Youth Worker of the Year
Sponsored by: Moorlands College
Prize: ipad
This award is for a youth worker who's excelled at building positive relationships with young people, helping them to see their
Clare McCormack and Alan Clark of Create, Paisely
Most Innovative Youth Work 2011
Most Innovative Youth Work
A gig night attracting 700 young people to the local student union is the monthly highlight of ‘Create Paisley,’ the winners of ‘Most innovative youth work.’
Established in 2009 out of the desire of young people to have somewhere to go and play their music, the initial event saw 40 young people attend and the project has grown steadily since. The organisation, run on a voluntary basis by Clare McCormack and Alan Clark, centres around a monthly gig night which attracts between 600-700 people to watch other young people perform. 70 volunteers from churches across the area support the event, which recently moved in to the local university's Student Union. Alan said that he was consistently ‘blown away by the way the churches and volunteers come together to put on something like this.’
Clare said that this event was just one part of work Create does and that the shape of any given event ‘is directed by the passions of the volunteers and the young people are amazing, with groups coming together to create something amazing.’ Alan said while some aspects might look similar to other youth work around the country, the attitude and involvement of the young people involved creates a distinctive atmosphere at the events. Clare said the journey there has been organic, ‘At no point did we ever think, let’s do an event with 700 young people in it,’ she said. ‘The key thing with all that we do is relational, and the way we have developed have all come out of these relationships. We wanted to create somewhere safe, somewhere we could get alongside young people, rather than a big event.’ She emphasised the importance of music to the project, calling it ‘The heartbeat of the town we live in.’
Alan said the ability to keep a youth project focused on the relational, while reaching 700 young people sets this work apart, and ensures that the project adapts to the needs of the young people.
Looking forward, Create is looking to form its own separate charity rather than the current set-up where there is no clear distinction from the churches that support it. On top of that, Alan said that they have recently been approached by the student union to do more for young people, including some work on environmental challenges.
