The Youth Affairs Unit was created and developed by young people, after Portsmouth Youth Council ended in 2004. Old members of the council wanted to create a more flexible and creative project for young people in the city, which would enable them to have a say, and be involved in activities and projects which helped them to express themselves. Staff worked closely for 6 months with the group to put these ideas onto paper, plan what we wanted to do with the project, give the project an identity (and logo), and finally bid for some money from the National Youth Agency (NYA) to help us to fullfil all these plans and dreams!
In March 2005 the YAU was granted funding for one year, from the NYA's Partners in Innovation (PIN) funding, to develop the project, find us a home, aquire some much needed resources, and employ two young people to work on establishing the project with the small existing staff team. By June '05 we had moved into the YMCA section of the Oasis Centre on Arundel Street, and many of our projects were up and running.
Apr '05 - Mar '06: Some of the stuff we achieved in that first year was running Dreamscheme - where young people helped to redesign Northam Street, Mystery Shopper - where young people were trained to go undercover to evaluate services, InsideOut - where young people focused on their own personal development and issues, SubStance - where a group developed a drugs cd-rom for other young people, setting up Agents of Change - a weekly music and arts project for young people to express themselves, and ofcourse working with young people to plan for this YAU website. (To find out more about the PIN funding, see the final report at the bottom of this page)
In April 2006 the Youth Affairs Unit was given reponsibility of running and administering the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds (YOF and YCF), which young people in the city chose to give the title Young Money.
(NB: Can add links to Dreamscheme, NYA, and YMCA.)
PIN Final Report, June 2006
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