2024-03-31-annual-report

Organisation

Name John Paul II Youth Club Email: [e-mail] Address, 28 Brookfield Place BT14 7FN Tel: [phone]

Contents

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Management Committee

Meet the Staff Team.

Forward from Chairperson.

Senior Youth Workers Report

Current Methodologies Overview of 2023 -2024 Areas for development or improvement

JOHN PAUL II YOUTH CLUB

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Management Committee

Owen Maguire MBE Danny Burns Tara Mc Cleary

Chairperson

Vice Chair Secretary

Caoimhin Osborne Elaine Mc Loughlin Jim MC Guinness Deidre Murphy Sarah Fiona Nolan

Maddison MC Cullough

Nichola Mallon Connor Keenan

Treasurer

Officer/Subcommittee staff issues Officer/Subcommittee staff issues Officer/subcommittee staff issues Officer Officer Officer Staff Representative

Jacqualine Maguire

Senior Youth Worker

Independent Examiner Seamus Dawson Chartered Accountant Bridge Chartered Accountant Unit G Forestview Office Park Purdy’s Lane Belfast BT8 7AR

Tel: [phone]

Email: [e-mail] www.bridgeaccountancy.co

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Meet the Staff Team

Jacqualine Maguire Senior Youth Worker Erin Osborne Administrator Jim Mc Guinness Caretaker Connor Keenan Rank Aspire Youth Worker TJ Barclay Cory Mc Conville Erin Osborne Colleen Begley Megan Madden Eimear Rice Ronan Fitzpatrick Brianna Molloy Job Start NI

Rank Aspire Youth Worker Part time Youth Worker staff Part time Youth Worker staff Part time Youth Worker staff Part time Youth Worker staff Part time Youth Worker staff Part time Youth Worker staff Part time Youth Worker staff Job Start NI

Youth Committee

Kalum Murphy Leon Maguire Alexi Keenan Cadhla Flannery Fainne Frame

Macie Friel Orlaith Lagan Meghan Turley Naomi Parks Kayla Mailey

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Chairperson Forward

The values of John Paul II Youth Club are the foundation on which youth work is based within the Ardoyne Community. Our young people are valued human beings with a positive contribution to enhance a positive outlook of their local community, and the society of the people of Northern Ireland.

The Youth Club contributes to growth and development of the young people’s social and life skills in a safe erudition environment where they can be responsible and make decisions on their own lifestyles based on sound information and support, they have received from their mentors in the youth club.

Whilst participating in the life of the John Paul II Youth Club our young people are giving the opportunity to take risks on their value base, challenge their opinions and explore their own value base without judgment or put down.

Our values are:

• The core value of all youth work is the voluntary participation of the young person in the life processes of that scenario. The young people who attend the John Paul II Youth Club do so voluntary and of their own free will and participate based on a quality relationship of their mentors and effective services on offer to them.

• The youth club mentors offer a safe and secure environment for our young people to undergo a learning process to explore their beliefs and challenge others or be challenged. The youth club provide a non-aggressive and violence free Centre where young people of varying abilities and social skills can feel free to participate and attend without been traumatised.

• The young people are offered facilities regardless of their background, skills & abilities, race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or political views.

• All the young people are treated with respect and are valued equally as confident human beings with a positive contribution to make to society.

• We encourage all young people to be part of their community and help them identify and take on a role that would help them in developing their own community for the safety of others and the development of a civically responsible society.

· The objectives of the club are laid out in the Delivery Plan more precisely, but an overview would highlight the following issues:

• Healthy and wellbeing.

• Learning and achieving.

