Orkney Youth Café Numbers are on the Up

The Orkney Youth Café has seen a surge in popularity in the opening weeks of 2017, with up to 40 young folk now using the service on a regular basis.

Numbers had dipped last year and staff at the facility embarked on a major push to encourage more young folk to use the service.

Feedback gathered as part of this process suggested that the opening hours should be changed to attract more people in. This was put into place and a positive effect has been seen immediately.

The Youth Café is a free drop in facility, based at the back of Kirkwall Community Centre, which provides young people in the community (12 – 21 years old) with a place to socialise with friends.

Staff at the service provide a range of diversionary activities for the youngsters to take part in from pool and football, to dance and craft activities. They also regularly team up with local agencies to offer advice sessions on issues affecting young people and signpost young folk to other relevant local services.

Vicky Green, who along with Lynn Bartlett, is a Youth Development Officer at the Orkney Youth Café, said: “We are delighted that the numbers have increased and have found that there’s a really good mix of young people coming in now.

“We went along to the schools and chatted to young folk about their thoughts on the service we were providing and one of their main issues was about the opening hours of the café. We listened to what they said, made a couple of changes and it’s had a really positive effect.

“Orkney Youth Café provides a safe environment for young people. We make the activities as fun and engaging as we can and relevant to what’s going on in their lives.”

The Youth Café is now open from 3.30pm to 6.00pm on a Thursday, 1.00pm until 10.00pm on a Friday and 3.30pm to 10.00pm on a Saturday.

The service is funding by the Orkney Alcohol and Drug Partnership, the Robertson Trust and Cashback for Communities.

A short video about the Youth Café is available on our You Tube channel.