Oh no… 2 breakfasts!

As part of my course in youthwork at ICC, I have to do a placement this term in a secular youth work agency.  In my search for a placement, I asked 10+ youth centres/agencies in Wester Hailes and the surrounding parts of Edinburgh.  All of the centres I asked in Wester Hailes said no, either because they couldn’t find enough work for me to do (which I find amazing to believe, from living in Wester Hailes myself), or because they’re currently going through staff re-structuring (which seems strangely common, since this wasn’t the reason given by just one agency).  It seems that despite the huge amount of youth work needed in Wester Hailes, there either isn’t enough funding for the places that exist - which limits their capacity,  or the world of secular youth/community work is an ever-changing environment with constant restructuring in terms of either funding, staff, or facilities.  I find this fairly ironic, since one of the biggest needs of the young people of Wester Hailes is stability and a sense of continuity in terms of the people in their lives.  If there is constant restructuring going on in the world of secular youth work, how can these young people possibly hope to develop a stable, long-term relationship with adults who care about them (which is one of the things they need most at this key period of their personal development)?

Anyway, that wasn’t the point I was going to make.  For my placement, I finally found Granton Youth Centre. It’s half an hour’s drive (in good traffic) across the other side of Edinburgh, but I’ve spent 2 days there and what I’ve seen has been brilliant!  To say that Granton is a deprived part of the world is an understatement (if also a little non-PC these days.  Apparently people don’t like to use the word “deprived” any more in this sense).  However, the work of Granton Youth Centre  (GYC) that I’ve seen so far is a shining light in what is mainly a very dark world for the young people of Granton.  I volunteer with them as my placement on Thursday mornings, from 7-8:30am helping with their P7-S1 breakfast club (yes, 7am which – for those of you who haven’t made the connection – means being out of the house by 6:30am at the latest), and then from 9:30am-12 helping in their EmployAbility Unit for 16+ ages.

They hire a bus from a local community project every weekday morning, and drive around Granton picking up a selection of 10-12 yr olds who have been referred to them by the local school.  These are some of the most vulnerable young people in the school – those who are potentially the most prone to bullying, etc.  The staff and volunteers at GYC commit to picking them up every schoolday at 7am, bringing them into the centre where they provide them with breakfast, and also with a toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant, spend some time building positive relationships with them (which builds their self-confidence and self-esteem), and drop them off at school on time.  It’s actually such a small thing, and an easy thing to do (once you’re used to the early mornings!) but I can’t begin to imagine the benefit it is having in the lives of these young people.

Then the rest of the morning at GYC is spent dedicated to young people age 16+ helping them in the most practical ways.  They hold workshops on money management, creating a CV, finding vocations that match their personalities and abilities, among other things.  Some of the young people they get coming regularly to these workshops have left school with no qualifications and face a future of unemployment and a real possibility of homelessness.  But the staff at GYC help to train, advise and encourage these young people to make their own way out of this situation, into jobs and relative financial security, whilst building relationships and having fun in the process.

The advantage for me volunteering at both of these sessions on a Thursday morning, apart from seeing the amazing work that’s done at GYC and learning from the staff there, is that both of these sessions start by providing breakfast for the young people that come in.

…bonus!