Youth work summer schemes: making the most of summer

1. Keep it local

A summer youth scheme can fall victim to its own success, proving so popular across the region that there are no places left for local young people. The London Borough of Hillingdon had this problem for its Fiesta programme of activities, with young people from neighbouring boroughs flocking in to take up places.

"There was one football competition with 20 places that was so full up with young people from Harrow and Hounslow that our local children couldn't get a place," explains Hillingdon deputy leader David Simmonds. "We needed to stop that."

The council's solution has been to ramp up fees for non-residents and offer cut price admission to local young people. For 2015's programme, a 20-place, five-day boxing programme will cost local young people £15, while those from other boroughs face a charge of £52.50. Meanwhile, a five-day climbing programme has a £70 price tag for non-locals, more than treble the cost for local young people.

2. Innovate with social media

Cost-effective promotional tools used by the National Citizen Service (NCS) include Facebook advertising to local areas where there is a low take-up of places. NCS Yorkshire's regional director Peta Halls says spending just £25 on advertising each time on the social media platform in this way can effectively attract those in hard-to-reach areas.

Meanwhile, UK Youth uses social media as a consultation tool to help plan as well as evaluate events. David Watts, director of UK Youth's residential centre Avon Tyrell, says positive feedback about forthcoming events can offer valuable proof to funders to show there is demand among local young people.

Using social media also helps evaluate the success of a scheme as young people feel more at ease in giving their opinions this way. As a result, you have to be prepared "to get answers you don't want to hear sometimes", says Watts.

3. Create a "journey"

Summer-long scheme organisers recommend seeing each programme as a journey, with a strong start, middle and end. For example, NCS schemes initially focus on team bonding and confidence building at a residential activity centre. New skills such as leadership are then learned in the middle section and at the end of the four-week programme, the journey finishes with young people carrying out a social action project. This could involve organising a music festival or developing a conservation project.

Involving young people in planning this journey is crucial to its success, says Phil Walters, head of membership development at London Youth. He gives the example of the Knights Youth Centre in Streatham, where young people who are not in education, employment or training were asked to design a summer programme aimed at boosting their confidence. They decided to focus on learning bush craft skills that are put to the test at the end of the programme during a residential stay at Hindleap Warren, London Youth's Sussex-based outdoor activity centre.

4. Grow new youth workers

Savvy summer activity organisers should look to not only provide useful and fun activities, but also use events to help young people's career prospects.

Hillingdon's Fiesta includes a volunteering programme through which those looking for a career in youth and community work can gain valuable work experience. Among those volunteering at this year's Fiesta is 17-year-old Brooklyn Gregory, who is taking a Level 2 youth work qualification. She says Fiesta offers "the boost I needed" to gain a better understanding of organising a large-scale summer youth scheme.

5. Evaluate schemes thoroughly

There are a number of off-the-shelf evaluation tools to help those organising summer schemes. The Life Effectiveness questionnaire is favoured by London Youth as it enables staff to capture young people's views during, at the end, and some months after each programme of events. Walters says this tool was also picked as it focuses on tracking improvements in key areas such as confidence, leadership and resilience.

Meanwhile, Leap Confronting Conflict uses its own tool called Journey of Change, which tracks change in young people's personal skills including empathy, a useful indicator of change for its summer schemes that look to reduce violence and help young people manage anger. This was developed by Leap alongside Triangle Consulting.

Evaluation can be enhanced further by using readily available council and census data about ethnic backgrounds and the number of local children in care, with disabilities or in the youth justice system. This can help ensure schemes have a strong social mix that mirrors its local population and are successfully targeting so-called hard-to-reach groups.

6. Offer incentives

Evaluating the long-term effect of a summer scheme on a young person's life can be difficult. Leap helps ensure it can gather views a year after the scheme by offering a £20 cash incentive.

Prizes and rewards can also be a useful way of boosting recruitment and retention. Walters says that London Youth awards credits for attending sessions during a summer scheme. These can be traded in at the end for a reward such as a go-karting trip or a theme park outing.

7. Tackle bad behaviour

Challenging behaviour can ruin a summer scheme, causing disruption and in some cases ending with young people being removed. UK Youth tries to turn such behaviour into a positive by giving responsibility to those looking to gain attention through breaking rules and by nurturing their potential leadership skills. "We have found some really strong leaders among those with such behaviour," Watts says.

Another way to improve behaviour is to take away a reward at the end of a summer scheme, such as a trip away. "If someone misses something that they looked forward to, that can be a really powerful motivator to improve," adds Watts.

Whether a summer scheme is in the community, away at a residential centre or in a classroom environment, Leap puts in place contracts that set out clear expectations around behaviour from the start. Carey Haslam, Leap's director of delivery, says it is important that sanctions are clear and carried out. "If the contract says you will be sent home from a residential if, for example, you bring drugs and alcohol, you have to follow that through," she says.

