Youth Work at Forefront of New Campus

Youth work will be at the forefront of the new Drumgeith Community Campus when it opens in August.

Dundee City Council’s Communities Service is planning the delivery of activities at the campus.

Children, Families and Communities convener Councillor Stewart Hunter said: “I am pleased to see that Drumgeith Community Campus will offer a wide range of activities for young people alongside programmes to give them new skills and opportunities.

“This is a very exciting time for the whole community, and I would like to thank all of our Communities Service team who are working hard to prepare for the opening.”

Learning programmes that will be taken forward from current work and delivered from the new campus include:

Primary 7 Supported Transition Work

The service delivers P7 evening drop ins, P7 targeted groups, Healthy Transitions deliveries and supported transition holiday programmes to large numbers of young people.

The indoor & outdoor facilities at the new campus will enable the service to bring together all those requiring additional support over holiday periods from the 6 cluster primaries.

S1-S3 Skills Development provides learning programmes for young people who have low school attendance or face barriers to learning.

Since January groups have been a mix of young people from Braeview Academy and Craigie High School to support them to build positive relationships with one another.

Several Skills Development programmes have been delivered in partnership with staff from both Craigie & Braeview, and the Communities service will continue to build on these partnerships at the new facilities at Greenfield Academy.

Senior Phase Skills Development programmes help young people explore their potential and support their transition into adulthood.

The Skills for Life & Work programme has developed links with Robertson Construction to provide a Skills Academy. Young people thoroughly enjoyed the experience working with the different trades on site at the campus, which has given them possible future career options to consider.

Evening Youth Work Programmes provide safe spaces where young people are supported to develop personal and social skills while engaged in pro-social activities.

In August, Thursday and Friday night football drop-ins around the area will be moved to the new pitch facilities at the campus, where capacity can be increased. The youth work team have already started this transition by bringing young people from separate sessions together.

Gregor Lesslie, Community Learning and Development Worker, explained that anticipation is building ahead of the campus opening in August. He said: “I think it is very important for the community to have this.

“We need somewhere safe for the young people to go on a Thursday and Friday night. With the two schools coming together it will be really busy. It’ll be quite something and I’m looking forward to us using this brand new facility.”

Developing Young Leaders where young people are supported to take on responsible roles and become positive role models within their communities

The Communities Service has been working in partnership with Dundee FC Community Trust to deliver the I Can Lead sports leadership programme. Young people are really looking forward to using their new skills as young volunteers on Thursday & Friday evenings at the new campus.

Youth Work staff will continue to deliver a young sports leaders and volunteer programme in the new term as part of the school day. This involves training young people in skills to deliver football and other sports programmes in the evening at the new campus.

This year's Positive Minds peer led Mental Health & Wellbeing programme are taking the lead to deliver relationship building sessions to the 320 new first years during transition days.

The Columba 1400 Value Based Leadership Experience involved Braeview and Craigie young people on a place-based leadership residential.

This is helping them take the lead on delivering a programme of activities to support young people with the transition to the new Greenfield Academy. Youth workers have been meeting this group weekly to support them.