Youth Work

Contact details for the Youth Club & all our youth activities:

– Marc 07784 950308 marc@zebra.coop
– Debbie 07969 114592 debbie@zebra.coop
Zebra works with young people in Devonport, with our weekly session at the Neighbourhood Centre the anchor of this growing project. Charlotte is our Youth Lead.
Marc has been volunteering with young people here off and on since the 90's, and Debbie since 2022, always with other community orgs. Then - seeing a gap in provision, and sensing latent demand - in March 2023 Zebra launched a new youth night for 11-16 year-olds, seed-funded for 5 months by the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner. There was immediate take-up, so we sought and secured further funding from the People’s Health Trust which has enabled us to continue the work for a further 2 years up to summer 2025, and to expand the work to include more trips and some team training.
The team: we've been lucky with the interest we've had - we've grown a strong team, experienced youth workers and people new to the work, paid and volunteers, local people and from beyond, young and older, university placements...
Youth Work Team

Most of the team after a session in October 2024 - with DJ Jozzy, who ran learn to DJ sessions throughout that month, ending with a Hallowe'en Silent disco with 2 young people on the decks.

Our children’s & youth work is:

Strengths-based – believing in and drawing upon everyone’s resourcefulness, strengths, interests, aspirations, meanings and values (rather than focusing on deficits and ‘what’s wrong’)

Trauma-informed – recognising that, where children experience adversity – such as abuse, neglect, poverty and discrimination – this is likely to impact on them and to show up in their behaviour; we aim to be responsive, supportive, relational and restorative (rather than reactive and punitive)

Our ambition is to develop a broad, responsive children’s and youth programme which:

Holds spaces for and with them in which they feel safe, respected, nurtured and valued, and over which they develop a sense of ownership

Can provide a bridge between individual children & young people and opportunities – locally, citywide and beyond

Extends to the children’s & young people’s families

Promotes active citizenship, e.g. engaging young people in pressing issues such as the climate crisis

Is inclusive, recognising and responding well to difference, especially those differences which are commonly associated with discrimination

Volunteering

Our children’s & youth work relies on and benefits enormously from voluntary input, particularly from local people (including some Zebra members) - though everyone is very welcome. We provide full induction, individual and group supervision, termly team meetings and training opportunities.
There are progression opportunities into paid sessional work - Ryan is our notable success story, having come on a university programme, stayed as a volunteer, and now moved into paid sessional work.

Devonport Youth Partnership (DYP)

Zebra set up the DYP in the summer of 2023 as a quarterly 90-minute meeting space for  individuals, groups and organisations working with young people in Devonport  There's been lots of take up, with around 12-15 of us meeting each time for a round of updates, discussion of forthcoming opportunities, exploration of possibilities, and a chance to build connections. 

All enquiries: contact Debbie or Marc on the numbers above, or email charlotte@zebra.coop