2122-0032 Young Islington – universal youth work offer

Tender description

Islington Council has a vision to mobilise the collective energy and resources of all partners across the borough to ensure all young people have equal access to opportunities and networks of support to help them enjoy their teenage years, thrive, be safe, enjoy good physical and mental health and realise their ambitions. To achieve this, Islington wants to make sure that all young people benefit from consistent and high-quality relationships with youth workers that support their social and emotional development. Those relationships support young people through the adolescent phase of their lives, and through exposing them to a range of experiences, opportunities and support, help them to develop resilience to cope with change and adversity and avoid negative pathways in future. The new Young Islington universal youth work offer has been developed which will be community focused, building sustainable networks across the borough with a shared and coherent vision linking into and building capacity amongst community youth providers and groups. The intention is that the new offer will draw in and convene a range of resources for the benefit of young people. Lot 1: Lot 1: Young Islington: Youth work leadership, quality and impact • Act as a champion of high-quality youth work across the borough, be the ‘voice’ of the sector and of young people. • Develop cross-borough programmes of youth work, working closely with the providers of the other Lots, the locality networks, professionals in targeted and specialist services and other relevant stakeholders to identify gaps, address inequalities and reach into the communities that may not be engaged currently. • Provide a local focus of excellence for youth work, championing Islington at regional and national youth sector events and keying into regional and national support. • Lead on the workforce development agenda; identifying an appropriate cross-borough approach to consistently ensuring high quality youth work across the offer in the context of delivering relationally-based, trauma-informed youth work with an emphasis on ‘earliest’ help where needed. • Lead on capacity building for youth work in the borough, working with all partners in the new offer to develop cross-borough programmes and submit funding bids. • Ensure consistency in the quality of services and support (e.g. through mentoring, buddying and reflective practice) and support adherence to shared quality standards across the partnership. • Promote the voice of young people and the organisations that work with them. Advocate for young people’s right to be visible and play a full role in the local community across a range of forums and to stakeholders including parents/carers, schools, funders and decision makers. • Signpost young people and families to the whole of the youth offer and into other services that could help to meet their needs (health, education, family support services, etc.), as well as wider relevant universal services. • Articulate and communicate the impact of quality youth work, amplify the stories and evidence of what has worked well as a result of the development of networks of organisations and communities working together Lot 2: Lot 2: Young Islington: Lift and Rose Bowl, Summerversity and the Emotional Wellbeing Service • Develop, deliver and host a high quality, innovative and interconnected programme of youth work activities, spaces and multi-agency support services for young peoples’ development. • Provide significant additional social value, e.g. to support young people’s employment. • Work closely with the other providers and the three locality networks to shape and support the delivery of high quality youth work across the borough in line with the identified needs. • Develop a close working relationship with Targeted Youth Support (TYS)1 to ensure that disengaged and more at risk young people receive support they need at Lift and Rose Bowl. • Be an ‘outward facing’ provision, which assertively seeks to engage young people who have not previously been reached by the universal youth work offer, through working with the locality networks as well as other community and grassroots groups. Lot 3: Lot 3: Young Islington: Platform • Develop, deliver and host a high quality, innovative and interconnected programme of youth work activities, spaces and multi-agency support services for young peoples’ development. • Provide significant additional social value, e.g. to support young people’s employment. • Work closely with the other providers and the three locality networks to shape and support the delivery of high quality youth work across the borough in line with the identified needs. • Develop a close working relationship with Targeted Youth Support (TYS)1 to ensure that disengaged and more at risk young people receive support they need at Platform. • Be an ‘outward facing’ provision, which assertively seeks to engage young people who have not previously been reached by the universal youth work offer, through working with the locality networks as well as other community and grassroots groups