Case Study - Vale Christian Youth WorkRural solution for bored teenagersA mobile youth club – the Faringdon cyber-bus – tours villages with few or no facilities in rural Oxfordshire. The church-led work involves volunteers and prevents the anti-social behaviour that can follow boredom. The cyber-bus provides a safe place where young people can meet friends, learn new skills and find information they might need. The double-decker bus is equipped with computers, games, music, videos and a tuckshop. Upstairs is laid out like a communal room, with seating, a TV and video, a karaoke machine and board games. This is a great place where young people can enjoy discussions as a group or more intimate chats with the project’s staff and volunteers. The bus, operated by Vale Christian Youth Work, tours five villages on a fortnightly basis and, during busy periods, is used by 300 or so 11-17-year olds. A typical evening session on the bus runs from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. The Vale of the White Horse is a very rural area of around 160 square miles and just 13,000 people. School and festival visitsEach week the bus visits the local secondary school, Faringdon Community College, for a lunchtime session, and is taken to other events such as the Faringdon Arts Festival and the White Horse Show. It has also been used for after-school clubs. The project began in 2001 when church bodies got together to look at how they could best offer more opportunities for young people. A mobile venue was clearly the answer and the bus was launched in March 2002. After the bus was bought, it was tested in the villages to show the facilities on offer and gauge response. The bus is run by evangelical Christians, but the volunteers, led by part-time youth leader Simon Faulks, aim for a holistic approach rather than exclusively evangelism.
The project visits areas where huge affluence sits alongside great poverty. Although many of the young people come just to pass the time in a fun way, many actually do have problems that they want to talk about. The busiest time is during the summer when young people want to be out, although the bus operators undertake more relationship building in winter. Bad weather and dark, cold nights make the youths more prone to hang out somewhere warm and dry like inside the bus. Recruiting volunteersAs well as a part-time paid youth worker, there is a team of volunteers who help out on the bus and join in when it is being cleaned or maintained. Ideally, two or more of the volunteers will come from the village the bus is visiting, but one of the problems the scheme has faced is in recruiting volunteers. It is sometimes difficult to get enough volunteers to take the bus out, as at least four or five adults need to be present. The bad behaviour of some of the young people has also been off-putting to volunteers. The volunteers support each other and also receive support from the youth leader which is necessary if they experience bad behaviour from young people. The volunteers have found that they can build relationships with the youths talking about personal issues as well as issues to do with the local community. £26,000 in annual costsThe project costs around £26,000 a year to run, covering the project officer’s salary, maintenance of the bus and running costs. There was a slightly higher expenditure when the bus was first purchased, however, the project was without employed staff for almost a year before Simon arrived in June 2004. Most of the funding comes from the local churches, with a few donations from individuals and local businesses. Financial assistance in setting up the project also came from the town and district councils and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).
The bus is now 28 years old and breaks down on a regular basis. With a new bus, more up-to-date activities could be devised for the youngsters. The organisers would like to offer a greater selection of software, video editing and film production facilities, and access to the internet. Getting reliable internet access in a mobile venue travelling through areas of poor reception will be a challenge.
Ongoing review processThe project has now been running for more than four years and has proved incredibly popular with young people. When the bus broke down recently, people wanted to know what they could do to get it fixed immediately.
Project workers have noticed that there is less trouble on the nights the bus comes around. The harder to reach young people are the ones who most seem to gravitate towards the bus, according to Simon. For more information, please contact Simon Faulks at simon@xcell-uk.com or visit http://www.xcell-uk.com |
