Northumberland Youth Service

The youth service works with young people aged 13 – 19 and up to 25 years for those with additional needs.

Youth work offers young people opportunities of various kinds in their leisure time that complement those they have in their home life, school, college and work.

Youth Service activities during Covid:

The Youth Service continues to operate during Covid restrictions:

Detached youth workers are out in local communities on weekday evenings,
One to one support continues for young people,
Participation groups are running virtually and online,
Advocacy service is still able to provide 1:1 advocacy support.

All Youth Service activity during Covid is delivered in line with the National Youth Agency guidelines. The NYA guidance can be viewed here.

For the latest updates, you can view our social media channels.

About the youth service

Youth work aims to help young people discover and develop their personal resources of body, mind and spirit. It helps young people to live a more creative and responsible life as part of a free society.

Activities are designed around you so that they are often challenging but always enjoyable.

How the youth service works

Northumberland Youth Service carries out three different types of youth work. These are preventative, early help, and participation work. Please read more about these below.

Prevention
This strand of youth work is most often seen as traditional youth work. It includes running and providing support for a range of youth club settings. This may be through direct delivery, a partnership arrangement with a voluntary sector partner, or some other form of support (such as training or funding). We carry out this work in areas of high need, as decided by a range of key indicators.

It also includes working with the voluntary sector and local communities to develop sustainable projects.

Specialist Youth Support / Early Help
This strand of delivers specialist support to young people as well as carrying out return home conversations with young people who go missing. This work is closely related to our preventative work. For example, both types of youth work look at developing relationships with young people, to help challenge, stretch and educate them. Young people are then more likely to make healthy, informed decisions about their life.

We may support these young people:

on a one to one basis
by encouraging access to existing youth sessions
by referring them to other agencies, as appropriate

Participation
Click the links to find out more. Youth work of this kind includes:

coordinating a wide range of democratic processes, such as Youth Parliament and Youth Cabinet
active involvement in Local Democracy week and the Make Your Mark ballot
a coherent advocacy strategy that will ensure effective representation and opportunity for vulnerable groups - this is delivered independently and important when a young person feels their voice is not being heard
coordinating groups such as Respect Equals Change (REC), a group dedicated to young people with disabilities
coordinating groups such as Voices Making Choices (VMC), a service that brings young people in care of the local authority together.
involvement in various consultation processes - for example, recent work with young people that has been contributed to Northumberland County Council’s Children and Young People’s plan.

Latest news

You can follow the work of the youth service, including its activities, programmes and news by visiting the social media pages at the links below:

SEND local offer

Click here to find out how we support children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) aged 0 - 25.

Contact us

Main office: Northumberland Youth Service, Northumberland County Council, Northumbria House, Manor Walks, Cramlington, NE23 6UR
Telephone: 01670 536400
Email: youthservice@northumberland.gov.uk

Click here to view our Youth Service Privacy Notice. This document explains why we ask for your personal information, how that information will be used and how you can access your records.

Click here to view our Facebook acceptable use information.

Every year we create a Report for the organisations that work with children and young people to tell communities in Northumberland what we have done to keep you safe.

This year we have written a version for children and young people too.

This is our report for the year between September 2020 and August 2021.

Click here to read the Children and Young People's Safeguarding Annual Report 2020/21

See below for details of the Northumberland 'Stay at Home' Challenge.

Click here to download the Northumberland 'Stay at Home' Challenge booklet.

This page outlines the key topics and projects Northumberland Youth Service have worked on or been involved in. Professionals and young people may find these resources helpful.

Please click on the boxes below to find out more.

Ban the Can was a campaign by young people to raise awareness of the impact of energy drinks.

Click here to view the Ban the Can Poster (PDF)

Young people from Northumberland's Youth Cabinet and Parliament have worked with Healthwatch Northumberland to create this resource with key contacts for Mental Health support.

Click here to view the key contacts for Mental Health card (PDF)

#ItCouldHappenToMe campaign

Northumberland Youth Service have generated a campaign aimed at young people to help raise awareness, improve knowledge and give greater understanding of Child Sexual Exploitation.

Developed as a partnership throughout Northumberland County Council, the #ItCouldHappenToMe campaign includes resources that provide information about reocgnising child exploitation and what to do if you think it is happening to you or someone you know. Resources include:

posters
wallet cards
wristbands
leaflets
online resources

The campaign has been developed by a group of young people and is aimed at young people, to help them understand that child exploitation can happen to anyone.

The campaign gives young people the tools to help recognise the difference between a healthy or unhealthy relationship, along with providing information about what to do if you need further advice or help.

A number of resources were created to support the campaign. Click on the links below to access them:

There are also image cards that show positive and negative behaviours in a relationship. Click on the links below to view them:

Here you can find information about New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), previously known as legal highs. Please explore the links below:

Here you can find useful tips for staying safe online. Click on the links below for more information:

These are resources created in partnership with young people to raise awareness of taking selfies and how to stay safe online when doing so. Click on the links below to find out more:

Young people worked with us to create this short guide to young people and the law.

Click here to view our Young People and the Law Leaflet (PDF)

Click here to let us know if you found the content of the page helpful

Alerts

Northumberland Youth Service

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