City youth outreach is building young people’s confidence
15th March 2019
A SHEFFIELD charity supporting young people across the city is having a positive impact in building their self-confidence, a survey has found.
Forge Youth - a project of Network Church Sheffield - interviewed 70 service users, asking how their confidence levels had changed after engaging with its programmes over the past year.
The results showed after support from Forge Youth workers - and spending time with fellow young people in organised activities - the young people surveyed felt nine percent more confident in their day-to-day lives.
Forge Youth leader Sam Evans said the key has been listening to the young people and making them feel valued.
He told The Star: “We’re really pleased about the survey’s findings.
“We love Sheffield and we love Sheffield’s young people. And we want to see young people taking the opportunities to better their lives.
“This is really a credit to the team, for the volunteers and staff who give of themselves and their time.”
Forge Youth, based in the St Thomas Church Philadelphia campus, just off Infirmary Rd, works with over 550 young people aged seven to 18 in 10 different neighbourhoods in the city.
The neighbourhoods include: Arbourthorne, Burngreave, Crookesmoor, Crosspool, Firth Park, Parson Cross, Shiregreen, Nether Edge, Philadelphia and Oughtibridge.
A team of trained staff and volunteers organise youth and children’s clubs, school lunch clubs, sports clubs, in-school mentoring, and fun activities which enable young people to have a safe place to enjoy childhood.
One of the factors in youth culture Forge Youth aims to combat is social isolation.
Said Sam: “We have found that many young people aren’t really interacting outside of school or in the community and are instead spending 50 hours or more each week on screens and online.
“Also, using social media and the internet at night can impact on young people’s sleep - they’re not getting the rest that they need - which is affecting young people’s health and other areas of their lives.”
Forge Youth works with young people in goal-setting, making healthy choices to improve their lives and stepping into leadership amongst their peers.
In 2017, one young person at Forge Youth decided he wanted to take a group on a mission trip to Albania.
Leaders at Forge Youth “created an environment where that could happen - as one of our values is raising leaders,” said Sam.
“We said if you plan it, you get 10 people to go, and you fundraise and you get your parents to reach out to the NGO we can go to Albania.
“And the young people did all of that work - and went to Albania to help the NGO. It was fantastic.”
