Youth Hubs were opened across the UK since the Covid pandemic. Most are operated on a grant system supporting in conjunction with the DWP.

The main purpose of the Hubs is to support 16-24 year olds into Education, Employment or Training. This is usually carried out working closely with the local Job Centres. The main principle is to add extra services.

In terms of Fleetwood & Wyre, The Volunteer Centre Blackpool gained the grant to operate the Youth Hub from Fleetwood.

There are 2 staff members – Mark Gilbert who is the Hub Co-Ordinator and Courtney Isherwood who is the Hub Assistant. They also have dedicated job coach, Rachel Allen, on site from Fleetwood JCP. Rachel holds all youth appointments in the Hub and offers her service to participants.

Whilst the main referrals come from Universal Credit claimants, Fleetwood Youth Hub also support 16-18 year olds who do not claim UC and have started to see an uplift in ‘walk ins’.

Fleetwood Youth Hub are a community-based organisation and work with many different local services in a collaborative way where they can sign post, reach out for support, and add value to their service.

What is on offer

• Employability services including CV writing, interview techniques, job searching techniques and training opportunities. They do this on a one-to-one basis and within group sessions
• Mental Health Support – They have partnered up with a few organisations to support wellbeing and mental health (Fleetwood PCN being a good example of this)
• They also partner with organisations such as Lancashire Adult Learning to support with training
• They work closely with Fleetwood Trust who are the landlords for the building. They have a 10-year plan to regenerate the old hospital into a hub for the community, specifically the youth
• Type of sessions they operate – Confidence and Resilience, Debt Management, Dealing with Conflict, Wellbeing (light touch), CV writing, interview techniques, Dealing with stress, Mindset, Supporting your Benefits…and others