• Living in Safety and Stability

• Inclusion Diversity Equality of Opportunity and Good Relations

• Participation Structures

• Environment and Climate

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Senior Youth Worker report

John Paul II Youth Club (JPIIYC) offers youth provision to the children and young people of Ardoyne and neighbouring area to ensuring that all local children and their families had access to a diverse, high quality and affordable range of social, recreational, cultural, and educational activities and facilities. With a strong membership of over 320. The staffing breakdown is one professionally qualified senior youth worker, 1 youth worker on placement from Rank Aspire programme, 8 part time staff and 5 volunteers aged 18+

Current Methodology

JPIIYC employs a holistic person-centred approach which helps us to design, deliver and implement suitable programs for the young people who attend the centre. We ensure that a sizable proportion of our young people have access to a diverse, high quality and affordable range of social, recreational, cultural, and educational activities and facilities. We are committed to providing our young people with a fun, safe, stimulating environment to help. them access learning and life opportunities. We promote the positive in our young people by working to enhance their personal awareness levels and by understanding their strengths and capabilities. We encourage our young people to enhance their personal skills, levels of motivation and general resilience levels, and we help them to develop the ability to interact with other young people and adults in a non-threatening and non-judgmental environment.

Regular Management Committee ensured that all policies and procedures are implemented, and action plans are being delivered for the betterment of the young people.

Improvements Made:

There have been great strides made with staff and young people being involved in the strategic vision of JPIIYC which has been achieved via staff training and the Quality Assurance action plan. This has been achieved particularly in staff trainings, stakeholders’ consultations, young people, surveys, baselines and measuring progression. The organisation has also undoubtedly developed with a clearer vision shared amongst young people, staff, parents, and other stakeholders. Values are very much now incorporated into all forms of practice with inclusivity. Because of this, our membership is a lot more diverse and young people who may not have been comfortable in becoming a member are now attending the centre. Developing youth work practice has been a continual process within the centre and we as a team strive to offer the best provision possible for young people while co design programmes. Some examples of these are within each group work folder all facilitators complete a needs analysis on each group, quarterly surveys/consultations with young people to ensure we are aware of needs of young people, facilitation of junior/senior youth committees to provide platform for young people to lead/inform our practice and action plans created based on considering all relevant aspects of our work.

Collaborating with parents further to ensure more stakeholder engagement, planned wrap around approaches and encouraging shared resources among the community and the service is a priority we must improve moving forward.

JPIIYC, have a strong ethos of youth participation, promoting and encouraging cooperation and respect among young people within the youth club. We actively promote positivity in

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

our young people through enhanced personal awareness while supporting them to understand their own strengths and capabilities.

Through our Core provision, we ensure that we make available a safe and a supportive haven and are committed to providing a fun, safe, non-threatening environment. However, we feel that we have challenged our stakeholders to become proactive and take a few more risks and challenges them outside their comfort zones.

By encouraging this atmosphere, we enable young people to develop the ability to interact with other young people and adults, become more confident and help them access learning and life opportunities.

We engage our young people in the 4 stage Youth Participation and involvement model ‘Making Contact, Active Participation, Involvement, and responsibility and Taking the lead’. This model is embedded throughout our service delivery and young people can opt in and out of it when they need to, this process is transparent and successful with our members.

Our youth committee our very motivated and offer various levels of volunteering in the youth club. To encourage active participation the youth committee participated in a residential where the theme was Personal Reflection, where the youth committee explored.

• Club reflection – Each participant provided their peers with a journey of their experience in the youth club highlighting personal memories to serve as a tool for a reminder of their love for the club.

• Personal Journeys – Similarly to the club reflection exercise, staff and youth committee and volunteers engaged in a life maps exercise. a platform in place to share as much as they felt comfortable with to their peers and to create a real team environment. This has increased the youth committee’s performance and reinforced their role within the youth club and has seen greater participation levels.

Over the past twelve months we have focused on improving co designing programmes with our young people this has increased

• Meeting the young people needs

• Creating additional ways off delivering programmes/workshops

• More young people contributing and more involvement in programmes.

• Young people and workers dialogue regarding the progress of their programmes/workshops.

• Workers supporting young people as they put their plans into practice, but not taking the lead.

• Young people reflecting on what they have learnt even if the outcome wasn’t perfect.

• Young people beginning to recognise their own strengths and weaknesses.

• Young people developing a more confident attitude towards new challenges.

