New service is helping engage with young people in Bolsover

Extreme Outreach is a new, innovative service developed by Bolsover District Council’s Extreme Wheels team in response to Covid-19 and services being closed to young people.

The programme helped to find out their concerns and help educate them on Covid-related issues, health and wellbeing, and general advice.

The discussions gave the Extreme Wheels team an insight into where young people were gathering and enabled them to gain intelligence on problem areas and to work with partner agencies.

The team engaged with young people who were keen to dispel myths around perceived anti-social behaviour, discuss Covid matters and were pleased that their concerns were being listened to, based upon their lifestyles.

Bolsover District Council’s cabinet member for leisure and tourism, Coun David Downes, said: “These sessions were held to try and engage with young people who had lost all their support networks in one go thanks to the pandemic.

“What Extreme Wheels managed to achieve was superb, they broke down a barrier between the authorities and the young people and learned how to better assist them in the current difficulties and beyond.”

The Extreme Wheels team is now looking at the information gathered during their outreach initiative and how best to apply that knowledge for future youth provision and Extreme Wheels events post Covid.

Extreme Outreach was funded by the Community Safety Partnership, Building Resilience and a number of Parish Councils, with the teams visiting Bolsover, Barlborough, Shirebrook, Tibshelf and South Normanton.