, along with the continued support from YEPS RCT staff.

 Video for the first Digital bench in wales: 

https://youtu.be/rj4snCKJ5OQ

The progress so far, before Covid-19 and the project moved outside is shown in the video below:

https://youtu.be/2TOPSAMZ9Pg

Full video will be produced after the build day.

For further information please contact email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit https://www.facebook.com/YEPSRCT/ or Twitter https://twitter.com/yepsrct?lang=en or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yepsrct/?hl=en