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Overview of 2022- 2023

Core Provision

JPIIYC has had a successful year of delivery, which involved multiple projects we also offering drop-in, group work, outreach/detached, mentoring.

We delivered 6-evening session of core provision for young people under 18 years old, over 48 weeks in 2023-2024, with an average of 70 young people attending per night. There was a wide range of activities, workshops, programmes, residential on offer for the young people to engage in, and were available to all young people, different ages and abilities were catered for.

Over the past 12 month we have delivered over 29 Programmes and Project

3, Participative Structures

10, Health and Wellbeing

5, Living in Safety and Stability

• 5, Learning and achievement

• 3, Environment and Climate

3, Inclusion Diversity Equality of Opportunity and Good Relations

With an overall satisfactory rate of 80%

Summer Programme

We delivered a five-week, summer programme, 4-afternoon a week in July and August for children aged 7 – 11, where all children and young people were provided with a lunch/snack to address summer hungry,

270 engaged daily and completed the five-week scheme.

270 where provide lunches/snacks daily.

We were also opened 4 evening a week for the 10- 18-year-old, over the summer where we offer our members the opportunities to participate new experience.

Synopsis Of Parent Comments: Survey monkey summer programme 23

This was the first time my daughter has ever went to a youth club. She absolutely loved it and will be back next year. Thanks for everything. 23/08/2022 17:34

Very good summer scheme my son has absolutely loved it 23/08/2022 13:28 Amazing staff. My son loves to attend 23/08/2022 00:45

Amazing staff 22/08/2022 20:48 Amazing youth club with a great management.

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

22/08/2022 20:47

I'm very thankful for the staff who have organised and entertained my daughter throughout the summer scheme. She is normally quite withdrawn and finds it hard to socialise but now gets up every morning excited to go round and enjoy the activities and see the friends she has made. They've done a great job. Thank you

22/08/2022 20:36

Another great summer scheme again this year.

22/08/2022 20:35

Thought it was alot better in previous years was very disappointed this year shorter hours and trips to parks mostly no t-shirts given this year either having to stay off while others went on trips too wasn't what I expected when I paid 36.00 for 3 of my kids to attend snacks was very poor compared to previous years too I'd of like to have known beforehand that they would only be going for 4 days instead of 5 before joining I do like the club and I think maybe they were just short staffed this year but wasn't very long for the younger kids who don't have much to do the rest of the year other summer schemes where July to aug

22/08/2022 20:52

88.46% satisfaction fact

Outreach

We delivered outreach in Ardoyne 1,2,3 which increase our membership and the number of children and young people involved in youth provision in Ardoyne.

Annual Celebration night

125 young people attended over two evenings. 91 young people celebrated their achievement throughout the year.

11 young people were recognized for their role in the Youth committee.

Working in partnership with the EA to ensure the needs of the young people are met.

3 Young people engaging with North Belfast Resource Centre (NBRC) Staff and enrolled in Youth Work in Community (YWIC) we presently have senior members in 1st year 2nd year and volunteers.

5 Young people engaging with North Belfast Resource (NBRC)Centre Staff and enrolled in Youth Work in Community (YWIC)

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Participation Structures: Youth Committee

“Summer gives back ”. The Youth Committee (14-18) volunteered throughout the summer in the summer programme. They shadowed staff and participated in all activities. They young people also help to make and serve lunch to the junior members.

Peer Buddies “Generic Project”

The Peer Buddies volunteered two mornings a week to help in generic provision, where they encourage the children to participate in activities. Overall, the young people were a credit to the youth club and their presence and maturity was complimented by parents when collecting their children.

All young people participated in

• Peer Leadership Awareness,

• Health and safety awareness

• Art and craft/ice breaker Awareness

Because Room

Over the past number of months as an ongoing project, the youth committee (YC) has been working towards enhancing our nurture space/ safe space within the club. The YC had a budget where they continuously add to the Because Room to keep it updated and free from broken materials and to with the young people in the club to maintain the space and

taking into consideration the calming aspects of other nurture / sensory area. The groups using the Because Room have learned how assorted colours, smells,

textures, and visuals can affect on your mood and the importance of different sensory inputs, the young people find when in this area the stresses and pressures faced by themselves & their peers are reduced.

