Spar Posse On Tour

Funding: £14,000 from various sources including the Youth Opportunity Fund

Aim: To let young people interact with peers from foreign countries.

Tensions were raised in Cramlington, Northumbria, when young people were hanging around on the streets, drinking and, occasionally, fighting. In summer 2005 a dispersal order was brought in, giving the police the power to move them on.

Detached youth workers went out and spoke to the young people - who called themselves the Spar Posse - about what they wanted to do with their time, and all were in agreement that they did not want to go to a standard youth club.

At the same time, representatives from the city of Solingen in Germany raised the possibility of creating an exchange programme with young people from the area. Mike Kelcey, youth volunteer advisor at the charity Changemakers, knew exactly the group of young people to get involved.