The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-08445, in the name of Alex Johnstone, on the Arbroath community alcohol free environment—CAFE—project. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament commends the CAFE Project in Arbroath on what it considers the wide range of activities and opportunities that it offers to young people in the area, including street football, guidance on training and employment, health advice and active citizenship; understands that the project has achieved national and international recognition for its success in providing a comprehensive alternative to alcohol, drug use and crime; welcomes that what it considers the innovative CAFE Project model has been adopted elsewhere in Scotland and the UK, and wishes it every success as it continues its pioneering work.
17:35
It gives me great pleasure to bring this debate on the Arbroath CAFE project to the chamber. In doing so, I take the opportunity to welcome representatives of the project who are watching proceedings from the public gallery.
The Arbroath CAFE project offers a comprehensive range of activities, opportunities and advice services for young people and those with a disability. In fact, it is the only large-scale activity-based drop-in facility of its kind in Angus.
Time does not permit me to discuss in depth the full range of services that the project offers, nor the many plaudits that it has won over the years, but the highlights include drop-in sessions that run four nights a week and offer games and cooking, art and crafts, keep-fit and guitar lessons. All those sessions are run with an emphasis on developing skills, boosting confidence and self-esteem, developing literacy and numeracy skills, and promoting good sportsmanship and a healthy lifestyle.
The project also provides parent and toddler sessions; a darts academy in which people are coached by the Scottish international player Alan Soutar; a chess club; an interschool five-a-side competition; a get set, get fit programme for 12 to 15-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds; and speed, agility and quickness sessions that provide tailor-made programmes for those with a disability. Those sessions are designed to improve motor skill development.
One of the activities that has gained substantial coverage over the years is street football, which involves a portable pitch that can be set up almost anywhere and allows young people to form teams and have a game of football under appropriate supervision. Some members might recall the street football visit to the Scottish Parliament a few years ago. Members were able to have a go themselves and play football with very enthusiastic and extremely energetic and skilful young footballers.
The project’s street football team came third in an extremely tough competition in the inaugural street football world cup in Germany in 2006. It also won the fair play award in that tournament. That speaks volumes about the many added benefits that young people receive when they take part in the CAFE project.
Many of the activities take place in the project’s own premises, but other venues include sports centres, local parks, woods, beaches, the golf course, theatres and cinemas.
Like all excellent community organisations, the CAFE project does not work in isolation. Its holistic approach means that it engages with health visitors, criminal justice teams, the national health service, the police and fire services, the job centre and local charities, to name but a few.
All the activities combine to offer a comprehensive service to young people that provides them with an alternative to hanging about on street corners and getting into trouble. There is a safe, alcohol-free environment that is highly valued by those who use it and the partner organisations, which also seek to help vulnerable youngsters, some of whom come from areas that appear in the index of multiple deprivation. Some might come from a domestic setting in which alcohol, drug and domestic abuse can be a recurring feature of life.
On average, around 650 people are helped by the CAFE project each year. They are not just helped; they play a pivotal role in how the project is run. They are consulted on activities, games, equipment and the standards of behaviour that are expected. The groups can also decide on the content of their 10-week programmes. Equally important is the fact that they help to ensure that the programmes are delivered on time and on budget. Crucially, they, too, are encouraged to volunteer their services to help the project through working behind the CAFE bar or supervising youngsters or younger members.
All of those things have made a hugely positive contribution to the lives of those who have participated and, consequently, local communities have also benefited. Norrie Stein, the founder of the CAFE project, tells me that it has made a significant impact on youth offending in the area. Who would know better than him, given his role for many years as a local sheriff?
We know that young people taking advantage of the programmes and the advice and help available at the CAFE project are empowered to turn their backs on life choices that will negatively impact on their own opportunities. Such is the success of the CAFE project that it is now a much-studied model that has been replicated throughout the United Kingdom. It has become hugely important in Arbroath and Angus and a much-loved resource valued by all who are kept up to date with its activities through the local press.
As with many charitable organisations, funding the project is becoming more challenging. The community has rallied round and has been extremely generous, ensuring that the good work will continue until at least next year. The CAFE project itself has responded well, rationalising its business plan and cutting costs wherever possible. The fact is that the CAFE project, although a small charitable organisation in comparison with some others, punches well above its weight in terms of activity and outcomes. We need to see that good work continue.
