Dundee Young Adult Learning Project (YALP) & Fairbridge in Dundee

The YALP Project works in partnership with youth organisations such as Fairbridge to develop and promote integrated literacies projects for young people from sixteen to twenty-four years in the Dundee area. Primarily, the host topics for YALP's work are multi-media or arts based, delivered one day a week for eight weeks. Courses are delivered on a group work basis but, when necessary, individual support is available.

Although the project is based at the Mitchell Street Centre, in July 2003 in response to the needs of young people, YALP developed an outreach programme delivering literacies support to young people engaged with partner organisations on their own premises. This approach has resulted in a number of advantages including higher attendance figures, the development of effective partnership working, improved networking and increased opportunities for the young learners.

YALP will use the extensive experience of youth literacy provision it has accumulated to date, together with the successful relationship it has developed with Fairbridge as the foundation for this"To the Max" Project. Staff from YALP and Fairbridge will work together to create and pilot a literacies resource pack for youth workers. This resource pack will inform and support future work in youth literacies.

Having completed and collated data from their focus groups, the Young Adult Literacies Project is now working on putting together a mock-up of the final resource pack. After consultation, the project has decided on producing a series of colour coded resource and/or work sheets that will be stored, initially, in a concertina style folder and carried in an organiser style shoulder bag for ease of mobility.

The information set out in the work sheets will include; a lesson plan; a list of resources; guidance as to appropriate time allocations; the optimum number of workers required and where appropriate, sources of funding for larger, more expensive pieces of work. The project also plans to supply practical examples of the finished product for each activity, where applicable, to give workers and young people a clear idea of what they are aiming for.

The kit is designed to support the delivery of creative literacies to groups of young adults and raise awareness of literacy and literacies issues with them. YALP hope that the pack will come to be used and seen as an issue based resources pack.

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