The Bridge Centre motorcycle project (transcript)

Project Development & Youth Worker: The project aims to work with young people, giving them the opportunity to do something that they would, quite often, not have the opportunity to do. And we aim to, basically, get young people some sense of achievement and excitement in their life.

East Lothian Inclusion Service: The group that we would certainly refer would be young people who have quite a history of being excluded from school, a history of behavioural issues in school. Most of them will have family issues going on, as well, for them. And, I suppose, the reason that we think that they will benefit from the project is because of what the project aims to do, and that’s to include the young people back into their community, back into their school.

Project Development & Youth Worker: You’ll split the day into two or three; so you’ll be doing team building activities and you’ll do a bit of group work, maybe discussion, and then in the afternoon it would be the bikes.

It’s a very basic process for the young people so when they come along, you know, quite a lot of the kids think that they're just let onto a bike and off you go, and it’s all good! But it’s a process that they all go through and they’ll all try and learn together and it’s a big part of trying to get them to be positive to each other as well. So, that step, that learning process is all about them being positive, trying to support each other through something that can be very, very challenging and very hard, and also extremely frustrating.

Integration Specialist – East Lothian Children’s Services: A lot of the young people who are referred onto the group are affected by alcohol in a variety of different ways. It could be their own alcohol use, they could be drinking on a regular basis and that could be affecting a whole wide variety of areas in their life. This could be having a knock-on effect in their school, on their friendships and their self-confidence, their self-esteem. So, a lot of what we try and do is to help them manage these problems better.

The big benefit for these young people is actually just interacting with other young people - similar ages but in a really safe environment. It’s an environment where they can talk about these issues; they can learn about them, they can also be challenged by the staff but in a safe and secure way.

Things like peer pressure is still going to go on in a group like this, but it's in a forum where it's actually able to be discussed and they can obviously learn from a lot of these situations that they're in, in the groups.

Project Development & Youth Worker: The importance of us working closely with other services and that the young people also see the link in what we’re doing, you know, that’s why we have a support worker from the school, for instance, to come along. So that the young people acknowledge that. ‘Yeah, this is in school time. There is a link with what we’re doing here.’ That’s key for a young person because I think it means that they can kind of open up to you a little bit, they can tell you where they're having difficulties in the school and they know that you can carry it forward for them; they know that you can be a voice for them, if need be.

Student 1: When I was at school I used to go to my classes and I’d have no pencil and bag and I wouldn’t really pay attention in class. And my confidence was really low. I used to think I couldn’t do anything, but now, after being here, it’s just fine.

Project Development & Youth Worker: Well, success for any young person is what life is about really, isn’t it? It’s what moves them on, moves them forward in life. A lot of kids, particularly a lot of the kids that come here, maybe haven’t had as much experience of success. Using the bikes, using their little goals that they’ll have - maybe whether it’s in their educational support that they’ll work towards each week, they can start to see that they are achieving. So, the bikes aspect is just another tool and they will start to see, it’s a big part of rewarding them and saying, ‘Look, you can do this.’

Even from day one, when they are saying, ‘There is not a chance I will manage that.’ We get a lot of kids who come along here and say, ‘No way! I’ll not be able to do it.’ And it’s just about breaking it down and allowing them to succeed at each and every step that you take them through.

Student 2: It actually has made me feel better about school. Because… I used to actually hate school. I wanted to prove to the teachers that I can actually come to school and prove that I can do my targets. So I feel so much better that I am actually doing it.

Project Development & Youth Worker: Changes that we see in the majority of the kids that come here are… well they're very positive. Kids will say things like they'd like to come back, they’d like to come back down and initially they're absolutely – I suppose like anything when you try something new, you’re quite scared or you are very apprehensive about it.

A lot of the kids, they have a very positive outlook on what they're doing. A lot of them are really excited about telling you that they're now at school full time, for instance, when that could have been something that they really couldn’t have given a monkeys about at the beginning of the programme, but suddenly they start to realise that, ‘Actually, this is great and I’m not getting hassled anymore.’

Some of them will tell you that they're trying harder to stay away from alcohol, or they're not drinking as much. Even little things like that, they will come to you.

Pupil Support – Dunbar Grammar School: It’s a wonderful project for bringing kids out, with regards to confidence. When they first come here, you can see that they approach you with trepidation, but as the weeks go by, they gel together. It’s a team building exercise, its all sorts of things. And you can see the individual aspects of the kids coming out and it’s terrific – absolutely terrific.

Student 3: I decided to come to Motorcycle Project to improve my confidence in school and here, because I sometimes feel that I [don’t] do as well as I could. At school, my teachers have been saying that I’ve really picked up with everything and they think, in the end, it was a good idea me coming here.

Project Development & Youth Worker: The idea of them becoming positive and trusting each other is what we’re striving towards. Trying to get the young people to also work on trust is a massive thing. To start to see a young person naturally give praise or naturally want to help and support that person, is a great thing.

Student 4: At first, I didn’t want to stay in school, I just wanted to go straight for a job, but since I’ve joined this, I’ve thought that it would be good to stay on until the end of sixth year and get a better job. It’s helped me in school a lot; I’ve been answering more questions, asking teachers for help.

Pupil Support – Dunbar Grammar School: I think this is an excellent project because the staff here are so passionate about it. They’re not just passionate about the motorcycle project itself, but they're passionate about helping young people; giving them an aspect of life and turning them to something that they probably might never ever get again in their lives. But also giving them something that can stand them in good stead – not just for school, especially, but when they leave school. And that’s absolutely vital.