ABOUT US

Silx Youth Project has been in Blyth since 1996. It offers free activities and support for young people aged 11-25 across three main projects: Teen Bar, Employability Project and The Detached Street Engagement Project.

Silx Teen Bar is a multi-award winning project that, for four nights a week, offers young people aged 11-19 a range of free recreational, educational, and fun activities. We provide a safe, welcoming and friendly environment where young people can meet their friends and enjoy the activities on offer, staffed by a team of qualified youth workers. We are open Monday-Thursday from 5 pm-7:45 pm. The young people can participate in a host of fun and issued-based activities, including pool, arts and crafts, healthy cooking, team games, PS5, Jewellery making, nail art, make-up sessions, workshops centred around relationships, drugs, alcohol and lots more. The youth workers are available to give advice, support and guidance around any personal issues that may arise.

As well as our weekly programme the organisation also encourage young people to take part in social action projects that not only benefit themselves but the wider community, past projects have included Blyth Town Carnivals, Litter picks, donations and collections for local food banks.

We also like to give young people new experiences and put on at least one out-of-area trip every month throughout the year, and during the summer holidays, we plan at least one trip or residential each week. We always endeavour to make the trips FREE or cost very little to the young people.

Silx Employability Project has been going for over 15 years and offers a range of support for young people aged 16-25 who are not in employment, education or training. We work closely with external providers to get young people the correct support they require to make them work ready and able to progress in life. Our drop in is open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12-2:45pm and is staffed by qualified youth workers who can offer support not just around work but also benefits, housing, debt, budgeting and any other personal issues that may be a barrier to progression.

We provide free access to laptops, internet and printing facilities. Our workers will support young people with creating and updating a CV, doing a job search, completing job application forms, interview preparation, budgeting skills and applying for benefits. The team work closely with each individual and our partners to find the right training and opportunities to help them to progress.

We offer in house CSCS training in partnership with Central Training which is very popular, young people that complete this gain an IOSH safety, health and environment for construction workers qualification, CSCS test and CSCS card. As well as CSCS training we also offer a whole host of FREE online courses in a range of subject areas.

We also offer a whole range of FREE recreational activities which allow the young people to build on their confidence and self esteem whilst looking for employment, past opportunities have included Gym sessions, Team building away days, rock climbing and ice skating.

Silx Detached Project In addition to our centre-based provision, we also carry out detached youth work three evenings a week. Our workers have built up great relationships with young people who choose not to access centre-based provision and work closely with the police and the local community to keep young people safe and reduce anti-social behaviour in the town.

(Updated November, 2024)

Registered Charity: 1118360

Silx Youth Project takes your privacy very seriously, you can access our data privacy notice here: https://www.silxteen.com/download/silx-data-privacy-notice/

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