The Woolwich Youth Zone is the perfect place to have fun, make friends and be active!
Our programmes provide young people with a safe space to meet friends and develop skills and interests whilst engaging in positive activities. Young people are at the heart of what we do and therefore have a say on the type of activities we deliver.
Youth Clubs
As part of our youth offer we run exciting open access youth clubs at our Woolwich Youth Zone on a Monday. Whilst clubs are term time only, we also offer free activities during the school holidays. These include day trips to Southend, football tournaments, snow camp, music workshops and more! Sessions and activities are open to boys and girls.
Monday session times:
- 3.30pm – 5.30pm – Youth Club for 8 – 13 year olds
- 7pm – 9pm – Youth Club for 13 – 19 year olds
We offer a range of activities which are designed to promote skill development, healthy lifestyle and build confidence and self-awareness.
Activities include:
- Indoor & outdoor sports
- Cooking
- Arts & crafts
- Wellbeing activities & therapeutic space
- Movie evenings
- Interactive games
- Music recording studio & workshops
- Trips out
- Interactive games and more!
Detached youth work
As part of our detached outreach, we also offer activities such as football, basketball and other sports off-site on a Tuesday from 3.30pm – 5.30pm. Refreshments & support included.
Click here to complete a registration form (for parents/carers).
Click here to complete an agency referral form (for professionals)
1:1 Mentoring
In addition to our Woolwich youth clubs, YMCA also runs a 1:1 mentoring programme for those young people who’d benefit for some more focused support. Each young person referred to the program is matched with an adult mentor who they’ll meet with for 6-12 months.
Read more - 1:1 mentoring
Our comprehensive ‘Skills Matrix’ has been developed as a framework to help young people reflect upon their awareness, soft skills and character development. The Skills Matrix clearly outlines what levels of progression look like in 7 different areas.
These areas are:
Teamwork and Relationships, and Self-Awareness to help young people find their place and ‘Belong’, Leadership and Communication Skills to help young people ‘Contribute’ and Resilience, Confidence and Healthy Lifestyle to ensure these youth are ‘Thriving’.
Using star diagrams, we help the young people consider and plot the different areas, establish goals they’d like to work towards and reflect upon their progress.
The YMCA 1:1 mentoring programme has supported young people through tough times, family break-ups, life changes and the loneliness and boredom of the pandemic. It’s helped them identify and develop positive relationships with friends and family, and build confidence to make good choices for themselves, such as developing a positive attitude about school grounded in the belief they can succeed. It’s also helped young people address their disruptive and challenging behaviour, helping them to become more aware of themselves and others.
This programme has also provided practical help with schoolwork, especially during the pandemic, providing space and support to complete work and with internet and laptops where young people lacked this equipment.
Schools Mentoring
In addition to our youth clubs and 1:1 mentoring programme, we also launched a group mentoring programme back in 2020. This 8 week programme is designed for educational settings, supporting groups of 10-15 ‘at risk’ youth. The young people referred into the programme are potentially at risk of becoming NEET or struggle in class due to behavioural, mental or emotional needs.
Read more - schools mentoring
These workshops cover the seven key areas of personal development laid out in our comprehensive Skills Matrix.
- Teamwork and Relationships
- Self-Awareness
- Leadership
- Communication Skills
- Resilience
- Confidence
- Healthy Lifestyle
Each of these topics are explored week by week through a combination of interactive sessions combining group activities, discussions, visual and kinaesthetic tasks alongside opportunities for individual reflection.
As the programme progresses the young people’s confidence and interest grows, they open up and share their experiences, learn to listen and work better together and consider their choices and futures.
Overall this programme has been a great success. At the end the young people plot their progress in the 7 Skills Matrix areas using a star diagram, this helps them to visualise how far they’ve come. Each of the 7 areas has 10 levels of development, so far on average each young person has improved 14 levels across the 7 areas which demonstrates significant growth. We are currently seeing 60+ young come through this programme each year and are looking for opportunities to expand into new schools.