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The Community Education department aims to ensure young people and adults have access to a wide range of educational and sporting activities. To capture the imagination and develop programmes that will excite, increase participation, develop skills and extend learning.

We are developng three areas of work that integrate in an educational and creative way that reflects both the needs and wants of our users. The success and growth of the Lifeskills projects, expansion of our children's work (creating a new project called NRG) and the amalgamation of the sports development department now all under the education umbrella.

Lifeskills
Reconnecting disengaged young people into education, employment, training and independent living.

Lifeskills is an exciting project who’s primary aim is to support young people to raise their self esteem, access education in a non formal setting and empower young people into further education, training and employment.

Lifeskills is an opportunity for young people to improve their basic skills in a more relaxed atmosphere because they have become disengaged from formal education and training.

The core principles of the project are that: regardless of your educational background we will help and empower you to gain new skills and confidence in an informal setting that will form a basis for further education, training or employment.

Lifeskills is available at both our East Street and Aylestone sites. The Lifeskills rooms have been equipped to help run the programme with computers, scanners, TV’s, videos educational games and packs.

Lifeskills Activities
To reconnect we run a range of activities including workshops, programmes and subjects. We have developed what we feel are the six core competencies young people need to enable them to gain the confidence/self esteem to access further education, employment, training and independent living.

Our Core Units are as follows:

COMMUNICATION
Anything from E-mail/Internet to using the telephone

HEALTH EDUCATION
Healthy Eating to Sex Education

EQUALITY
Understanding sexism, racism and other forms of oppression

EMPLOYMENT & TRAINING
First-Aid, CV’s, Literacy, Numeracy

INDEPENDENT LIVING SKILLS
Budgeting, Social Skills, Forms Filling

AWARENESS OF SELF AND OTHERS
Anger, Stress Management, Raising Self Esteem

ADDRESSING OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR
Looking at the effects of offending
Identifying why young people offend
Risk taking
Looking at peer pressure and offending
Victims and how offending affects their lives
Low education achievement and offending

WORLD CULTURAL
Populations, poverty, education, unemployment and employment, environmental and political issues of the world. Music around the world. Sports, food, religions, languages, national dress, wonders of the world, animals, crime, health and urbanisation.

OTHER OPTIONS
Getting Connected *- A National qualification addressing issues around social inclusion.
Community Sports Leaders Award - A National qualification based around leadership skills
Basic Food Hygiene
First Aid
Basic Skills

* Since November 2000 over 50 young people have gained this qualification. For many it is their first ever qualification.

ASPERGERS GROUP
is a support group for young people with aspergers syndrome; it provides recreational, social, leisure and educational activities.

Hinckley Lifeskills
Leicester YMCA’s Community Education Department has already started helping young people in Hinckley when it’s new Lifeskills Project opened in June 2004. Young people aged 16-19 can be self referred to the project or join through a Connexions personal advisor. The new centre is open Monday – Wednesday 10am-4pm.