The Buzz Project runs Youth café Drop-in sessions.We have been running
these sessions for over ten years in the Lochaber area and these sessions are
our most attended. Having the drop-in sessions provides the young people in
Lochaber a warm, safe space to socialise with their peers and where there is a
trusted adult on the premises whom they can speak to about any issues or
challenges that they are facing. These sessions provide creative and
diversionary activities for young people, such as music and art, which aims to
get more young people offthe streets in the evenings as the sessions run from
6pm until 10pm Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.We have an average of
20-30 young people attend every session and the majority come from areas of
high deprivation according to the Scottish Index for multiple deprivation.
Having a trusted adult on the premises who is trained in mental health
support and who can sign post young people to local and national mental
health support services helps to support their physical, mental and emotional
well being. We have created a safe space where the young people are not
judged and the staff team adopt a harm reduction approach
We run a social enterprise group on a Tuesday morning with the My Future,
My Success (MFMS) project. The purpose is to support the young people to
create their own social enterprise where they willfeed their profits back in to
the Buzz project. This has supported the young people engage more with their
community as they were challenged to learn more about what is available in
their local community and it the project’s success will rely on them engaging
with the community and having the community support their project. They
will also interlink with other social enterprise groups within the area for
advice, support and skill sharing. This project main focus is to support young
people to have positive destinations at the end of school. It also supports
young people to learn skills in how to set up and run a business. They will
learn how to plan, budget and evaluate their processes, all skills that will be
transferable in their future career opportunities. From completing the project,
the young people will gain skills and the required qualification that will
support them to access in to further education ifthat is the route that they
choose to take.
We work closely with the University ofthe Highlands and Islands and are
supporting the young people to apply for their courses of choice.We have
tutors from the college who will come and speak with the young people to
support them to find the pathway that is rightfor them. Ifthey chose to go in
to work following the project, we support the young people in CV writing
skills and interview skills.We have set out sessions where the young people
can come to the project to access the computers and internet to allow them to
look for jobs available and the staffteam will support them in writing their
applications and cover letters.