Fifteen children and young people told us their views on CBHA services at a special youth forum last Saturday.
The young CBHA residents were invited to the Leytonstone office so CBHA could hear what they thought about the youth clubs, trips and other activities CBHA provides. Youth workers also wanted to know what other support they felt was needed for them in their area.
Head of community development Roz Gordon said: “It was great to have a really good cross section of children from the age of eight, with their parents or older siblings, up to teenagers and young people in their early 20s. They were either people that attend our youth clubs or volunteers that help out.
“The young people all told us they were pleased with what we were doing, mentioning the bingo group, sitting aerobics, the skate area and tai chi in Langthorne Park. But they pointed out some things they would like in the area and gave us other comments.”
These included:
• CBHA should advertise its youth clubs and activities more around the area because some young people and parents were unaware of some services.
• There should be more inter-generational activities
• They would like more family events
• They wanted more creative sessions in cooking, making things
• Exercise and games such as football in the parks would be fun
• There was not enough for the eight to 12 age group in the areas
• The picnic area in Leytonstone was good
• There were not enough affordable things for youths locally to do which led to young people hanging around on the streets feeling bored
• More young people needed to be involved in the community.
Roz said some of the things they mentioned were easy to fix – such as more advertising. CBHA will now look at funding opportunities and the possibility of providing more of the fun activities they would like such as sessions in hip hop, singing, street dance, football, trips, cooking and creative opportunities.
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