February 2008
Dear Supporters,
Wow!!! Here we are already in March…….. Hope February has been good to you. Here is an update of what we have been up too.
Detached has been busy this last month with increased numbers of 13-14 year olds on the Cally. This means we need to spend even more time building relationships with this new group. They seem to be travelling from outside the local area making use of their free bus travel; the connection is believed to be school friends.
It is not unusual now for us to see 80 plus on any given night. We are starting to get to know some of them quite well and some are attending the Thursday night Boston Club and wanting to get involved with the short term projects we run for under 16s.
No detached sessions had to be cancelled due to staffing in February.
Both Holloway School (starts 06/03/08) and The Mary Magdalene Academy have approached us to run a Prospex Life course for them. These courses are in the final stages of development and set us up well to hit our target of 10 courses this year (depending on funding)
Each Prospex Life course costs £7,426. This represents excellent value at just £928.25 per Young Person. If you know an organisation or even an individual person that would be happy to sponsor a course or a Young Person, please contact Beef (Richard Frankland) for further information on how to make this happen.
Jay is doing extremely well in his work placement at the Crowne Plaza hotel. Michele, the chef who has taken on the training of Jay, says that Jay is a fast learner, he knows his way around the many kitchens and store rooms in the hotel, he has helped to create a menu, and in this fast moving kitchen he can step up the pace if the need arises. He has had only one day off in the time he has been here, Jay says he loves working there and would love to go into an N.V.Q training course after the placement to further his skills and knowledge in this area. So far this has been a positive experience for Jay and we hope it will continue until the end of the placement. We would like to thank Michele for all her hard work.
Our current Companies are: Enterprise Islington (the new name for ICSL Accord), H.F.I (homes for Islington) Crowne Plaza, Acur Scaffolding and Flower Day Florists.
If anyone can assist in providing a work- placement for a Young Person please contact Maxine. It costs £450 per 6 week Work-Placement. Can you help support a Young Person?
Our application to Children in Need in November 2007 is still being reviewed as we go to print.
If granted, this will allow us to recruit a full-time family coordinator for 3 years and give the much needed support within our community.
Our exciting news from Prospex Xtra is our fabulous football team: Prospex F.C. The boys have done a tremendous job in this their first season. They have finished top of the London (Camden) Sunday division one league. I am sure you will join me in congratulating them on a fantastic result. This would not have been possible without Kerry O’Connor (coach) and Joe O’Connor (trainer). Well done to you all.
Soccer Sixes - Champions
London (Camden) Division One
| P |
Team |
P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Prospex F.C | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 69 | 29 | 40 | 29 |
| 2 | Total 6 | 19 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 52 | 27 | 25 | 26 |
| 3 | Tiber | 19 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 40 | 24 | 16 | 19 |
| 4 | North 1 Boys | 19 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 34 | 43 | -9 | 19 |
| 5 | Clerkenwell Sixes | 19 | 9 | 0 | 10 | 39 | 56 | -17 | 18 |
| 6 | Barnsbury F.C | 19 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 38 | 45 | -7 | 17 |
| 7 | Sportting Gents | 19 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 26 | 47 | -21 | 12 |
| 8 | ELM F.C | 19 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 17 | 44 | -27 | 12 |
Scootalive did five sessions on scooter safety before going on a Scrambling Day for the Young People who had completed the whole course. Unfortunately we lost five Young People through negative behaviour towards the organisations that delivered the programme. The five remaining Young People threw themselves into the sessions with positive attitudes engaging throughout the talks, asking many sensible questions and also acting out scenarios.
Prospex feel that the message about scooter safety really got through. The last session was the one they really had been waiting for the group got a day’s scrambling on a track out of London in Chipping Ongar. This day was fantastic Young People and Youth Workers alike had a great day.
Hopefully we will be able to run more Scootalive Projects as we have many more Young People who would benefit from this course.
About to start on the 3rd of March is Baby Think It Over which looks at the whole area of sex education and the realities of being a teenage parent. The course is for 6 weekly sessions (one day per week) for ten Young People and includes taking a computerised baby home for a weekend.
Also starting on 13th March is the Outward Bound Course for 6 of our 13-14 year olds thanks to a gift from Matterhorn Investment Bank. This will involve 6 weekly sessions (one day a week) and then a residential with Outward Bound in Aberdovey, Wales. This will run like a Prospex Life course.
Our ambition this year is to run continual short term projects throughout the year so we can really engage with this younger generation. As with all our projects, funding is crucial.
Prospex Xtra is well and truly on the map now and is developing well. In time you will see the X more and more.
Our 2006/2007 Annual Report will be available online in early March. Keep revisiting our website for further details.
“Who Am I”
This month “who am I” features James………..
After spending my early years training to become a youth worker and finding out after 2 years that I could not afford to live on my very low salary I decided a career change was needed. Not too sure now how it happened but ended up in retail management working for Granada for near on 14 years, progressing to Director of Operations, South East England. After Granada I took some quality time off and traveled around Europe and then the Far East and on to Australia and New Zealand. To say I love travel would be an understatement. My travels behind me, I ended up working for my local authority as a Credit Control Manager. Once again, before I knew it, the years had flown by and I decided it was time for a change.
Hearing about Prospex through the work placement scheme set up by Maxine Johnson and me I decided it was time to go back to what I wanted all those years previously and make a difference in my community again.
Visit our newly revamped Website. Also tell your friends and family to visit and sign up to our Monthly Newsletter.
The Prospex Team & Young People.
Prospex Drop-In Centre
Opening Hours - March 2008
| Monday | AM: Individual Support Sessions
PM: Detached or Open Evening 6pm - 8pm |
| Tuesday | AM: Individual Support Sessions
PM: Drop-In 3pm - 5pm |
| Wednesday | AM: Individual Support Sessions
PM: Drop-In 3pm - 5pm |
| Thursday | AM: Individual Support Sessions
PM: Boston Club Naylor Hall 7pm - 8.30pm |
| Friday | AM: Individual Support Sessions
PM: Detached or Open Evening 6pm - 10pm |
