Haverfordwest Youth Club reopened on 11th May after a long period of online or outdoor only sessions during the pandemic.
The club is run by Hannah White, the Community Youth Worker for Haverfordwest area, alongside other youth team members. Hannah says the return of the club, based at 2 Old Bridge in Haverfordwest, at the car park side of the Wilkinson’s building, is long awaited by many of its members.
“So many of the young people have missed coming to the youth group. They’ve been asking when is it back on.”
Due to Covid 19 restrictions the youth club had to move online and Hannah notes that this was difficult for some people.
“Not everyone has access to the facilities to join our online youth club. Those that did were doing school work online all day and then came to join us, they deserve credit for that.”
While the youth group activities were postponed, members took part in online sessions, learning new skills through cooking projects such as pizza making and creative projects such as tie-dye workshops. Kits were provided to the young people involved and over 20 kits were delivered for the tie-dye project.
It proved challenging to provided entertainment and informative sessions for the young people who were inundated with screen time for school and other uses.
Hannah says
“We wanted to engage them in a different way, as many weren’t attending once we went online, so we did the Ready Steady Cook challenge.”
Haverfordwest Youth Club teamed up with Fishguard Youth Club, and members went head-to-head in Ready Steady Cook inspired challenges.
Hannah says, referring to the staff who run the Fishguard youth group in North Pembrokeshire.
“We regularly work together to create activities for the Haverfordwest and Fishguard Youth Groups.”
Hannah has been the Community Youth Worker for Haverfordwest area for 18 months and her role involves running the Haverfordwest Group, supporting young people, and helping them achieve their desired goals. Previously, she completed a degree in Social Studies, focusing on communities, families and individuals. She says
“I have always been passionate about working with and helping young people, in giving them a voice.”
Prior to her role as the Haverfordwest Community Youth Worker, Hannah worked as a behavioural therapist, providing personalised packages for children and young people in their homes.
“I worked with people with additional needs, such as autism and behavioural problems, providing personalised packages for young people. One young person could need help with speech therapy, while another needed help with learning through home schooling. I’ve always wanted to work with young people and children, to give young people equal opportunities and to help disadvantaged young people.”
Hannah’s passion for her work and the young people she supports is clear. As someone who attended a youth club herself when she was younger, she believes it is invaluable for the people who come there.
“For the young people coming to the youth group it’s their safe space, a place to be themselves. They know the youth workers and feel they can trust them.”
She is keen to recognise the importance of the youth club leaders being approachable and listening to what the young people want.
“We’re young people led. We hold consultations to ask what the young people want and, if we can, we will add in those activities or programmes. We cover life skills, culture, cooking…. They often ask for cooking. We hold the consultations because it’s their youth club not ours.”
Some suggestions might be off the table though. Hannah adds.
“We had a request for a youth club dog”
Although this emphasises the warmth and comfortability with which the group functions, it almost seems family like. This close connection between people is something Hannah elaborates on, emphasising the role of the club in encouraging people to mix in different circles
“I think one thing that I’ve noticed and that is really important is that we see different groups mixing. People that may not talk to each other in a school setting. There is no judgement and I’m lucky to work with such a nice group of young people. They make friends with each other and we are all very close. It’s really nice to watch those friendships form.”
Due to Covid 19 restrictions easing in the summer, the youth group were able to meet outdoors and take part in a programme of activities for 3 days a week over the 6-week holiday. This included surfing, coasteering and other water activities with 64 young people attending. Hannah notes that young people can get involved not just by joining the group but also by being referred through social services.
One project that the community really took to, was the activity that the youth group took part in to support World Mental Health day on 10th October 2020. Members of the youth group wrote messages on colourful sticky notes and displayed them around the town for members of the community to see. Hannah is proud of this project
“We felt people needed a little lift and this was something we could do to raise awareness for world mental health day. We had 163 positive notes in the end and this went down really well.”
During mental health awareness week (10th – 16h May) Hannah proposes to present an idea which will take their commitment to supporting mental health challenges even further. She says,
“At Christmas 2020 Haverfordwest Youth group teamed up with Haverfordwest AFC and provided essential care packages to disadvantaged families. I would like to be able to do something similar for vulnerable young people, particularly as we are currently in mental health awareness week, providing them with wellness packages.”
Previous consultations with youth group members have also proved fruitful with many ideas coming forward that Hannah would like to implement in future. For example, young people meeting with older generations for afternoon tea or for them to write letters to them to keep the connection of the generations.
In terms of the future plans for Haverfordwest Youth Club, Hannah says she would like to see a return to a near-normal soon.
“In future we would love to be able to be able to welcome new members to the group, to be allowed to have more than 12 young people and 3 members of staff in the building. There are lots of projects that we want to do.”
The group began its first week of reopening with a consultation for the young members, followed by focus on getting outdoors with a walk around the new Bridge meadow route, to recognise mental health awareness week and nature being chosen as the theme for 2021. This also allowed them to welcome larger numbers to the group.
Haverfordwest Youth Club is open 3 nights a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings 6-8pm. The Youth Club is free to attend and in the school holidays they also provide activities for young people aged 11-25 years. Find out more about Haverfordwest Youth Club here.
