Information on the Youth Service in Torbay
Torbay Youth Service returned to Torbay Council on 1 June 2023 having spent 3 years as a Council commissioned service as part of Torbay Youth Trust, alongside the Young Carers Service.
Youth workers seek to work with young people to promote their social and personal development and to encourage young people to have their own voice in their communities and within our society. Youth work is about young people being involved in their own active decision making, which starts with making a choice as to whether to engage with the youth work process itself. It is entirely voluntary.
Youth workers seek to build trust and to offer safe spaces for young people to explore their own identity, make informed choices, build resilience, and have fun! Torbay Youth Service utilises the National Youth Agency Youth work curriculum in our work with young people as part of our informal education processes. The Torbay Youth Service team sit within the Family Hubs within Torbay
Our friendly youth Work team consists of 2 experienced and qualified Senior youth workers, a full-time trained youth support worker and our part time experienced LGBTQIA+ Participation worker. Our experienced and valued volunteer youth support workers and trained young leaders support our Group work.
Torbay Youth Service has a largely targeted youth work offer, which means it is targeted to the needs of young people who may welcome some youth work support on a 1 to 1 basis or to have a youth worker arrange to visit them to discuss what Groups and Activities may be on offer in Torbay. For example, The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.
Early Help is a way of working which brings together workers from all different services to support children, young people, and families. Because the Youth Service is a small team that targets it’s support mainly to referred young people, all our targeted referrals come through Early Help.
We also have a small open access youth offer which is available to all young people who would like to engage in some activities during the holidays and some possible Group activities with the Youth Service and some of our partner organisations.
Please contact us with any queries and we will direct you to the relevant youth work team member by emailing us at youthservice@torbay.gov.uk or call us and leave a message for the Youth Service team during office hours on 01803 208100.