Welcome - if you live, work or go to school or college in Islington, you will find all you need to know about what you can do in the evenings, at weekends, or in the holidays.
Welcome to the Young People's Services guide. We hope that you will find provision that is of interest to you. To give you a flavour of what you can get involved in, here is a taster of some of the things we have to offer:
The Young People's Services aims to provide activities and programmes which are educational, challenging, empowering and fun. The service is very diverse, ranging from play centres, adventure playgrounds and play schemes to youth clubs, youth centres and specialist youth projects. There are over 150 groups registered with the service.
A feature of the service is its strong partnership with the voluntary sector, which manages just under half of the funded provision in the borough, as well as running a large number of clubs on a purely voluntary basis. There are 21 play centres operating after school in primary school buildings for the 5 to 11 age range. These run for 2.5 hours each night and have full day programmes in selected centres during the Easter and summer holidays, providing quality year round child care provision.
The borough funds 12 adventure playgrounds, 6 run by the voluntary sector including a specialised playground for children with disabilities. These are for young people aged 5-14 years, offering after school, weekend and holiday, and open access play provision.
Most youth clubs are managed by local people, targeting local young people. The larger youth projects will often have a more extensive programme on offer for a wider catchment area. These are open to young people aged from 11 - 18 years, offering evening, weekend and holiday provision.
There are also a number of youth projects targeting particular groups of young people who may not access mainstream provision. As well as outreach work from play and youth groups, there are detached projects, which do not have a club base, but which work in particular areas or estates with a remit or crime prevention or with particular ethnic minority groups including refugees.
There are a number of other specialised and unique facilities, activities and programmes that reflect the needs and interest of children and young people in the borough. These range from counselling projects to water sports and music projects.
In April 2003, the connexions service amalgamated with the play and youth service to become young peoples services. The connexions service provides support, advice and guidance to young people aged 13-19 years, giving particular priority to young people not in education, employment or training.
The service works closely with other council services, most notably in the estate security initiative and in projects on drugs education, homelessness, youth safety and crime prevention emphasising the need to work with children and young people both as victims and perpetrators of crime or anti-social behaviour.
You can phone the Young People's Services Office - just visit or telephone the club, centres, or project direct - many have answer phones, so you can leave a message. You can also just turn up - all children and young people are welcome, you don't have to book.
We hope you enjoy using our service, and if there is something you don't like or you experience problems to please let us know. You can contact general enquiries on: 020 7527 5641
Page Last Updated: 31 October 2008