m-power

Highlights from Oct 2020 - Oct 2021

Good numbers of young people participated in the programme which reflected effective recruitment efforts by staff.

Focus was sustained on the ‘pillar’ priorities of Community Relations, Personal Development and Citizenship no matter the nature of health restrictions in place

Staff morale has been and remains high despite the immanence of programme closure

A small number of staff left the programme des[ite the impending closure of m-power.

Gaps which opened up due to staff losses were effectively managed to maintain provision. Several General Secretaries were very helpful in this regard, and m-power staff proved flexible and adaptable.

The ‘Step Challenge’ engaged several locations in the shared experience of walking hundreds of kilometres

A Staff residential allowed staff to reflect on the impact of their work over the year, and to acknowledge the skills and qualities they contributed to work with the young people.

Greenhill opened up! All of the m-power groups have been able to / will make great use of the venue. This fulfilled the m-power goal of enabling young participants to enjoy developmental outdoor experiences.

The programme was evaluated by an external agency and high-lighted the profound impact the programme had had upon young people. It gave insight into how similar programmes might be run more effectively.

The expectations of the funders (Department for the Economy, SEUPB and The Executive Office were met to their satisfaction.

Challenges from Oct 2020 - Oct 2021

All involved in the management and delivery of the programme have worked with one eye on the conclusion of the programme.

A number of staff moved to other work. It became inviable to recruit after a point which required management staff to ‘juggle’ allocation of Project Workers to cover gaps in staffing. This task was all the more difficult given the geographical spread of m-power.

Staff recruited during Covid restrictions had to relate remotely to colleagues and young people for several months.

Those schools with which m-power had engaged expressed great disappointment that the programme is to end.

Some programme elements, such as Good Relations, are particularly difficult to deliver in the context of Covid restrictions.

Some measurement tolls, such as ‘Outcome Star’ proved unworkable during remote delivery

New Horizons 2022

Any Concrete Measurements you have available:

Two hundred and thirty-two young people participated in m-power during the year.

A total of five hundred and sixty-six young people have now completed the m-power programme. This reflects that the young people sustained attendance on the programme for twenty-six weeks and for a minimum of two-hundred and sixty hours (one hundred and twenty-five hours during Covid restrictions).

Almost all participating young people live with, and in contexts of, complex needs.

A sample of quotes from those who have been touched by m-power:

"I get to talk to people and I feel accepted. I was struggling a lot before Christmas with my mental health and finance they really helped me out and did a spending, finance plan with me which was really helpful." (Young person from a community m-power group)

"I never really had much support from parents growing up, and in school I was really closed off and I didn't really talk to many teachers. The past few months has been the first time I actually felt like I had support from someone who knew what they were doing.” (Young person from a community m-power group)

“[The young people] Tell us very much what’s going on and we get to journey with those young people through the experiences; their thoughts and opinions, developing those together, all the conversations that we have. There are huge strengths to m-power and [we provide] a platform to talk about issues that exist that they mightn’t be able to talk about anywhere else, whether that’s drinking in the park at the weekend or that really risky situation they get into with their friends." (m-power staff member)

"We had people in the group who I don't think were very aware [about Good Relations] ... myself included. I wasn't aware of some global issues but with m-power we were taught about it." (Young person from a community m-power group)

"Things that you maybe wouldn’t have seen before ... you don’t really think about care homes ... we were going round and visiting them and visiting people and then you start to care -that’s the whole point of citizenship isn’t it?" (Young person from a community m-power group)

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