Bridgend Youth Support Team gets behind the wheel to bring services to young people

Bridgend County Borough Council’s Youth Support and Community Safety Partnership teams have worked together to facilitate the launch of a new mobile youth centre which will bring youth support services to communities across the county borough.

Funded by the ‘Safer Streets’ initiative, the brightly coloured mobile unit, which offers a digital screen, comfortable seating, heating, and refreshments for young people will be setting off around the county borough from the 20 November, initially focusing on the areas of Bridgend town centre, Pyle, Maesteg and Sarn to offer young people a secure place where they can spend time and interact with professionally qualified youth workers.

Working in partnership with colleagues at South Wales Police, the mobile centre will travel to identified ‘hot spot’ areas of anti-social behaviour as well as reaching out to communities where young people have limited or no access to youth services.

Jacob, aged 14 from Bridgend who popped in to look at the new mobile unit, said:

“I really like the youth bus, its warm and comfy and it’s great to chat with the staff who are friendly and easy to talk to.”

We are thrilled that this new mobile facility is available to young people across the county borough.

We aim to work closely with residents, community leaders, and organisations to identify specific issues and concerns related to anti-social behaviour, while offering a secure, comfortable, and inviting space for young people to interact with professional youth support staff.

The plan is to engage young people by organising a variety of issue and street-based activities through collaboration with partners like the Ospreys and South Wales Police, with activities offered to cater to a variety of interests and age groups, such as sports, arts and crafts, educational workshops, mentoring, and much more.

Cllr Neelo Farr, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Wellbeing

Gareth Prosser, Community Safety Manager for South Wales Police, said: “The use of the Youth Services vehicle is a positive step in delivering activities for young persons to be part of in Bridgend and Maesteg. The van was obtained from Safer Streets 4 funding process that allowed us to work with the council to review and purchase sustainable facilities to support young persons. We are currently working with the council and other partners to deliver these activities, and this offers flexibility by allowing teams to attend various locations across the county borough and undertake engagement with young persons in the future.”

To find out more about the new mobile unit and clubs in your area, follow the council’s Youth Support Team on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, search for @bcbcys.