Children and Youth Work

Oasis Youth and Children's Work

Oasis Hubs run a range of universal and targeted children’s and youth programmes around the country. We provide space and opportunity for children and young people to take part in positive activities together outside of school and family and within their local community.

We work with over 8,000 individual children and young people across the Oasis family of Hubs through our wide-ranging provisions including breakfast, after school and lunch clubs, holiday activities, NEET work, open access youth work, detached youth work, youth mentoring and violence reduction work. 

Mentoring

Across our Hubs, we offer a variety of different mentoring opportunities. The common element is that mentoring is a 1:1 relationship led by the young person. Our targeted mentoring in schools' programmes (usually 8-12 week programmes) aim to help young people understand the motivation, beliefs and skills that are needed for them to create change and to support them through collaborative action planning to make these changes for themselves. Referrals often have a wellbeing focus but can also be for reasons of attendance, behaviour, attainment, etc. Through the mentoring process, we often find that positive changes are made to a variety of outcomes, not just for those which the young person was originally referred. 

Alana's story

Alana was referred to our mentoring programme for support with her self-confidence and struggle with maintaining peer-peer friendships. Through building a relationship, Alana disclosed “over the last few months I haven’t been going to school as much. I hate breaks and lunch as I have no friends to be with. I have to hide in the toilet so that people don’t see that I am by myself and tease me.” The youth worker spoke to academy staff who confirmed her attendance had dropped from 98% to 72% over 2 terms. With this information, the youth worker was able to work with the academy to move the mentoring sessions to a lunchtime slot and invite the student to the break and lunch clubs led by the youth team. Over the next term, her attendance increased back to 96%. “I now have somewhere to go at break and lunch and it’s fun. We play games and I’ve started to make friends with some of the others that come to the club too."

Children's clubs (including after school, lunch and sports)

We run children's clubs across the country, ranging from: gardening, arts and crafts, space clubs, football, social action, chess, bike, boxing and many more. These sessions provide fun and motivating ways for children to learn, play, develop new kills and gain new, exciting experiences. 

"My son has had the pleasure of attending a variety of sessions from the beginning and it has been a wonderful enriching learning and social experience."

Oasis Hub Foundry and Boulton

Universal open access youth project

We run universal open access youth projects. We are passionate about young people being central to our provisions where they feel included, valued, and respected, listened to and can make positive demonstrable changes to their communities. Feedback from young people tells us that they value the relationships they form with youth workers and acknowledge the support and guidance offered to them which better enables them to reflect on and navigate their complex lives. Young people also valued the acceptance they feel from the community developed in these youth spaces, they provide comfort and reassurance when at times they do not feel like they fit in anywhere else.

"My daughter has autism and isn’t really good at trying and sticking new things, but she absolutely loves youth club and can’t wait to go each week."

Oasis Hub MediaCityUK

Holiday Programmes

Our holiday programmes enable young people to access fun and varied activities, whilst also ensuring they receive a hot and nutritious meal. This not only helps to combat holiday hunger but keeps young people active and healthy. We provide a variety of activities, offering experiences to children and young people that they haven’t had before, opening up new opportunities. At Oasis Hub Blakenhale, children are really happy and look forward to coming to our Summer Sessions, it not only gives them the opportunity to socialise with their peers but also ensures they receive a nutritious meal four times a week. The club is open to everyone but focuses on children who are eligible for free school meals. The club offers a variety of fun activities including cooking, golf, slime making, crafts and water fights. This helps the hub to develop relationships with children and their families.

“My daughter has had the pleasure of attending a variety of sessions, it has been a wonderful and enriching experience.” – Parent

“This has been the best day ever! I wanna do it all over again.” – Child

Oasis Hub Blakenhale Summer Sessions