THE new youth service provider for Bradford on Avon and the surrounding area is looking to employ three part-time youth support workers.

Community Family Care is seeking people who can demonstrate a ‘tenacity and enthusiasm in working in partnership with young people’ to deliver the new youth services.

The company is part of Community Foster Care, a foster care charity and social enterprise with four offices, operating in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.

Based in Royal Wotton Bassett, the company’s Wiltshire office has just signed a £144,000 three-year contract to provide youth services to more than 3,000 young people.

The service, which plans to start delivery in September, will work with young people aged 10 to 18 and up to 25 for young people with additional needs or who have been in care.

CFC’s chief executive Mark Kingston said: "We are a firm believer in the significant value and social capital held both within all local young people and the local community.

“At Community Family Care, we are driven by our values and see our role as unleashing the potential and ultimately enabling the community to release the ambition of their young people and creating a better Bradford on Avon.

“We want young people to feel this is their service and as a starting point, would like young people to develop the name for their new youth service.

“We are inviting suggestions from local young people to be emailed in to us at: Info@Communityfamilycare.co.uk."

The appointment to deliver the service follows the youth service strategy approved by town councillors in December last year and a highly competitive tender process.

The council received two presentations from the Community Family Care team and a national children’s charity.

Councillors agreed that the new provider would provide a highly innovative, responsive and localised service for Bradford on Avon and the surrounding villages.

The new Youth Service is funded primarily by the Town Council, with additional financial support from the Bradford on Avon Area Board and the Colonel William Llewellen Palmer Educational Charity (CWLPEC).

It will operate in the town and reach out into the surrounding villages, covering an area matching the four Wiltshire Council divisions of Bradford on Avon—North, Bradford on Avon—South, Holt and Staverton and Winsley and Westwood.

It will deliver some ‘traditional’ services in addition to outreach work and more targeted work with young people.

It will also work closely with local schools and other service providers, including delivering preventative work to address behaviours that may place young people at risk.

Councillors are also keen that the service provides a platform for young people to have more of a direct say in decisions that affect them and will be looking to the service to provide opportunities for youth participation and citizenship initiatives.