What we do

Our Youth Team offers a wide programme of activities and support to people aged 8 – 19 years old within Castle Vale, Erdington, Falcon Lodge and Hodge Hill. The aim of these sessions is to:

  • provide a safe and thriving environment for young people to develop socially,
  • gain new experiences,
  • learn new skills,
  • provide opportunities to experience new things,
  • be able to make informed decisions, through informal education, on issues that affect their lives and to play an active role within their community. to

We offer a free universal service within Castle Vale, Erdington and Falcon Lodge which includes evening youth clubs and holiday activity programmes and targeted mentoring support within local schools. We also offer a platform for ‘Youth Voice’ through our Young Leaders Project and Social Action campaigns.

We also offer a street based service working with young people within Castle Vale, Erdington, Falcon Lodge and Hodge Hill, promoting positive activities and providing information and guidance to these young people.

During school holiday periods the youth team deliver holiday activity programmes across all of the areas listed above with each programme being organised following consultation with young people.

Activity programmes

Database

Database is an afterschool provision that is delivered Monday to Friday throughout school term time and is open to people aged 8 – 18 years old.  The session consists of an open space to relax and engage in a number of activities including arts and crafts, sports, cooking and games as well as a computer suite to use for homework support or as a gaming platform for social gaming. This session is delivered from 3:30pm each day.

Flyby

Flyby is a weekly session aimed at 11 – 19 year olds and runs every Thursday evening from 7pm – 9pm. This is an open access session that also includes a programme of issue based sessions, life skills, arts and crafts and employment support.

Football Project

Each week the Compass Support Youth Team deliver football sessions at Castle Vale Stadium every Monday and Friday evening. Monday sessions are funded through the Youth Investment Fund and is delivered from 5pm – 6pm. It is open to 10 – 14 year olds and is delivered in partnership with Aston Villa FC who offer specialist coaching to the young people that get involved. Friday’s session is aimed at youths aged over 14 years old and offers a platform to play competitions and games against other local clubs and teams. These sessions are £1 to help contribute to the hire of the fantastic 3G pitch that is used for the session. To find out more, read our press release.

Mentoring

Compass Support offers a targeted mentoring service within two local schools – Greenwood Academy and Solihull Academy. This service offers one-to-one support to young people to help improve social, emotional and mental wellbeing. Itis delivered on a tiered service that includes IAPT support, targeted mentoring, group based projects and a therapy dog to help build confidence and resilience in young people.  The mentoring service also offers targeted programmes around mental health awareness, sexual health, choices and consequences and anger management.

Young Leaders Programme

The Young Leaders Programme is a unique project that gives young people the opportunity to take a meaningful leadership role within their communities.  Each young person taking part has the chance to complete a Young Leaders Training Course which offers knowledge and skills in leadership, safeguarding, project planning and team work. The final module is called ‘Make a change in your community’ which allows those that take part the opportunity to plan and deliver an activity or project to benefit members of the community.   Alongside this, ongoing volunteer placements are available within a number of our youth settings.

Schools

We deliver independent, high quality careers advice and guidance within a school setting. We ensure that students have access to one-to-one, personalised support by a trained advisor who will work with them to create an individual Action Plan. Students can access a range of opportunities such as higher education, apprenticeships, Sixth form and employment. We aim to encourage and empower students to take ownership of their future and strive to achieve their aspirations.

Falcon Lodge

Based at The Lodge Community Hub, in the heart of the Falcon Lodge Housing Estate, funded through the Youth Investment Fund, we currently work in partnership with Birmingham Youth Service and Sutton Coldfield YMCA to deliver a youth club for young people aged 10 – 19 years old. It is open every Monday and Tuesday from 4pm – 6:30pm and Thursday from 4pm – 8:30pm. Our youth offer at this site includes a drop in service, sexual health support, universal activities and a weekly issue based programme.

Erdington

We currently deliver a 3 evening per week youth project from Malcolm Locker Youth Centre which is situated in the Abbey Fields Estate.  This is funded through the Youth Investment Fund and delivered in partnership with Malachi Trust, the centre is open every Monday evening from 5:30pm – 7:30pm, Tuesday from 4pm – 8pm and Thursday from 5:30pm – 7:30pm and includes a number of activities including team games, life skills and informal education workshops. The Tuesday evening offers a targeted project aimed to help build confidence and resilience in young people through social action and peer mentoring.

Every Monday and Thursday from 3pm – 5pm the youth team works in partnership with Age Concern to deliver street based work within the Boldmere Area. The aim of this project is to engage local young people in positive activities within the community and identify opportunities to develop youth provision within the area.

Abigail Watts, 18, says:

“I became a peer mentor through the project that I did with Compass Support. This has given me lots of opportunities and helped me grow as a person and also helped me realise what I want to do for my career as I now know I want to be a Youth Worker. Below is a timeline of my involvement and achievements.”