NxtGen@Oasis - New Youth Programme Launched
Oasis Caring in Action have been running youth programmes from our base on Castlereagh Street since 2017, previously we delivered a Prince’s Trust programme, however since July 2024 we have been delivering our own bespoke programme. With the support of our new funder, the Henry Smith Charity, we have designed a new programme aimed at 16-25 year olds. Using direct feedback from the last 6 groups under our previous funder, we have focussed on the needs of local young people, whilst ensuring we do not recreate anything being offered locally by any of our neighbouring organisations or clubs. Our focus is on supporting those young people who are at the start of their journey after school, or who have been affected by the covid pandemic or perhaps suffer with mental health challenges, including depression, poor self-esteem or social anxiety.
Our aim is to build confidence, resilience and self-esteem, whilst focussing on improving mental wealth and building life skills. Using tried and tested personal development strategies we will work with the young people to help them set realistic goals and agree plans on how best to achieve these. Across the duration of the programme we will encourage our young people to take part in workshops and they will contribute to their local community by identifying a problem in the local area and then designing and delivering a solution e.g. it may include fund raising for a local charity or community organisation, or it could be helping to run an activity on behalf of a local charity. This social action element will be youth led, each group will identify, design and deliver their project benefitting their local community in some way with support from our experienced team at Oasis Caring In Action.
A number of 1-2-1 support sessions will be planned across the duration of delivery to ensure all of the YP are fully supported. This will enable us to identify additional needs, or to discuss progression ideas with the individuals to ensure they all achieve sustainable outcomes. We will utilise existing partnerships that we have built over the last 8 years as well as forging new opportunities across the city, for the benefit of the YP, to expose them to as many opportunities as possible. We will also host a number of visits from other youth organisations, employment programmes and community organisations, as well as utilising other training providers for the benefit of the groups. We have partnered with a local training provider to ensure every YP gains a useful nationally recognised qualification during the programme.
Our programme will evolve with the input of the young people to ensure we remain responsive to their unique needs. Over the last 8 years we have seen a surge in the numbers of YP with mental health challenges, including anxiety, poor self-esteem and a stark increase in those suffering from social anxiety, whilst at the same time lacking in basic life skills. Therefore we will include a number of workshops focussing on a number of life skills that are often taken for granted, for example travelling on public transport, dealing with banking issues, how to apply for a job/housing etc.
At the end of every programme we hold a celebration event to ensure the young people celebrate their successes and recognise their achievements, we will also have a number of adventure days throughout the programme to help build teamwork skills and improve their communication, whilst having some fun at the same time.
Each programme runs 4 days a week and lasts for 16 weeks, we run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10:00 until 15:00. Every Wednesday we operate a drop-in facility from 11:00 to 14:30 which allows for any young person looking for support, or interested in what we do to call in for an informal chat over a cuppa!
NxtGen is here, contact us for more information!
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