I look forward to hearing the other contributions to this debate. I commend the hard work and outstanding achievements of the invaluable organisation that is the Arbroath CAFE project, and I look forward to seeing its progress in the future.
17:41
I am very happy to contribute to Alex Johnstone’s members’ business debate on the Arbroath CAFE project. I am especially keen to take part in a debate to promote the value of a community project because I previously worked in community learning and development environments in both rural and urban locations across Scotland.
In my view, the Arbroath CAFE project is a first-class example of community learning and development in action. This commendable social enterprise offers young people in Angus opportunities to participate in a variety of activities. I understand that the formal aspects of the provision include training for employment, health guidance and citizenship education. I am happy to note that the Arbroath CAFE project has achieved national and international recognition for its endeavours and achievements in providing a comprehensive alternative to alcohol and drug misuse and the subsequent involvement in criminal activities that can so easily result from that for some young people.
The subject of developing programmes for alternatives to drug and alcohol misuse is close to my heart, as I have previously worked in that field in the voluntary and statutory sectors. I was fortunate enough to gain extremely valuable experience as an addiction counsellor in Glasgow. As a consequence, I am very aware of the challenges that workers in the field of alcohol and drug misuse face, especially when working with young people.
I am aware that all those involved in supporting the Arbroath CAFE project have worked hard to seek the funding required to maintain the services that it provides for young people. They achieved their goal through generating donations, hosting fundraising events and sourcing various grants for which they were eligible. They should be commended for that task in itself.
I take this opportunity to make a suggestion about utilising the experience of the Arbroath CAFE project. Again, I draw on my experience of working in community learning and development in both formal and informal settings. The Arbroath CAFE project brings together the two elements of community learning and development—youth work and adult education—in a supplementary and complementary fashion. In that way, it is an example of community development that would lend itself easily to a process of peer education, whereby the valuable experience and skills that have been gained through the Arbroath CAFE project could be disseminated to similar groups and organisations across Scotland. The project’s model could be replicated across the country through a peer-education approach that highlights it as a template of best practice.
17:45
Some months ago, I visited Inverbrothock primary school in Arbroath to give a talk to primary 6 pupils on the life of an MSP and the work of the Parliament. Having—I thought—fired their imaginations and enthusiasm, I invited questions. Up shot the first hand, but the young lady in question did not want to explore the workings of the Parliament or ask anything remotely connected with the role of a constituency MSP. She simply asked, “How can we save the CAFE project?” That put me in my place, although I was able to explain that I had been helping Sheriff Stein to identify a number of funding sources that might be explored. It emerged that several of the kids were deeply concerned about the threat to the project, and they outlined some fundraising ideas of their own that they thought could assist in securing its future.
I tell that story simply to illustrate how much the CAFE project means to those who use it. I think that, after 17 years, those of us who live and work in Arbroath have become so used to it being there that we have perhaps come to take it for granted. The revelation that Children in Need had called a halt to providing funding, with all the potential consequences that that threatened, was a wake-up call.
My most recent visit was on a night that was given over to providing activities for youngsters and adults with learning difficulties. Some were there with carers, but the project is proud of the fact that a significant number of the participants eventually develop the confidence to attend on their own, which of course has the benefit of giving the carers a wee respite as well.
As Alex Johnstone highlighted, however, the project does much more than that. On four evenings a week, it offers drop-in sessions for P4s to P6s and then S1s to S4s, with a range of activities that help to develop skills and an emphasis on healthy living and good citizenship. There are teatime clubs two afternoons a week and a holiday club that runs three afternoons a week. The P7 active boys and girls groups welcome many youngsters who are in care or under supervision. There is a parents and toddlers group, an Alan Soutar darts academy and a chess club. Additionally, jobcentre staff are there once a month to advise and assist young people into work. All told, it is estimated that 650 young people a year benefit from the CAFE project’s work. That is why it is so important that a means is found to ensure its survival beyond July.
Missing out on a 13th year of funding from Children in Need was undoubtedly a blow, but the CAFE project was not unique in that, with nine out of 10 applications to Children in Need being unsuccessful. As Alex Johnstone said, these are difficult times for charities and competition for funding is fierce. However, I understand that the CAFE project is planning to knock on Children in Need’s door again quite soon, and I wish it well in that. I welcome Angus Council’s renewed engagement with the project, which I understand will lead to the council assisting with the preparation of grant applications and with energy efficiency measures to help to drive down the overheads that are created by the age of the building at Brothock Bridge.
