“They encourage each other and fist bump at the top of the ramps.” “The atmosphere is brilliant,” beams Amy. Participants on the alternative provision programme blend in with youngsters on other projects and skaters in open sessions. Soon, he’s going to make the most incredible mentor for us working with young people on the programme.” He now volunteers at Devonshire Green skate park and has a job alongside doing a sports coaching qualification at Doncaster College. “He has been on a real journey with us over the last four years. “We told him, ‘We’re not giving up!’ and he had nowhere else to go anyway,” Amy explains. Amy admits he “would regularly wreck the place” when he first attended. He had a history of offending and was rarely in school. One of OnBoard’s many success stories in helping young people address these concerns is 17-year-old Steven*. OnBoard’s youth workers and mentors use a wellbeing tracker to monitor mentees’ progress in terms of their mental health, incidents at home, whether they’re clean, fed and well, areas of concern and their educational attainments.Ĭhildren on the programme typically face multiple issues, including poverty, violence, child exploitation, drug abuse, family breakdown and involvement in crime. “They’ve really respected the fact they have been entrusted with this equipment and attendance has been really, really good,” says Amy. Staff took skateboards and scooters to participants’ homes if they were isolating to enable them to practise tricks. They also receive Facetime 'wellbeing calls’ with their mentor and are set challenges via WhatsApp. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they have continued to come in for one-to-one mentoring catch-ups. Young riders on the alternative provision programme can come and go as they please at OnBoard (although other riders pay for public sessions). They are embedded in the sport and in the OnBoard ‘family’, so their investment in the participants is deep and the bonds they form are long-lasting. OnBoard’s youth workers and mentors are all semi-professional, sponsored riders. It’s very much a youth work-based format.” Whether that’s here at OnBoard or when our staff visit them at home or an outdoor skatepark elsewhere in Sheffield, we deliver that sense of security, being that consistent person in their life. “That’s a way to kickstart that bond in which a trusted adult mentor gives them a sense of belonging. “Sport is the hook, and although they won’t be dropping in off the big ramps straight away, we make sure they get a sense of achievement within that first session. “It works so well because it’s very holistic and child-led,” says OnBoard’s co-founder Amy. This programme will be supported by Levelling the Playing Field with staff benefiting from mentoring training and support - and participants’ outcome data forming part of our nationwide evidence base of ‘best practice’ that will feed into future policy and practice. One particular learning programme, funded by the Youth Endowment Fund, offers alternative provision for 16 of the most vulnerable children who are referred through local Youth Offending Teams or who are struggling in mainstream schools.
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