Just nine years after first joining Fishguard Youth Club as a junior member, Stephen Lewis of Goodwick has returned to the club – as its full-time Community Youth Worker.
The former Ysgol Bro Gwaun pupil took up his appointment last week, and is full of enthusiasm for his new role and ideas for the future.
“I can’t wait!” said the 22-year-old. “First of all I’m going to be asking young people how they feel about their community and what sort of things they would like to see happening.”
“I’m also putting together a month-long programme of activities and events, and I’d like to set up a youth forum to drive the club along.”
Based in the Popworks, Stephen is working part-time for Point in the day and running the 250-member Fishguard Youth Club in the evening. The first club project he’s organising is a sponsored stay-awake, from 8pm to 8am. Young people will be asked to raise £10 each and all proceeds will go to the RNLI.
Stephen said it was his own enjoyment of Fishguard Youth Club – which included trips to Cardiff and Manchester to watch rock concerts – which made him want to go into youth work as a career.
“I just had a really good time,” he said. “There was a lot of enthusiasm and we used to have a lot of fun.”
“You can get excellent opportunities from youth clubs and now I’d like to provide those same opportunities for young people in the Fishguard area which I was lucky enough to experience myself.”
Stephen first became interested in youth work when he was 16 and completed Senior Member Training, the first youth work qualification, before undertaking an OCN2 in Introduction to Youth Work, and voluntary and part-time work. He also began an Open University Foundation Degree in Working with Young People and is due to graduate this summer. He intends to complete the full Honours degree.
Stephen is also keen on sport – he plays football for Goodwick United and is on the board of the Phoenix project, representing the interests of young people in Fishguard and Goodwick.
If you are interested in attending the Popworks Youth Centre you can contact Stephen on 01437 776635. The Point is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the daytime and the Youth Club is open Tuesday nights for Junior members Yr 6,7 and 8 (7:00-9:00pm), Wednesday nights (7:00-9:30pm) and Thursday nights for Senior Members (7:00-9:30pm).
