Agenda item

Members of the public are invited to contribute towards the Board’s consideration of proposals for the Area Board Youth Fund 2019/20.

Proposals will be presented to fund a programme of core activities from our usual providers, and options for a reserved budget for one off or new events and activities.

Officer: Karen Linaker, Community Engagement Manager

The Chairman thanked Karen Linaker and Cllr McLennan who had carried out a huge amount of work consulting with the youth clubs on the proposals for Youth Provision.

Karen gave an update on her findings, following their visits to the 3 main youth clubs and the feedback from Downton Methodist youth club.

The report included the recorded results of the votes of the young people attending the youth clubs. Karen noted that when thinking about how the Board might allocate 2019/20 funds it considered whether there was a bit of flexibility in the way they were allocated.

A suggestion was that a proportion of the funding could be set aside for other one off options, alongside how it had previously been used.

During the consultation with the young people it had been highlighted that the Boom Satsuma sessions had been less well received, in comparison to the other providers. Boom Satsuma ran a programme of arts based activities, whereas the other providers included cookery and sports activities.

Members of the public were invited to contribute towards the Board’s consideration of proposals for the Area Board Youth Fund 2019/20, by taking part in an interactive voting session.

The majority of those present voted in support of allocating a proportion of the budget to one-off applications, with 70% being used to commission activities.

Questions and comments:

In Whiteparish our less active young people have really enjoyed those sessions and some benefit more from these than the sports sessions. Answer: Thank you for that contribution.

People were also asked to vote on whether they supported the Boards preference that the Parish Council was expected to part fund projects when bids were submitted the Board. There was a 93% vote of support for this suggestion.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board agreed to adopt option one, as set out in the report.

The Board also considered one bid for funding, as detailed in the report.

Old Sarum Youth Club – requested £3095.96

The youth club had 50 young people attending with 25 regulars. A range of activities was available. The youth club had match funding in place. Young people were in attendance to speak about the benefits of the youth club to them personally.

The Board debated the bid, where it was noted that the youth club was already well established and the amount requested, if awarded would

take a large chunk from the funds available.

However, due to some challenges the club had faced up at Old Sarum, the Board considered the proposal to award a lower amount to support the club in terms of leadership, as it was recognised that it was often the case that clubs were not able to find parent volunteers and needed to hire youth workers.

Decision

The Old Sarum Youth Club was awarded £2195.96 for the staffing element of the bid.

The Bridge Youth Project Mentoring Scheme – requested £3352.00

As there was no one in attendance to speak on behalf of the project, the application was deferred until a future meeting.