PCN were invited to attend the above at Cardinal Newman College on 5/12/24 and it proved to be an excellent and very informative afternoon.

The event was very well attended and featured a series of presentations.

Kelly Illingworth-Turner spoke about on the social impact and aspirational work being carried out by Cardinal Newman College with their students and the new health & wellbeing hub which will shortly be opening in the College grounds.

Kiera Kitchen and Emma Hickson of Lancashire Mind then described the CYP (Children and Young People) Hubs and Peer Support schemes they operate in Preston.

Cath Coffey of The Foxton Centre spoke about the outreach work happening around the bus station with Jamea Mosque, LYC and the PNECET project.

She is looking at pulling together a detached youth work model to operate when situations arise when there’s a need to urgently engage young people on the streets, such as the summer unrest.

If you have an interest or want to get involved please email  cath.coffey@thefoxtoncentre.co.uk or M.dunne@preston.gov.uk

Tim Jacques of the Multi Agency Safeguarding Panel (MASP) described how the group, which meets once a month and has a high number of agencies involved, assists organisations worried about children they support been drawn into criminality.

If you want more information please contact Tim.Jacques@vaultyouthzone.org

Event organiser Marc Dunne of Preston City Council’s Community Engagement Team then gave as general update.

He described how the Community Safety Partnership are starting a new working group to look at the issue of ASB motorcycle use in Preston.

Email a.hatton@preston.gov.uk to join it.

He also advised that the final draft copy of the Preston Youth Strategy would shortly be going out and said discussions with the DWP had led to the latter agreeing to run a pilot project in Preston based around the ‘Youth Hub’ or ‘Outreach’ models of support.

The next Youth Forum meeting takes place on February 13th and you can contact M.dunne@preston.gov.uk for details if you are interested in attending.