In concluding, I pay tribute to Sheriff Norrie Stein, the project’s founder, who is in the gallery tonight. Mike Weir MP and I will meet him on Sunday for an update on the progress that is being made to secure the project’s long-term future. We are going to grab a coffee in the cafe at Morrisons in Arbroath, as Sheriff Stein will be there participating in a bag pack to raise funds for the project. I think that we will be chatting almost on the run, as it were. Sheriff Stein is a remarkable man whose contribution to the town and its surroundings was recognised relatively recently with the naming of a street in his honour, and the CAFE project is an equally remarkable Arbroath institution. I wish both a long and prosperous future, and I congratulate Alex Johnstone on giving us this opportunity to note all that the CAFE project has achieved.
17:48
I congratulate Alex Johnstone on securing the debate, which gives us a chance to reflect on what is a successful and important project not just for the Arbroath area but for Scotland, given its influence and the innovative work that it has done. It provides support to some of those in the local community in Arbroath who most need it, it helps young people from challenging backgrounds and, as has been said, it provides the only large-scale activity-based drop-in centre for young people and those with disabilities in Angus.
I recall visiting the CAFE project in 2007 during that year’s election campaign with Jack McConnell, who was then the First Minister, and Cathy Jamieson, who was then Minister for Justice. We heard all about the good work that the CAFE project does and we saw the facilities that are provided at the centre. We met the young people who were using the facilities and who clearly found them invaluable in making a big difference to their lives. Those young people would otherwise not have had a huge amount to do in many instances. It was clear that the Arbroath CAFE played an extremely important role in the local community.
Members might also recall that, during that election campaign, the issue of antisocial behaviour was particularly to the fore. One of the benefits of the work of the CAFE project has been that it has offered some of those young people who might be at most risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour alternative activities. It has therefore benefited the wider community and not just the young people.
The project has not just offered those young people the social and leisure activities to which Alex Johnstone referred; it has provided them with skills through work placements, volunteering, and work with the jobcentre. It has also offered health advice. The CAFE is therefore providing a whole range of essential services to young people and other individuals and families in the area.
That project and the visit remain so clearly in my memory not just because I met young people who clearly valued the work of the project but because I met Sheriff Norrie Stein, whose enthusiasm for the work and the mission to provide much-needed support to young people in the area is infectious. It is clear today that he galvanises the whole community around the work. I know that the determination was born from Sheriff Stein’s experience of meeting young people through his work as a sheriff. Those young people had not had the opportunities that are provided by a project such as Arbroath CAFE. As Alex Johnstone said, the project is providing young people in the Arbroath area with opportunities to lead far more productive lives as young people and in the future as well. The benefits of the project also lie many years into the future.
The project does not just have local effects. Through its innovative and successful street football project, it has supported young people in Arbroath, in the north-east and throughout Scotland. Hundreds of communities have benefited from the pioneering approach of the Arbroath CAFE project.
As has been said, at this time, the project needs our support more than ever. I hope that the minister will reflect on what she has heard tonight and on the huge amount of support that the project has in the community and in the chamber, and that ministers will do all they can to support the Arbroath CAFE project so that it can continue to play its vital role in the community for many years to come.
17:52
Like Alex Johnstone and Graeme Dey, I welcome the Arbroath CAFE members to Parliament this evening.
Yesterday we had the opportunity to discuss the invaluable work that is done by YouthLink Scotland and the youth work sector as a whole. All those who contributed yesterday recognised how important it is to give time, commitment and care to helping our young people to live the most fulfilled lives that they can, and to reach their full potential. That is the essence of good youth work: the focused and passionate commitment to giving young people the chance to make the most of their lives.
I am therefore grateful that Alex Johnstone has brought the example of the Arbroath CAFE project to the attention of Parliament. In his opening speech, he gave us a vivid picture of the project’s work and its impact on the young people who benefit from the project, and on the wider community. It is also good to learn about a Scottish football success in a world cup, which is unusual and something that we should celebrate.
The breadth of activities that the CAFE provides is impressive. It provides that all-important drop-in centre that gives young people a safe and welcoming environment in the community, and is the basis for a number of projects that provide real development opportunities, particularly for those youngsters who face some difficulties or serious challenges in their lives. As Graeme Dey said, it is clear that the project is very dear to Arbroath’s heart. The number of people that it helps is impressive.