8. Use young people

Young people who have attended previous events are "your best advocates", says Halls, who is keen to use previous attendees as much as possible in NCS promotion. In Yorkshire, her team regularly calls on NCS attendees to take part in school visits. "To hear about the activities from young people is much more powerful than hearing about it from an adult," she says. Incentives, including water bottles, sunglasses and T-shirts, are also offered to former NCS attendees who recruit a friend to sign up for the programme.

9. Look at charity funding

Aside from central government investment in NCS, the amount of public money available to fund summer youth schemes is shrinking. Instead, youth groups are increasingly turning to philanthropic arms of the business community as well as trusts and foundations.

Latest figures from the Association of Charitable Foundations show that in the 18 months to March 2013, £2.41bn was given away in grants from the top 300 grant-giving bodies, an increase on the £2.19bn handed out in the previous 18 months.

"Trusts and foundations have a clear understanding that young people at risk need powerful interventions in a climate of financial cuts and are willing to fund that," says Haslam.

Among those funding London Youth summer schemes is the John Lyons Charity, which backs West London community groups and is part of the Harrow School Foundation. Another financial backer of London Youth's summer schemes is CVC and the Community, the philanthropic arm of CVC Capital Partners. Walters is hoping to take this relationship even further and use CVC's links with Formula One for future activities.

10. Get out and about

Few young people want to sit in a classroom all summer. If your summer scheme has a strong learning element, try to get participants outside by incorporating residential trips to activity centres or trips away from home.

Julie Wharton, project leader of Manchester-based The Hideaway Youth Project, says it is important to use summer schemes to "challenge young people to move out of their comfort zone and try new experiences".

One of the teenagers to attend Hideaway summer activities is 15-year-old Shiloh Minott, who was impressed with the chance to visit London and the Houses of Parliament during one summer scheme. "The activities are good because they give you opportunities we wouldn't otherwise have," he says.

This summer, UK Youth is taking young people with disabilities from Hampshire out of their comfort zone for a summer course on improving their employability. This will involve rope climbing, kayaking and at the end UK Youth aims to produce a toolkit for other youth groups to follow this model.

"At school, they don't have time to do this work, but in summer we can take that time and provide something fun as well for them that challenges them," says Watts. "Young people want to be challenged and have the freedom to run and shout and scream if they want."

CASE STUDY 4UTH, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

Involvement of young people is at the heart of planning for Nottinghamshire County Council's annual series of summer 4Uth events, run by the youth service.

Launched four years ago, 4Uth offers young people across this large, rural county a series of fun activity days that are close to home. These also give the youth service and its partners across education, police and charities the best chance of the year to promote local support, particularly among harder-to-reach groups such as looked-after children and those with disabilities.

Pom Bhogal, the youth service's locality manager, says events are altered each year based on feedback from young people, collected largely by youth workers at their youth centres.

In addition, the council's formal participation structure of local and district youth forums, as well as its youth parliament, are used to decide on events. Young people from 12 local Link clubs for children with disabilities are also involved in planning to ensure events are as accessible as possible.

"When young people take ownership, they are more likely to attend and the events are more likely to be a success," says Bhogal. "The activities vary - we have music, dancing, arts, graffiti boards and archery. The list goes on."

Young people's feedback also helps address challenges, in particular the weather.

"Annoying things can happen such as rain. But it is about being prepared," says Bhogal. "What we've done now is ensure we can put marquees up at open-air events. Doing that was actually a suggestion from young people during our planning. Often, the best way to be prepared is to ask the young people for ideas."

The gathering and analysis of feedback starts as soon as the programme of events has ended, with young people asked to tell organisers which activities they enjoyed and which were less successful. "We go into detail," says Bhogal. "For example, a couple of young people who had gone to several events across a number of areas reported the Sumo suits activity was really popular and should be used at more events. That level of feedback is really important."

As well as universally accessible free events, the 4Uth programme also includes specialist programmes such as a day out at Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest for looked-after children and their families.

This involves a series of morning sessions where families meet with social workers and other specialists such as local college representatives. Activities depend on the ages of children attending, but can include circus skills, and arts and crafts. In the afternoon, children and their families are free to use the park.

The involvement of partners from support services are vital to all events, both specialist and universal, says Bhogal.

"We will see if they can organise an activity and if they can't, we'll see if they can set up a stall," he says. "The events are about having fun as well as feeding young people information and signposting services."

At previous events, the police have helped organise football tournaments, with young people getting the chance to take on a team of local officers. "Police have an obvious duty to ensure things run smoothly, but there is also much more of a focus on community engagement and their involvement in running activities really helps make the events a success," adds Bhogal.

Among those to regularly attend and help plan 4Uth events is teenager Luke Tomlinson. "It started off with my youth worker asking for ideas and support for the Cotgrave Festival," he says. "We designed a wheelbarrow as a plane and built it. We wrote on the wings what we do at the youth club, how it benefits us all, what we learn and what it offers us.

"I also helped set up archery, arts and crafts, music and other things. I learned how to lead and organise activities, and take responsibility."

Councillor Liz Plant, vice-chair of the council's children and young people committee, says the events are "a real celebration of youth in our county". "They are a great opportunity to promote the achievements of many young people and highlight the work that goes on within our youth service," she concludes.