About us

Established in 2007, ‘Youth Scene’ supports young people aged 8-24 through important life transitions.

Based in South London, we aim to help young people achieve their full potential through participation in challenging, educational and stimulating support programmes in a disciplined and safe environment.

 

With a proven background of working with young people over the last 12 years, Youth Scene’s founders are passionate about making real, lasting changes. We look at all the parts that make up an individual and this involves building nurturing relationships within a warm and supportive environment. We believe in identifying and developing the natural talents which we all possess no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. These small successes can often lead to greater personal triumphs as a person’s confidence and abilities grow. Success usually involves a struggle and we therefore seek to develop the right qualities in young people that will enable them to stick at something even during the more difficult moments.

Youth Scene’s experienced team use innovative ways to work with young people with the aim of maximising their potential. There is support to develop life skills through personal development, training, mentoring and volunteering programmes.

We regularly consult with our young people and support peer-led projects to ensure that they remain wholeheartedly involved and that our services are relevant to the needs.

Youth Scene's sporting, cultural and educational programmes aim to build young people's functional skills, self-respect and confidence under the guidance of professional instructors, youth workers and coaches.

Inclusion

Youth Scene works with young people who continue to face a very high risk of exclusion. We believe in tackling problems at their roots and aim to cultivate skills that are essential to increasing individual opportunity and self-confidence.

These skills may be as simple as learning to communicate, cook or mow the lawn but all are important in developing rounded, independent young people. Increasing young people's participation in education and training is central to meeting the demand for skills in a dynamic, modern economy. But in order to learn and develop, young people must believe in themselves.

Youth Scene works with those:

who are socially excludedwho are looked after childrenwith special educational needs (including mental health problems)at risk of offending both in preventative and youth offending settingswho have suffered abuse

thereby offering them a stepping stone to accessing mainstream services, education and employment.

Social Exclusion

Social Exclusion is what happens when people or areas are excluded from essential services or every day aspects of life that most of us take for granted. Socially excluded people or places can become trapped in a cycle of related problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poverty, poor housing, high crime, bad health and family breakdown.

“Children may often be able to overcome and even learn from single or moderate risks, but when risk factors accumulate, children's capacity to survive rapidly diminishes. Transitional periods are also periods of heightened risk, illustrated, for example, by the frequent decline in academic performance of vulnerable children on transfer from [primary] to [secondary] schools.”1

Children and young people are especially vulnerable to the effects of social exclusion. They are faced with multiple problems, and may skip important stages of their education and face illiteracy and unemployment. They may be exposed to crime, as victims, or drawn into early offending. Their long-term prospects may include homelessness, imprisonment, mental health problems and a life of poverty.

Any one of these problems can prove difficult to overcome, but when young people suffer multiple disadvantages they need special help to break the vicious cycle.

“Accounting for the high living costs, London has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK today. Over half (52%) of Inner London children live in poverty. Certain groups of children in London face a very high risk of exclusion." 2

Youth Scene believes that early preventative action is critical. Even today a child's prospects are strongly affected by the background, health and education of their parents.

Targeted and personalised support is our response to the growing number of damaging influences on the development of young people.

1 Transitions in the Lives of Children and Young People: Resilience Factors, T Newman & S Blackburn, 2002.

2 Greater London Authority, 2006.