BA2 Club (Archived Page)

The project was taken from Bath and North East Somerset Council after cuts to the Youth Service threatened it with closure and due to high levels of anti-social behaviour in the area it gained itself a bad reputation over the years.

After the local authority relinquished the building and closed it down, BAPP was given the opportunity to restore it and to use it for our main offices and make it a safe venue to provide many different activities for children and young people.

After BAPP and the Odd Down Community Association took the running of the project over, the youth club became quite popular, however, we continue to struggle increasing the number of participants in our activities.

Although we are proud to have had over 60 young people participating in our activities last year, we know there are much more young people out there who we need to reach by using a different approach and by providing a more diverse programme of activities for them. For this reason, as an important focus of our strategic organisational development, we decided to redesign and launch the project under a new brand: BA2 Club. Our current funding from the St Johns Trust finishes in December 2013 for the Youth Music project. One of the Youthworkers, Hilal, is submitting funding applications for resources and tutors for activities that young people have identified including cooking ingredients, music equipment, trampoline instructors and music tutors.

The Youth Music Project provided weekly music sessions for young people aged 16 – 25 years, supporting their skill development and confidence. Young people’s self-confidence has grown hugely over the last year through building on the skills learnt in the music sessions. They have developed a strong sense of teamwork, working together to put music together, musical beat ideas, sharing creative expression and individual interests. Through the music project, young people have established a sense of pride in what they are doing but also able to share their enthusiasm with other adults in the community. We have had two adult who are both musically active, get involved in delivering and teaching sessions as well as a postman! They feel far more self-confident than when we started the project with 95% of those taking part moving up at least 4 points on the confidence scale from their baseline assessment.

Through development of music skills, young people have developed individual strengths including improved communication & listening skills, empathy and respect. Young people have taken the time to listen to each other and other’s preferred music which they have then used in digital sampling.