Arran Youth Foundations
AYF formed in 2008 with the aim of providing youth work services for the Isle of Arran.
With support from the CalMac Community Fund the group will provide provision of 16 weekly activities, including intergenerational activities, art psychotherapy, LGBT+ club and one-to-one mentoring. In addition they provide training and development - teaching culinary skills at cooking club, working towards accreditation through weekly guitar tuition and Dynamic Youth/Youth Achievement awards. The group provide encouragement to engage in sports and exercise through girls football, running club and Friday night youth club. During holidays the group provides activities including paintball, go-karting, abseiling, paragliding, and gorge-walking. All of this is provided free of charge. This provides opportunity for sport, exercise and outdoor education.
All our young people are uniquely disadvantaged by pitfalls of island life: isolation, lack of services, unemployment (with mainland-based job seekers' services), higher house pricing. These factors have traditionally bred feeling amongst Arran young people of boredom, that there is nothing here for them or no one who cares about them. It has also led to real problems with alcohol abuse, road safety issues with young reckless driving etc. The work of Arran Youth Foundations has significantly challenged the view of old that there is no one who cares about young people.