Aim and objectives of the report - CLES

Child and Adolescent Mental Health ServiceSocial careLocal voluntary organisationsYouth ServiceLink EdYouth Inclusion and Support PanelAt its inception it also aimed to develop activities on an identified allotment and sought to discoveradditional available plots within the targeted communities, to promote food awareness and physicalactivity. The project was to be delivered on an outreach basis to best fit the needs of an extremelyrural community where services are very limited.Project rationaleThe ethos of the project was to develop and reinforce young people’s self confidence andcompetence through the provision of positive activities and specifically here around food andcooking. Over time Community Action North Devon had noted and documented that many youngpeople were growing up lacking basic cooking skills. It therefore devised a project aiming to reachyoung people in need. A subsidiary aim was to assist their families who may not necessarily haveaccess to basic cooking facilities, training and opportunities. The project envisaged having foodprofessionals engage young people in cooking and encourage them to try new foods and learn newculinary techniques which they may not have encountered before so that their culinary skills andnutritional understanding could be improved. An additional belief was a hope that such skills wouldtransfer back home helping young people to engage with their family to improve their diets. Issuesaround budgeting, where possible, would also be addressed. At the project design phase theproject’s original aim was to deliver activities on an outreach basis to best fit the needs of two localauthority districts which host considerable numbers of remote communities in a largely rural area.Host organisationThis project is managed through a partnership between Community Action North Devon who workwith young people aged 8-25, largely on two social housing estates in Barnstaple and the widercommunity and Children’s Activities and Support Programme. CASP is an early intervention familysupport programme for vulnerable children aged 5-13 who are at risk of social exclusion. CommunityAction North Devon was originally named as North Devon Volunteers and were formed in 1967. In1980 it adopted its current name and in March 1997 the charity became an incorporated limitedcompany. CAND have acted over the years as a host for a range of projects all of which aim tobenefit the wider community and young people at risk of exclusion in particular. This has includedthe GOYA project which was part of the Positive Futures National Programme; Junior GOYA – aproject funded by the Children’s Fund, the Constructive Leisure Programme in partnership with theYouth Offending Team and Positive Activities for Young People in Partnership with Connexions.Additionally, CAND has been supporting young people as part of an alternative curriculum for youngpeople referred by the Pupil Referral Units, Schools and the Youth Offending Team. It also has beencontracted to deliver the Football Foundation funded Youth Inclusion Programme in the Forchesarea of Barnstaple and runs a Young offender Training mentoring scheme and My Life courses.201 SWWB Final Evaluation Report