In 2018, Positive Futures joined forces with several other charitable youth development organisations to form the VOSS (Voluntary Outreach Support Services). This consortium aimed to reduce anti-social behaviour in North Liverpool, whilst raising the aspirations and goals of young people coming into contact with the VOSS delivery teams.
Fast forward 3 years and the VOSS consortium has gone from strength to strength. Spearheaded by Positive Futures, the consortium has worked with over 28,000 young people, delivering the likes of school-based ‘blast’ sessions, targeted one-to-one support services, and detached sessions across the T-CAKE wards to name just a few of their interventions.
Most recently, those working on the VOSS partnership have come together for a detached training session, hosted by Positive Futures. This training session was a further example of the VOSS’ commitment to high-quality provision. It was geared up for workers who were currently completing detached work; including those new to detached delivery and those who have been working on detached for many years. 17 attendees from across the three partner organisations took part, including two youth volunteers.
The interactive day covered several topics including safeguarding on detached, what to bring on a session and what does detached youth work mean. Each of the topics included scenario and group-work discussions. Workers were able to share their knowledge and experience with their colleagues and other workers from the partner organisations, and reflect upon their detached practice within their own areas.
The participants completed a pre- and post-training questionnaire to measure changes in confidence and knowledge of detached work. The survey results found that on average, workers felt more confident across each of the 9 criteria, with the session having an overall rating of 9.3/10. The largest increase was around confidence in planning, which shot up from an average of 5.2/10 pre-training, to 8.9/10 post training. A full breakdown can be found below.
Looking forward, it is hoped that the skills and experiences shared in this training session will aid workers in their detached delivery going forward. Further to this training session, more opportunities for sharing experiences and knowledge will be offered within future meetings to promote continued professional development and develop our youth and community work practice in the North Liverpool area even further.
