New Avenues Youth and Community Project > Projects Overview

New Avenues > Projects

A fashion day at New Avenues

Overview

New Avenues Youth and Community Project has an holistic approach to youth and community work. Our experienced and dedicated workers maintain a relationship with families, schools, police and other agencies. Through these relationships we can identify and help those individuals and families who need us most. It is the people who do not readily access mainstream organizations for reasons such as language, exclusion, physical barriers or caring responsibilities that we aim to target.

Although some of the regular youth projects and community advice work take place at the project office and at Christchurch Gardens Youth and Community Center, the bulk of our work is undertaken as outreach work in homes, schools, hospitals, DSS, police stations, local estates and leisure facilities.

A priority area for our project during the next few years will be to focus on integrating the local Bangladeshi and Somali communities. By 2005/6 we aim to have integrated all of our youth work projects and be targeting those individuals who cause most racial violence and intimidation on local estates. This is a challenging area in which to work but previous mixed race activities such as the youth forum and a mixed boys camp have shown that it is possible and that we have established foundations on which to build.

Ongoing projects

The Iftin Project — Currently this is a project for local Somali children, young people and their families. We organize events and activities at Christchurch Gardens Youth and Community Center (opposite the Spitalfields Market). During the school holidays we run a program of activities, outings and residential holidays.
The Youth Forum — The youth forum is an exciting opportunity for the young people who use our project to have more say in how it is run for them. It is also a platform for young people to discuss issues relevant to them and to help make changes in the community.
The Bangladesh Women and Girls Project — A priority area of our work has been with women. We run several programs for women including; an after school session twice a week for teenagers, a summer holiday program, a young/single mothers support group one morning per week, an older women's group on evening a week as well as a women's health and fitness group that includes swimming and gym trips and health information sessions.
The Gardening Project — The gardening takes place between March and September in Christchurch Gardens Youth and Community Center and is an opportunity for local women to access outdoor space and take part in light exercise as well as grow healthy food for their families. During the winter months the women take part in craft activities indoors.
Youth Work — In addition to the evening sessions for young women we run two evening sessions a week for teenage boys. During the school holidays we arrange events and activities including a residential holiday. We also carry out peer leadership schemes and some training for young people interested in volunteering or becoming peer leaders. We carry out appropriate adult work with young offenders and can intercede on behalf of young people in conflicts with their parents and schools.
The Boundary Project — The Boundary Project aims to work with children who have behavioral problems, learning difficulties and mild disability, and their families. This work targets children who need extra support through the difficult transition between primary and secondary schools. We target children who are being bullied or who would benefit from extra support in a positive social environment.
Community Support — We now employ two part time community support workers from the Bangladeshi and Somali communities. These workers carry out home visits and outreach work with clients and hold drop in sessions. This type of work is in great demand from the local community and our workers see a wide range of cases. Most clients can be referred to other agencies but many have complex problems that need time and patience to work through.