Youth Services

This Year's Youth Services Committee.

The committee will continue to offer those activities that have enjoyed a good level of participation in previous years and introduce some new ones. 

The popular Youth Speaks, a public speaking and debating competition for high school students will we hope be successfully re-established after the unavoidable cancellation due to Covid-19.

RYLA - Rotary Young Leadership Award offers two high school students the opportunity to learn and improve their leadership and team working skills through a weekend of challenging physical, mental and trust developing activities. 

Kids Out provides 30 disadvantaged primary school aged pupils with a day out, usually to Knockhatch Adventure Park – a fun day for both the children and from the adults who accompany them.

Mock Interviews provides valuable interview experience for Year 8 high school students preparing a CV that our interviewers scrutinise before conducting a 15-minute interview followed by feedback to the students. It is a rewarding day for the interviewers as well as useful experience for the students. 

We also support one of the pillars of education – literacy – through the provision of ‘Reading Partners’ they provide individual support and guidance to primary school students as they read aloud to their ‘partners’. This programme of support is very much valued by the schools.   

Buster’s Books, a reading scheme, seeks to assist literacy by encouraging regular reading with competitions, and rewards. We have financed the participation of one local primary school for the past two years and look forward to continuing our partnership with them in the current year. 

Our Young Writer competition for primary school students, launched in 2019, was well supported and we hope that it will enjoy a similar level of support in the coming year.

We also provide mentoring to students of Bexhill College as they meet the challenge of entering college, university or the work of work. 

Interact – is Rotary for high school students and we are proud to have sponsored and supported such a club at St Richard’s Catholic College. Over the years the club’s members have delivered enthusiastic support for international Rotary projects such as polio eradication and gift filled shoebox for less fortunate children and adults in eastern European countries. .

A new event, jointly with the Community Service committee, the Scrapheap Challenge, with residents of all ages will be invited to construct a sailing vessel from recycled materials looks was recently held and such was that level of interest and participation looks set to become a regular event in our future programme. 

Another new event, to reflect the major challenges of climate change, will be the offer of   competitions that will challenge primary and high schools students to consider the environmental impact of some of our consumption of the earth’s resources.    

It promises to be an exciting and challenging year!