Reach Every Generation
Chelmsford Reach Every Generation
Reach Every Generation exist to prevent young people from the perils of crime and violence, empowering young people and raising awareness.
Working with the Active Essex Foundation (AEF) they have delivered sports-based intervention programmes for young people at risk of anti social behaviours and criminality. These sessions include physical activities, mentoring, life skills and themed workshops around youth crime prevention.
Based in Chelmsford, the organisation delivers wide range of physical activities which young people take part in, including a gym sessions, table tennis and football . The young people are given the opportunity to shape the activities and voted for a group trip to the local indoor golf facility.
Funding through AEF enabled Reach Every Generation to have a good staff to participant ratio, ensuring everyone was supported and had the opportunity to engage with the variety of activities. Travel costs were covered through the funding, which was important to remove that barrier to access.
Reach Every Generation have a building called 'The Base' and the funding allowed them to kit out the venue with new games so the young people could enjoy group games and activities together which added an important social aspect which was reflected through their eagerness to return after enjoying themselves.
The high level of engagement with young people is extremely important. After feeding back to the team at The Base, Reach Every Generation found the young people would like to come back out of school hours. This is an important aspect of the Active Essex Foundation work because this means these young people are discouraged from engaging in anti-social behaviour.
The sessions provided the young people with an opportunity to engage in physical activity, including games and activities they had not experienced before. However, an important element was the conversations that followed these active sessions where they were offered mentoring style sessions which involved talking about aspirations, choices, healthy relationships, careers and life skills.
Through these conversations, the staff were able to engage better with the young people and provide relationships for them to highlight how they feel vulnerable to exploitation in their physical and online communities.
