Sk8side- a youth service and young people centre in Ashford.
Sk8side Youth Centre in Ashford is a free service for young people and provides them with an empowering and nurturing environment where they can develop as individuals and gain all the skills they need as they go into young adulthood.
Their goals are to shape the way they live their lives and teach them the fundamentals of social responsibility, healthy living and cultural acceptance.
Based near the station and opposite the skatepark, they are a crucial part of the community offering both an ear to listen, a place to learn new skills and learn to lead on projects which will in turn develop their confidence as they go into early adulthood. The centre gets a lot of walk-ins from youths looking for a drink or snack through to buying a new skateboard from the youth run skate shop.
Lock down has been tough for young people and we worked hard throughout to help them where possible.
Their story:
“Working with youths is a process starting with just casually saying hello, kids can come by and use the centre to come in and get a drink, tuck shop, skate shop run by young people, get a drink etc and then if they keep coming in they start asking them questions, ask their interests, what the Homelife is like to engage young people with activities they enjoy doing” says Jono who runs the Skating programmes as well as social media and other projects for the centre.
More intensive youth work is support services, counselling or perhaps having to make a referral to a young persons service.
It is important to make those connections early, empowering young people through the projects that we deliver.
”Lockdown was tough” says Jono- he runs the skate park projects so for him lockdown was difficult because he couldn’t physically do the projects he normally would.
Over lockdown the team held regular zoom calls, mini projects and the centre was open towards the end of lockdown to sit outside in case anyone wanted to talk.
They started a Fortnite Club online which went really well and they may continue running it as parents want to know their kids are gaming in a safe environment.
Jono also wrote blogs regarding skate park and relating it back to mental health organisations young people should check out to make sure it was relevant to them and caught the people in need.
“Working with youths is a process starting with just casually saying hello, kids can come by and use the centre to come in and get a drink, tuck shop, skate shop run by young people, get a drink etc and then if they keep coming in they start asking them questions, ask their interests”
How can you support them:
You can support Sk8side by checking out their social media and sharing their posts or by coming on down if you live nearby.
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