Bishop’s Breakfast in Poole
“There comes a point when we need to just stop pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.” This quote from Desmond Tutu summed up the message on how to work with our young people in Dorset given to those attending the latest Bishop of Sherborne's latest ‘Bishops Breakfast’.
Photo courtesy St Mary's Longfleet, Poole
Simon Thomas, senior manager for 5-19 services for the Borough of Poole, spoke to clergy, ecumenical partners, local authority, health and emergency services guests at the Breakfast, hosted by Bishop Karen in the Thistle Hotel on Poole quayside.
The invited guests heard how creating partnerships with the voluntary sector included was key to providing young people with safe places where “kids can have fun”.
Explaining how the adolescent brain still hadn’t developed fully and that in Poole teenagers gathered where free WiFi, food and friends were, he said the local authority was working alongside others to create key pathways to develop skills in those young people, by creating networks for shared learning.
“We need to prepare them from adulthood, get them into school and allow them to get the most from this beautiful area”.
Mr Thomas praised the work of the local faith groups in attracting youth and volunteers to this much needed area and said it was sad that the press seems only to concentrate on anti-social behaviour among Dorset’s youth.
He said that a recent workshop, that included young people from Poole, had shown that many of the ideas, including an App that rated youth groups and services and gave points to attendees for good behaviour and attendance, were coming from this group.
The guests were told: “We have the best social workers, youth workers, child psychologists and future politicians here in Dorset, they are just 12 at the moment!”
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