City Council Makes Youngsters A Top Priority For 2012

Cambridge City Council is making young people a top priority for 2012 with a range of projects to give them a head-start.

Plans just published include:

•  Expanding the impact of the Council's Children and Young People's Participation Service (ChYPPS) across the city's 9-13 year olds, through greater use of volunteers and closer working with schools, following a major all-party review.
• Budget proposals from the ruling Lib Dems  for a new Youth Officer post to strengthen the council's role in work with the older, teenage group
• A new scheme to engage young people at risk of exclusion in sport.

"We are committed to do things well that we have only one chance to get right, especially in this time of austerity,” said Tim Bick, Executive Councillor for Community Development.

“What more important, in this context than the experience of a whole generation of the city's young people who face so many risks and challenges?"

He welcomed the new strategy for ChYPPS adding: "This service in Cambridge is almost unique and something the whole council is proud of. Growing it further through the engagement and training of volunteers will enable it to amplify its impact. Transmitting and sharing the council's huge expertise in 'play' can build capacity in the wider community, which is a wholly healthy ambition".

Referring to the new Youth Officer post included in the Lib Dem budget proposals, he said: "Teenagers are typically not looking for the same structured activities which ChYPPS provides for the younger ones. Services for them have historically been provided more by the county council than the city council. The county council has drastically cut them back recently and it seems time for the city council to play more of a role.

“This post will support our investments in facilities for teenagers, such as last year's expansion of the cafe at The Junction and the project we are currently discussing with the YMCA on Gonville Place - and enabling activities that go with them."

Of the scheme to engage young people at risk of exclusion in sport, Rod Cantrill, Executive Councillor for Arts and Recreation, said: "Over the next 12 months the city will focus on participation in sport as part of the Olympic celebration. This project seeks to use sport as a means of involving those young people who feel on the edge of the community."