For anyone interested in hearing about the outcome of the youth meeting held last week at Ventnor Community Projects Cafe we have a copy of the minutes (taken by Linda Pratley) available to read on the Blog.
Minutes of meeting held at Ventnor Community Projects Cafe on 12th April 2007 @ 3pm
Present:
1. Welcome
It was a pleasure to welcome 18 young people from Ventnor and Wroxall and 1 from Newport to a very noisy and constructive meeting.
2.Organisations Represented
Representatives attended from Ventnor Together, the Police, Wroxall Methodist Church.
3. What the youth want
1. The boys were adamant that their main requirements were 5-a-side football, both inside and outside. Ventnor Community Projects are hoping to progress with Friday night 5-a-side football at the Youth Centre, but Linda Gorman said that as yet they still have not found anyone to run it.
2. They would like a piece of land in Ventnor Town so that they could just go and kick a ball around without supervision.
3. They liked to use the top green at Salisbury Gardens but the residents were not happy with this and anyway the found it riddled with dog pooh.
4. Some of the boys would also like to play 5-a-side rugby.
5. All the youth would like to see the Youth Centre open more during the holidays – Linda Gorman said that it was all down to funding and if funds could be found she would be delighted to open the centre for some of the holidays. Ventnor Together agreed that they would look into this with some urgency.
6. It was suggested that perhaps 1-2 sessions at the youth centre could be for the younger children of Ventnor.
7. The Girls wanted a place to chill out and talk to their friends, they were all in favour of the Youth Cafe.
8. At first the boys were against the idea of a Youth Cafe, but as the meeting progressed they warmed to the idea and came up with their own thoughts of how it should be run.
9. The skateboard park was brought up, but there was little interest shown, one said he had “outgrown skateboarding”. They did say that they felt the location was not right and could it brought nearer the town. It was explained that there are no suitable sites in the town.
4. Youth Cafe
1. Only 1 young person was against the Youth Cafe. They were shown an outline plan of the cafe which was unanimously approved by the young people.
2. On being asked for their input as to what should be put in the cafe they came up with these ideas:-
+ Pool Table
+ Big Screen TV
+ Tennis Table
+ Music
+ Dance Mats
+ X-Box
+ Playstation
+ Pub Food
+ Pub drinks (non alcoholic cocktails)
+ Sofas
+ Cafe tables and Chairs
+ Weekend disco’s
+ Youth helping to serve and clear up
+ Live Music
+ Cheap drinks and snacks
3. Russell from the Gaiety thought if a flyer was made with these ideas he would provide a Box for the youth to number the ideas in importance. This was agreed.
4. A meeting will be held at the Gaiety in approx 3 weeks time to keep the youth in touch with progress of their ideas and talk through the results of the flyers.
It was agreed to ask the other Ventnor Community based projects if they would like to talk to the youth as this meeting.
5. Wroxall
1. It was a pleasure to welcome the Rev Nigel Rodgers from Wroxall Methodist Church who with 3 girls from Wroxall came to see what we wereup too as they have several ideas to help the youth of Wroxall.
2. Ventnor Together is to have a meeting with Jilly Wood, Nigel Rodgers and others from Wroxall to see how we can assist them with funding etc. for their projects.
3. Nigel reiterated that old frustration of finding volunteers for projects.
4. He is willing to open his church 1-2 nights a week to accommodate the Wroxall Youth and their projects.
5. The Wroxall girls listed this ideas that they would like to see in Wroxall.
+ Astroturf play area
+ Some where to chill out with their friends similar to the Youth Cafe with much of the items listed above.
+ A decent outside park for “older ” people with swings & roundabouts
4. Astroturf
Linda Gorman is looking to hire out the Rew Valley Astroturf for Tuesday and Thursday nights. She will need funding and volunteers to run this and some sort of transport arrangements. Again VT will help in any way the can.
5. Boxing
Pete Melville is talking to a member of the fire service who is keen to start a nightly Boxing Club at the rugby club – we asked to be kept informed.
6. Any Other Business
1. It was agreed that the kids should start fundraising for projects themselves:-
+ Linda Gorman came up with idea of a Car Washing Day which they all thought would be a great idea.
+ PCSO thought a sponsered beach clean would be fun and easy to arrange.
+ The youth were keen to set up sponsered matches (football, ruby, basketball) etc.
+ We will start to get these ideas in motion, but need we need to think of more ideas for them to do.
2. Doreen Elliott is keen to have games on Ventnor Beach during the summer evenings. We will have find out if VT insurance would cover such games. We will also need several volunteers to help out. Russell and Doreen will look into the logistics of holding such evenings although it was mentioned that this had been looked into last year and had been thought a non-starter.
3. Russell is looking to obtaining equipment to use on the beach during the summer.
4. Mark Compton Hall offered to help the youth write a letter to the Governors of St Boniface School requesting the use of the Astroturf after school hours. He will be at the Community Projects Cafe on Sunday and several boys said they would come and see him.
5. Russell put forward the idea of running “out of town” activities such as bowling, go-carting, ice skating etc. Linda Gorman thought this could be run in conjunction with the youth centre, but again would have to be with outside help.
6. Dorren suggested that the planners should be approached to see if it would be possible to get conditions attached to in-town developments such that some “ground floor” space should be provided for community use.
END
Thanks to Mark Compton-Hall for sending through the Minutes. Additional comments from him …
The voluntary sector in Ventnor is pro actively consulting with Youth, rather than continually assuming that adults know best.
There are still pockets of adults who do think they know best, but that resistance to change is quickly being whittled down.
The major drivers in the sector, Ventnor Youth Centre, Ventnor Community Projects and Ventnor Together are collaborating together to find ways to provide youth with what they want and need.