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

“Let’s eat together (LETS)“

To address food hungry and encourage our members to speak out if they are hungry, ever evening a member of staff and a few young people will make snack for all the club members in that night, this can be anything from chocolate toast, French toast, pizza , noddle depending on the age group who are cooking, and we all stop what we are doing and have something to eat. We had found young people were ask for food to be made and then not eating it when it has been cooked, so it was agreed to add “ let’s eat together “to our programme where everyone can eat together and not feel it is target at them. We have got to the point now the young people are asking who is cooking or what been made that night.

Our 1st girls Group

The Young Women's group ran over the course of six weeks, looking at several topics, including vaping and alcohol and how to stay safe when out on your own and with your friends. The girls really enjoy this programme. The girls targeted for this programme had not taken part in group work before they thoroughly enjoyed the group. The girls organised a trip to the beach where they light and fire and did self-awareness exercises. The young women feel they have a better understanding of healthy relationships, a greater respect for difference and themselves and can now think about make healthy choices.

“Let’s get Active. Girls”

The girls participated in 6 weeks “Let’s get Active” programme. Where they did taster sessions in different sports and enjoyed health treats. Some of the girls have gone on to join a Gaelic team, we now promoting Gaelic sports within the centre. How the young girl’s gym times is split into different games and sport. The girls also joined a Health and wellbeing evening organised by the Belfast City Councils in Lillian Bland Park in Glengormley in August

JPIIYC Areas for Development or Improvement

• Increased response to transient youth related issues

• Increase resources for outreach/detached in North

• Belfast

• Improve understanding and responses to young

• people’s “acting out” behaviour

• Increase our volunteer pool

• To encourage more young people to participate in OCN

• and complete them

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Drop-in survey March 24

Researched Sean Maxwell:1st Year Community Youth Worker Student

Within the John Paul II youth club, I created a survey designed for the young people of the Centre, the survey was created to gather information on what young people would like to see implemented into their nightly drop in and what they currently enjoy within drop in. The young people that answered the survey were ages between 8-15 and were a mix of male and female.

The first question was why you like coming to the youth Centre, the answers that the young people gave that we similar in this question were that the youth Centre is a fun place and they like having somewhere to interact with their friends and make new friends also young people expressed that they like engaging with staff. The responses that stood out were that young people found that they like coming to the Centre as it keeps them off the streets and they like coming as there is food provided in the Centre.

Planned Improvements .

Area for improvement	1 to 1 support for young people
Actions required	Creating spaces, slots, and support for young people with additional needs and supports
Expected change/outcome	• Creating a space where this can happen. • Finding sources of funding to help pay staff so they are not doing it during club sessions (too busy) • Creating a culture where young people in the centre know they can seek additional support therefore reduce self-harm and trauma in families. • Work with young people to take themselves more seriously
Time frame	• 6-9 months
Who is responsible for the actions	• SYW,MC,Other Partners
Measurement of success	• Completion of staff training • Increased signposting • Develop relationships with other partners. • Improve service for young people.

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748

Conclusion

I have implemented to the best of my ability the Management Committees ethos, strategies, aims and objectives, which is in accordance with the EA Core Curriculum the model for Effective Practices

As the main aim of the youth club is to offer a safe haven where children and young people can have fun, excitement, choices, sharing, new experiences, and challenge. Another important factor we strive to encourage at the youth club is that the young people have a say in what they would like to do. It is imperative that young people have a positive role in the design and delivery of a programme of positive social interaction that meet their needs and the needs of their peers. It was also our intention to provide personal development projects, which all young people could participate in. These projects would last for four weeks to ten months. Young people would have the opportunity to choose which projects they thought suitable to them.

John Paul II Youth Club Annual Report 23-24 Charity Number NIC 106748