Helping young people in the community

Megan has recently joined Girvan Youth Trust (GYT) as the Hand-in-Hand Project Supervisor and says “Although I have only worked with the Trust for a short time, I can already see what a huge difference everyone makes to the community”.

Lucy, on the other hand, is a long-standing member of the Team.  She manages Detached Youth Work, Targeted Interventions and Holiday Programmes and is also part of the Management Team.  GYT’s premises used to be a pub and Lucy remembers that, as a teenager, she used to look in through the pub windows as the renovations were on-going.  She went there once it opened and later, after leaving school as a somewhat disinterested teenager, she got a job with GYT.  As she says, “the manager took a chance on me and offered me a job.  I fell in love with that I was doing and have been here ever since”.  

Currently, half of GYT Team members have been involved with the organisation since they were teenagers themselves.  Hence they totally understand the work of GYT and its ethos as they have had their own first-hand experience.

Girvan Youth Trust was set up 31 years ago as a community based youth work charity, with the aim of enhancing the quality of life for local young people.  Their work covers not only the town of Girvan, but also eight surrounding small villages.  As this is recognised as a deprived area, local young people have many disadvantages to overcome, including limited employment opportunities, limited social opportunities and a lack of opportunities to gain life experience. GYT seeks to address these limitations and provide positive experiences to enable young people to fulfil their potential by building confidence, self-esteem and life skills.

From an initial staff of three, GYT has grown to employ 20 staff, of whom seven are full-time, three part-time and 10 are casual workers. In addition, the work of GYT is supported by a team of 80 volunteers, who range in age from 12 to over 60 years old.

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GIRVAN YOUTH TRUST CORE PROJECTS

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GYT runs four core Projects, each with a full-time coordinator.

1. StreetLights:  For three nights/week, the StreetLights team is out and about engaging with young people who are hanging about on the streets.  StreetLights works in partnership with Police Scotland, Givran Academy and other Community organisations to connect with hard-to-reach/disengaged young people. Among their successes has been Friday Night Football, which won the Inclusion and Prevention category at the 2024 National Youth Work Awards!  Since its inception, there has been a 22% decrease in local youth disorder reports.

• Life’s a Journey:  The Team involved in this Project work with local young people aged 12-25, encouraging their personal development, facilitating their experiential learning and providing them with volunteering opportunities.  The Team runs the GYT Charity Shop, which is open five days/week and provides the setting for much of the on-going work with these young people.  Recently, the Team successfully delivered the first in-house “Introduction to Youth Work” course to 14 of our Youth Volunteers, each of whom received a Certificate of Attendance and Saltire Volunteer Award.

• Z1 Youth Bar:  Since 1999, GYT have been based in Girvan High Street, where the hub is the newly refurbished Z1 Youth Bar, a state-of-the-art, multi-functional facility, which opens five days and six evenings per week. The Z1 Youth Bar provides a safe space for local young people to socialise, access information and guidance and receive support as needed.

• Hand-in-Hand Project:  This is a Peer-Buddying and Inclusion Project which reaches out to local young people with Additional Support Needs and/or Disabilities. These young people are often hard to reach, many lack confidence, have low self-esteem and lack social and life skills. The Hand-in-Hand Team seeks to re-address these disadvantages by engagement in a number of innovative initiatives.

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THE GIRVAN YOUTH TRUST ART PROJECT

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By a happy coincidence, one of the members of staff knew about the Alloway Railway Tunnel Project and knew that the artist, Chris Rutterford, was running workshops to engage members of local communities in painting and making a contribution to the final mural installation.

Lucy and Megan brought a group of eight young people to one of Chris’s workshops at the Cutty Sark in September 2024.  This was a great experience for these young people and gave them the opportunity to participate in a meaningful art installation. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves and benefited enormously from the experience.  One said “It was a very different experience but it was so good and the variety of ages was refreshing.  I really enjoyed it”.

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In addition to painting on the Mural, some participants also had the opportunity to spray paint using stencils.  This opportunity was much appreciated: “i enjoyed using the scary paints to create the silhouettes painting, as I hadn’t used this medium before”.

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Girvan Youth Trust has managed to secure funding to provide a small group of young people with the opportunity to engage in art work, specifically, to design and paint their own mural in the Z1 Youth Bar function room. Starting early in 2025, the young people who painted at the Cutty Sark will have their own opportunity to transform a dark corner of the Z1 function room by painting their own vibrant mural.  Just as community members are taking ownership of the Alloway Railway Tunnel Mural, these young people will “own” their Mural in the Z1 Youth Bar.

Megan, who heads up this initiative, says “I believe that young people can be really creative when you give them the tools and the opportunity. We will be working with local graffiti artist Tragic O’Hara, whose expertise will guide the work of our Group to ensure we can all take pride in brightening up our current dark corner”.

Megan and Lucy are very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the Mural at the Alloway Railway Tunnel and ”for the confidence this has given our young people for our own venture”.

It’s great to think that One Mural can lead to Another!

Megan McNally and Lucy O’Donnell

Girvan Youth Trust

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