Paisley YMCA

Paisley YMCA
5 New Street,
Paisley,
Scotland
PA1 1XU

(t) 0141 561 1147
(f): 0141 889 2876
(e): paisley.ymca@enablis.co.uk
(w): www.expage.com/paisleyymcayouth.

Contact: Elizabeth Anne McLean, project worker; John McMurray, manager.

A Youth or Adult? Project 2003-2008

Paisley YMCA is a Christian youth organisation based in the centre of the town.  It runs different clubs including karate, gymnastics, boxing along with their youth programme.  The youth programme includes a drop-in, the rock club, daycamp, the coffee house, band nights and special events including discos and karaoke’s.

At the YMCA we work with young people form the early age of 8 to the older age of about 19.  By providing programmes for young people from an early age we have seen young people come to more clubs and move up to the next club when they reach the appropriate age.  Daycamp and the Rock Club cater for the ages of 8-12 as doe’s daycamp.  The drop-in is for young people between the ages of 12-16 and the Coffee House is for young people aged 16 up.  We also work with a local special needs school who once a week come to the YMCA to take part in different activities including arts and crafts, sports and quizzes and discussions.

Part of what we try to do is to help young people reach their potential by seeing them grow in their personal development.  When they reach the age of 16 they have the opportunity to volunteer at the different clubs.  To allow them to do this we have a training programme which we deliver to the young people.  The training programme allows young people to think of what volunteering is, their personalities and how this affects the young people when they volunteer.  We also look at the influences on young people today, have young people changed, do they develop quicker, decision making, qualities they have and how they can use these in their volunteering as well as looking at policies such as child protection, health and safety and our behaviour policy.

Work funded by the Rank Foundation

The Rank Charities have allowed the YMCA to provide a worker to develop the training for the young volunteers, assist in the running of the drop-in, the coffee house and the Mary Russell School activities.  The youth/adult worker, Lizzie McLean, has also been able to produce material for schools work on the topic of alcohol.  The Thinking About Drinking programme runs for 3 weeks and is taken from material which is produced by a company called BNTL Freeway.  Lizzie has also been able to add in different quizzes and pieces of information including information on what gets you sober and more facts to build up on the information which was being delivered to the young people. 

During the Thinking About Drinking course in the school the pupils looked at alcohol the drug, alcohol and the brain, peer pressure, and design and technology.  The design and technology part took the shape of a non-alcoholic cocktail bar which the young people were able to experiment with and come up with an alternative to drinking alcohol.

The course was designed to give pupils some information on alcohol but not to bore them with facts that they had probably heard before.  The focus remained on the young people the whole time and although there was some set activities for the young people to do they were able to control the session in some way.  This was a different approach from the traditional way of delivering a session where the young people sat and listened.  By focusing it on them they were able to get more out of each session and all the young people were able to get something out of it. 

The next big piece of work which the youth/adult worker will take on is the Youth Committee.  This committee is for the young people to discuss problems they may be having in their different clubs and to plan and organise events.  The young people involved will also have the opportunity to represent YMCA both nationally and internationally and represent their views to the board of management.  They will also go through a training pack which will give the young people a knowledge of committees and what they’re for and also let the young people find out what part they play within the youth committee.

The youth/adult worker also runs the holiday club, Daycamp, and band gigs.  Daycamp runs 1 week in Easter, 2 weeks in summer, the October week and 2 days at Christmas.  With Daycamp we take them on trips, do arts and crafts, play sports and also talk about God at theme time slots every morning.  Daycamp kids also take part in the Easter service by doing drama and a song.  The young volunteers who are trained are also able to volunteer at Daycamp.

At the YMCA we also offer the opportunity for local young bands to come and play once a month at gig nights.  These prove to very popular and we have a list of about 11 bands which is growing all the time.  At one night we are able to get in about 100 young people to one of these gigs.  The youth/adult worker Lizzie McLean, is also looking to provide free rehearsing times where young people can come in and practise for free without anyone telling them to be quiet.

 

Last updated: 23 June 2008