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Positive Futures in Castle Morpeth

Red Row isn’t exactly most people’s idea of an English country village, although that’s what it is. Its red brick terraces and boarded up council semi's won’t be pictured on chocolate box lids or in tourist brochures. Nor will its dark and dilapidated working men’s’ club, a relic of its past as one of Northumberland’s once thriving coal mining communities. It’s a rural place created for industrial reasons, a rural village with urban problems.

The people of Red Row and the neighbouring village of Hadston make up much of the 2,800 population of Chevington ward, an area ranked among the worst 20 per cent of all wards in England on the index of multiple deprivation (IMD). Characterised by high unemployment and low education, Chevington is one of Northumberland’s "coalfield wards", whose ageing and shrinking populations suffer from significant rates of crime, disorder, drug use and poor health.

It’s part of the borough of Castle Morpeth, a place where, as Jo Hand, co-ordinator of the district’s Positive Futures project puts it, "everything moves out, and nothing goes in". Or it did, until recently. For Chevington, along with two other areas, Amble and Lynemouth (ranked among the worst 20 and worst 10 per cent respectively on the IMD), was chosen by Castle Morpeth’s Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) as a target area for its Positive Futures project.

Jo Hand explains why: "This is a very, very rural area where there really isn’t much for young people to do. When police get called to a youth disorder incident they can move people on, but really they’re just moving the problem from spot to spot to spot. With Positive Futures at the very least we are giving the kids an alternative to just hanging around."

The project started in February 2002 with funding of £67,000, but Jo soon learned that "providing an alternative" in such a deprived rural setting has its own difficulties. "Before I came to this job I hadn’t fully considered some of the issues people face in this sort of rural situation," she says. "I just thought, I could organise a variety of sports sessions that young people can pick and choose from. But who would run the sessions? Our few volunteer coaches are fully committed. Where would I put them on? And how would young people get there? Transport here is a real issue."

The leisure facilities in Red Row consist of an old colliery welfare sports ground made up of poorly drained football pitches, cracked and weed-conquered tennis courts, and abandoned basketball rings. "It’s hardly used," says Jo. "I’ve never seen people there, except walking their dogs."

The same goes for Druridge Bay Country Park, an inshore lake with a water sports club, just a short walk from Hadston. "For all that they live so nearby, you hardly ever see young people there," says Jo. "Mostly they hang out at the precinct" – a grim row of shops that local police have labelled "a youth crime hotspot".

There are no leisure centres in the target areas and, while the nearest are only a few miles away – in Morpeth town, and the neighbouring Wansbeck district – limited and infrequent transport make them virtually inaccessible. The nearest cinema is in North Tyneside, some 40 minutes by road and prohibitively complicated to get to using public transport. "Bear in mind," says Jo. "People don’t leave their villages that often."

The answer, she decided, was "to start smaller, get it right, and build from there". Jo offered her first group of "at risk" young people – mostly 13 to 15 year-olds referred by schools and the youth offending team – a 10-week water sports course at Coquet Shorebase in Amble, where two instructors took them kayaking, sailing, raft building and canoeing, guiding them towards a nationally-recognised ‘Rainbow award’, and a ‘Positive Futures Shorebase’ certificate.

"I picked water sports because it’s exciting, it’s not necessarily something they’ve tried before, and there is a pre-existing club in Amble which gives them the chance to continue with it afterwards," says Jo. "It was important not to come in and start doing new things, but to link up with what exists already."

She solved the transport problem by hiring a bus, funded by the Police Grant Pool and the Rural Transport Partnership, to pick up the teenagers and take them home again. Her assistant, a local person, travelled with them, supporting them and learning about what other activities they might want to do. It seemed to work. Nine out of 10 completed the course, and seven attended at least half of the 10 sessions. From a group made up of young people "at risk" of offending or exclusion from school, this was a considerable triumph.

"You can’t measure success on this project like a mainstream sports programme because you really are starting from a completely different point," says Jo. "The fact that they attended the session at all is a success in itself."

What’s important now, she says, is to keep them interested, to develop what she calls "sustainability". "It’s great to give them these opportunities and get them really excited but then if there’s nothing to do after that you just drop them straight back down again. What’s good about the Shorebase is that it is a pre-established set up with coaches who are used to working with these young people. They are local too, so they know the youngsters anyway. Hopefully, that’ll encourage some of them to take it further."

As well as providing more water sports courses for groups of "referred" young people – both 10 to 13 and 14 to 16 year-olds, identified as the core 50 at risk young people in the area – Jo is planning a series of open sports sessions that anyone can attend. "I am very keen that Positive Futures isn’t looked on only as a reward for young people who do something they shouldn’t be doing," she says.

The first open activities will be run by the Newcastle Eagles professional basketball team, which will hold weekly coaching sessions in Amble, Chevington and Lynemouth, and visit schools to promote the event to all local young people. The idea is to set up a Coalfields Basketball tournament with a final at the Telewest Arena in Newcastle prior to an Eagles home game. "Apart from the sport, simply taking them to the Arena will show them there’s life outside their villages," says Jo. "There is a need to broaden their horizons and show them a bigger picture."

She is also planning to have boxing, music and dance courses, and organise one-off activity days in scuba diving, outward bounds, and safe driving. The idea is that the social and educational messages associated with Positive Futures come across "through a practical setting, not through sat down learning".

"On the water sports course it’s very, very basic," she says. "They learn about team building, working with others, and communicating appropriately. We are keen on getting some work on substance misuse integrated into the basketball skills sessions, with help from local drugs agencies, and I’m hoping to link up with Connexions."

In time, Jo wants to encourage some of the older youngsters to take coaching qualifications. She would also like the project to expand into neighbouring areas, covering all the coalfield wards (hopefully to become a Sports Action Zone early next year), and is keen to see facilities in the villages improved, a process that’s starting soon with the £455,000 development of Red Row’s miners’ welfare ground.

"I am only just starting to feel I have a clear understanding of how Positive Futures fits with everything else that’s going on here," she says. "It’s very difficult in two years to get in, get started, put the courses on and prove you’ve made a difference."

In any case, she says, "You have to be realistic about how much sport can put right. It’s not just a matter of these kids being bored – their problems go a lot deeper than that. Sport can’t work just as a diversionary thing. It’s the other qualities that come with it, building self-esteem, and so on – that are as beneficial as the physical activity.

"The sport has got to be part of a bigger system which links with partner agencies who are already working with the young people. It’s important that something sustainable lasts, even if Positive Futures in its present form doesn’t continue."

Factfile

• Area: Chevington, Amble and Lynemouth wards, Castle Morpeth and Alnwick districts, Northumberland
• Agency: Castle Morpeth Council, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership
  Funding: Positive Futures grant of £33,500 for 2003/4.
• Partners: Morpeth DAT; Northumberland YOT; Castle Morpeth Council Sports Development and Community Safety; Alnwick Council Sports Development and Community Safety; Northumberland Health Action Zone; Northumbria Police; Sport England; Northumberland Fire and Rescue, local schools, community wardens
• Other agencies involved: Coquet Shorebase Trust Water Sports Centre; Newcastle Eagles basketball team
• Sports offered: water sports; basketball
• What next: dance; outward bounds; boxing; music; coaching qualifications
• Top tip: Provide transport and use local leaders who know the young people
  

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