A NEW initiative in Salisbury has brought together volunteer and community groups to support young people.

The YOU Network, coordinated by the Salisbury City Council communities team and a steering group involved in its creation, will unite voluntary groups and organisations to share skills, knowledge, information, and ‘good news’ stories to support young people in the city.

Groups signed up to the YOU Network can communicate and work with one another so young people can be offered opportunities relevant to their specific interests as well as providing spaces where they can simply hang out.

The initiative started as a discussion at the annual Youth Provision Forum networking meeting, which led to a consultation with young people in the city in early 2024.

Since then, a group of volunteers and staff linked to youth clubs, sports clubs, charities, and councils have worked to create a framework for providers to sign up to while retaining their own approach to working with the young people they know and care about.

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Groups that have already signed up to the network include The Up Market Bus Shelter Youth Club, Impact MMA, Buzz Action Foundation, Rise:61, Wiltshire Creative, The Bridge Youth Project, and Salisbury City Council-run youth clubs, along with a few organisations working in association with the network while they establish new youth provision in the city, including Level Up Salisbury and Salisbury Cathedral.

These groups have united under a shared set of values, which came about from an understanding of what works well across the clubs, drop-ins, and activities network members deliver weekly.

Councillor Jo King, member of the steering group, said the YOU Network will provide safe spaces for young people to hang out.

“For many years, since I was a youth worker myself, I have known that alongside activity groups which meet across the city, there is a need for safe spaces for young people; they themselves have identified this,” she said.

“Since being part of the Youth Forum for the city council, I have pushed hard, as have others, for this dream of safe spaces for young people to become a reality.

“Much work has been done to create the YOU Network, and I believe it will be a project that will bring spaces to be available for young people where they can just simply ‘hang out’!

“A few months ago, I spoke to some young people in the Market Square and asked them if there were places identified for them to meet with each other, would they use it.

“The answers were overwhelmingly ‘yes’. So, the YOU Network is the fulfilment of that ‘yes’.”

Sherwin Uban, a coach at Impact MMA who has signed up for the network, says it will enable them to point young people in the right direction.

“A lot of our members simply want to feel like they are part of a group,” Sherwin said.

“Not everyone at Impact are fighters or want to fight. What they actually just craved is just being part of a group, a community, a family.

“Being part of the YOU network means that if people don’t want to do boxing, then we can at least point them in another direction and vice versa.”

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Robin Imeson, director of Rise:61, said, “The YOU network is going to help youth organisations in and around Salisbury to do their work a lot better.

“It can be a bit lonely sometimes being a youth worker, so networks like this are really important for the workers and their mental health, by just meeting people who are doing a similar thing and have similar passions.”

Jonathan the Jester, lead facilitator at Buzz Action Foundation, said: “It’s really important that youth organisations talk and communicate.

“We’ve learnt that we can put on events that have a minority interest, and, through networking, you can make them viable by reaching out to all the different people that are interested.”

Groups can still sign up to the You Network

New providers working with young people aged 11 to 19 can join the network at any time.

Parents and young people can look for the logo to know which organisations are involved or find the list of members on the City Council website YOU Network page, here.

Membership is free and gives access to signposting information, guidance on minimum standards, access to peer support from across the network, and brings members together to look for ways to address training needs.

YOU will also be collaborating on a series of free training and skill-share sessions open to all staff and volunteers connected to their work with young people.

Anyone who is interested in the YOU Network can find out more via the Salisbury City Council or All Together Wiltshire websites, with links to a downloadable information pack and registration form.