The Salmon Youth Centre

The Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey aims to inspire young people to realise their potential, to contribute positively to the communities in which they live and discover meaning and direction for their lives.

The Foundation is delighted to be supporting The Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey, London.

Established by Cambridge missionaries over 100 years ago, The Salmon Centre has recently undergone a complete facelift and a fanatastic youth centre is now in place with a sports hall, computer room, music room, climbing wall and is a great, safe place for youngsters from the nearby community to spend time. Many are no longer in school and the Centre can give them direction and skills to take them forward in life.

We support the SYC by funding their GAPPER programme.

The SYC have trained and worked with 20 "gappers" (ie 18/19 year olds who in a different environment would be on GAP years) over the last 5 years. We are proud to be sponsoring Gabriel & Jason on the STEP programme. With a success rate of 80% or so who go on to progress and gain employment this is an amazing project. We have attached 2 case studies of 2 who have been through the scheme successfully.

The ACF has now sponsored Gabriel (see report below) succesfully through his year as a Gapper. We are now sponsoring Jason (see report below).

Gabriel 2009 Gapper

An ex drug user and gang member, 19 year old Gabriel took himself off the street and began to use the Centre a year ago. He is a talented footballer and with our help, and funding, over the next year Gabriel will do a Foundation Studies course in "Informal and Community Work", which starts him off on youthwork. At the same time we will enrol him on a Duke of Edinburgh scheme at the centre, put him on as many coaching courses as we can (FA , tennis, trampolining), giving the opportunity to put the skills into practice in our clubs. Having missed so much of school he will receive tuition to build literacy and numeracy and help him work on his CV.

Gabriel's story

Gabriel - when we met him Jan 09

Gabriel as he is now! Clearly enjoying helping at the Youth Centre and learning new skills

"I grew up in Bermondsey, got through primary school well and have always had a love of sports. However, things started to go wrong on my first day of secondary school when I was threatened with a knife to my neck, which changed my outlook on life in a big way. Over the coming weeks I decided that the only way to stay safe was to act tougher than everyone else and pretty soon I had been excluded three times for violent conduct. The school even tried sending me to learning support sessions for anger management, but it didn't work.

I tried again to get an education at college, but was kicked out part way through my third year because of getting involved in a postcode fight in the classroom. With nothing else to do, I quickly got in with the wrong crowd on my estate and started smoking and taking drugs with them and getting into trouble with the Police. In the midst of this, I felt my life was a total failure. I was so low that in 2007 a friend brought me to the Salmon Centre and even persuaded me to try a local church, to try and help me get out of the hole I was in. The staff at the centre took me in and to my surprise, gave me responsibilities in the youth clubs. I started volunteering two months later and now, at the age of 19, have just been offered a place to work, study and learn with the youth and sports workers at the Salmon Centre. I can't wait to learn new things and challenge myself to fulfill the potential that they see in me!"

• Read about Gabriel's recent trip to Wales 
  • Read Jane's story 
    • Read Steven's story 
      
      
      

      Jason 2010 Gapper

      A young man we are sponsoring - cost c. £12,000 for a year. After which he should have the skills and a CV to allow him to work full time in a youth centre.

      Jason Gray, he's 21 and NEET, but with a promising background that was ruined by heavy bullying and unfortunate personal circumstances. I believe that he will surpass the others who have participated in the scheme, because of his focus, determination and commitment. He has very little confidence in his abilities and is not very good at communicating with others in social situations.

      Jason has now become a full member of the Gap Scheme after 6 months of being a young volunteer. He has stepped up to many of his new responsibilities very capably, especially in adventure work.

      This involves taking a lead on the 12m outside climbing wall, which Jason is now able to do, having achieved a proficiency certificate from the Salmon Centre's technical advisor. Jason is able to set up ropes, safety harnesses and helmets, and climbing equipment, as well as becoming increasing confident in teaching the art of skilful climbing and safe belaying to school groups and local young people. This is building his self esteem, people-skills and ability to communicate to diverse groups of users.

      He is also working towards qualifications in indoor adventure work, including a "leap of faith" from a sports hall balcony and several other "high rope" activities. His key achievement here is not just a mastery of the skills needed to perform the activities, but an ability to ensure that all our young users remain safe time after time, as they put on their safety gear and attach the ropes to themselves. This requires long periods of focus that Jason is showing good concentration for.

      He has participated in outward bound residential trips and is focussing on using these high-adrenaline opportunities to build his confidence around other people. In particular we have asked him to be more courageous in initiating conversations and being willing to speak up to let others know his opinions. Over the past months, we have seen a dramatic change in the way Jason feels about himself and the way he comes across to others, but we believe that he will go on to become more confident about himself and his abilities as he takes risks both socially and in the adventure work that he loves!

      Jason is an active participant in our young volunteer group, but is still learning to express himself assertively amongst his peers. He is very laid back, but being part of a study group is helping him to be surer of himself and his ideas. He is in the process of a qualification in youthwork with YMCA and is progressing steadily against his targets, proving himself to be able to face a challenge in the academic world, as well as in adventure work.

      Jason takes part in several evening youth clubs a week, learning the skills of youthwork as part of a larger team. He is able to undertake tasks when asked and is learning to take more initiative as his confidence and training grow. Each session concludes with an evaluation, where he is starting to see how youthworkers record their activities to give evidence for what has taken place. There are many aspects to working in a busy youth centre, but Jason is starting to embrace the respect that he is shown by other staff, learning the professional expectations that work colleagues have of each other.

      In summary, it has been a very positive start for Jason, with plenty of growth in confidence and skills. Areas for him to continue to work on are his self esteem around his peers, as well as being able to focus on non-adventure activities, which may not interest him as much, or be a little out of his comfort zone. If he continues to apply himself with the same enthusiasm, I have no doubt that he will make a success of his year at the Salmon Centre as a Gapper.

      
      Visit the Salmon Youth Centre website