It also provides the basis for connections into the wider community by hosting other projects such as the mother and toddler group, and an employability drop-in service in conjunction with the local jobcentre. Those connections are considerable. According to the local Evening Telegraph, the project works with health visitors, social workers, criminal justice offender services, nurses, police, firefighters, parents, carers, teachers, Angus Council community learning and development, Angus Council recreational team for people with disability, the jobcentre, local businesses, the Round Table, the Rotary clubs, the Royal British Legion, and churches, to name just a few. In that way, projects such as the Arbroath CAFE project embody many of the principles that we talk about in abstract terms here in the chamber and in wider political discourse.
We often talk about prevention and early intervention. Projects such as the Arbroath CAFE project are perfect examples of prevention and early intervention in practice. As Anne McTaggart said, by providing positive channels for the energy and enthusiasm of young people, such projects divert them from finding less constructive activities, even where the temptations and opportunities to do so are strong.
Richard Baker, Alex Johnstone and Graeme Dey described the passion and leadership of the founder of the project, former sheriff Norrie Stein. Judging by their comments, he has clearly left a mark on all of them. Norrie Stein said:
“The CAFÉ Project has changed people’s lives, there’s no question about that. It was very rare to see anybody with a connection to the CAFÉ Project appear in court—thereby breaking a family tradition in some cases.”
We know that early intervention and diversion works. The whole-systems approach to youth justice has played a major contribution in the significant decline in youth offending in the past few years. It appears that the Arbroath CAFE project is well and truly doing that in practice.
We talk about the idea of wellbeing. I know that Angus Council has developed the wellbeing web, which is being used throughout Scotland. It is a good time for us to stop and reflect on how many of the safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included—or SHANARRI—wellbeing indicators a project such as the Arbroath CAFE project achieves. It provides a safe environment, free from some of the more corrupting and destructive influences that can bear on young people as they reach their teenage years. It promotes healthy and active living, seeking to harness young people’s energy through sports-related activities. By providing services for the more disadvantaged youngsters and promoting volunteering, it is all about nurture, responsibility and inclusion. Such projects thrive on the respect that they afford young people and the respect that they get in return.
We often talk in the chamber about an assets-based approach. We know that the best way to secure the long-term improvements in life chances that we want to see is through the building up and strengthening of people and their local communities. In the long run, it is not about treating young people’s needs but about giving them and their families the strength, resilience and opportunity to tackle life’s challenges. That is true of communities, too. Locally based initiatives designed to meet local needs and drawing on the inspiration and commitment of local people are at the core of that approach.
We often talk about multi-agency collaboration. The list of those with whom the project works is clear evidence that all the agencies involved in helping and supporting young people work best when they are brought together and work together.
I understand that there are issues of funding uncertainty. That has been clear in reports in the local press. I am aware that the project has just secured funding of £3,000 from the Bank of Scotland community fund, which should secure the project’s continuation until July next year. However, I am told that Angus Council has since been offering the project financial and other sorts of advice to help it to become more sustainable and look for funding from a range of sources. I know that a number of potential funding organisations are willing to discuss the future with the organisation and also that the project has launched a public appeal. I wish the project well in its efforts and hope that Graeme Dey takes part in the bag pack that he described.
As a Government, we are keen to see that projects that contribute to the wellbeing of young people and to local communities can be sustained as far as possible. In yesterday’s members’ business debate, I referred to the range of support that the Government provides to youth work organisations and to the range of funding mechanisms by which they can seek support. That includes cashback for communities, which is an example of a funding opportunity that the Arbroath CAFE project should definitely pursue.
Again, I am sincerely grateful to Alex Johnstone for bringing to the chamber the Arbroath CAFE project, both as an example of the huge range and wealth of youth work projects across the country, and as a reminder of the challenges that we face in difficult times in maintaining the support that our young people need and deserve.
It has been clear from the passionate contributions from Richard Baker, Graeme Dey and Anne McTaggart that we need to sing loudly about the contribution of youth workers to our country, their talent and commitment, and the support that they give to our young people to enable them to go on to lead fulfilling lives. The Arbroath CAFE project is undoubtedly a good example of such work. The respect that it has gathered from right across the political spectrum is testament to the work that it puts in to ensure that young people in Arbroath are given all the opportunities that they need and deserve in life. Thank you.
Meeting closed at 18:00.Previous
Decision Time