UCS to evaluate local project aimed at disadvantaged young people in Suffolk
Nov 4 2009 12:00AM
University Campus Suffolk (UCS) has secured an exciting opportunity to evaluate the new Supporting Contemporary Adolescence (SCA) CIC ‘Wos Up Twilight’ Mobile Youth Provision project in Suffolk.
The two year project, which has been awarded a grant of £429,895 by the Department of Children, Schools and Families via Youth Sector Development Fund, will be sending highly visible ‘Wos Up’ Warrior Trucks to the most isolated and deprived areas in Suffolk. The vehicles will tour various locations across Suffolk on Friday and Saturday nights between 6pm and 1am, starting this Friday, providing disadvantaged young people aged 13-19 with positive activities such as street soccer, stomp dancing and web design sessions.
Jan Vlcek, Project Manager of the Mobile Youth Provision, said, “This project plans to improve outcomes for all children and young people. By developing youth work in the most deprived areas of Suffolk, we are able to involve young people in activities which they may not have had the chance to do previously. The project aims to reduce anti-social behaviour across the region by giving these young people constructive activities to participate in instead.”
UCS will have a team of four expert staff working collaboratively on the evaluation of the SCA CIC “Wos up Twilight Project” and will be measuring anti-social behaviour and the impact of the project in Newmarket, Ipswich, Bury and Lowestoft. In addition to providing high quality contemporary higher education in Suffolk, UCS also delivers cutting-edge campus developments in the Ipswich Education Quarter which focuses on innovation, enterprise and accessibility. The evaluation will be ongoing as well as summative at the end of the project in 2011.
David James, Lecturer in Social Sciences at UCS, said, “Independent evaluation of projects such as this is essential in ensuring that its objectives are met and that the project is viewed as worthwhile by those it is targeting. The team at UCS is proud and delighted to be involved in evaluating this innovative and much needed project for young people in Suffolk.”
As professional lecturers and academic researchers David James, Dr. Emma Bond, Stuart Agnew and Sarah Richards have a wealth of expert knowledge drawn from sociology, psychology, social policy and criminology and research experience in understanding young people in relation to their everyday lives, education, youth work, social services, criminal justice, and youth cultures.