This will be our third year of providing Open College Network (OCN) Courses. They run three days each week. Two days are funded by Islington Council and one day funded by the Jack Petchey Foundation.

This year 22 youngsters have completed the course(s) successfully and have received their accreditation.

Young people get referred to us by Islington Youth Offending Service (YOS), schools and other youth provisions.

We have had setbacks though, and this year eight young people were forced to drop out due to different factors in their lives. However, we haven’t had the need to ban anyone from the premises because of problems.

During the past year SPARKPLUG worked with both these inclusion projects that focused on very hard to reach young people.

These courses were designed to support the work done in the schools and reward the participants with the chance to get off site for some new experiences. We have found that by being part of the school curriculum we can have a stronger impact, making young people feel more reassured because they see the end result – in this case – building a working motorcycle.

We know that by using “motors” and “mechanics” as the tools, these kinds of projects can really build confidence and self-esteem among disaffected youth.

The club provides a safe haven that keeps them off the street while the staff provides knowledge and support to help them learn about mechanics while they “hang-out” in a safe environment.

We already have 73 club members signed up – and this is only our first year! The club is a real entry point to our organization and can lead kids to participation in other elements of the programme. It’s a real draw and keeps young people focused and usually leads to greater involvement.

Currently these clubs only meet one day a week, but you can change that.  We're looking for individuals and companies to sponsor additional sessions.

Please go the the Support section, under Donations to see you you can made a difference.

Finding ways to engage youngsters in positive activities to help them build their self-esteem, confidence and social awareness is one of the most challenging aspects of our effort to move them into training and employment.

One of the most successful methods that we have used is holding scrambling events.

During the year these take place on Saturdays, school holidays and mid-week to supplement the regular schedule

1. by being referred to our OCN accredited course through Islington based youth organisations, schools and the Islington YOS.
   
2. by joining our Loose Wheel Youth Club
   
3. by participating in one of the many youth projects that hire SPARKPLUG to support their work with young people.
   
4. by attending Crumbles Castle, where SPARKPLUG started.
   
5. by being specifically targeted by our staff as being a worthwhile candidate.
   

These events while very successful are quite costly to run.  We are now seeking specific sponsorship to host individual sessions

If you want to contribute and see how your money is being spent, please call the office and speak to Martin.  You even get to go along and ride!

This project developed by Stephen Cutmore and Jason Newton, Islington’s Road Safety Officers and is a five week course which has taken place on four of our local estates and has won several awards.

The course includes: Road safety session- role play; Met Police- gory pictures, helmets,safety, the causes of accidents; Fire Brigade, accidents; Sparkplug mechanics maintenance; Drugs and alcohol, the dangers of driving under the influence

The project include a scrambling session and then has a gap of three months during which time if any of the young people get arrested or show up on the police radar they become ineligible for future scrambling sessions or a free CBT.

ScootAlive has taken place several times at The Canonbury Youth Project , the Elthorne Estate, and Prospex . Police statistics have shown a reduction of auto crime in the areas when the courses have taken place.

This is the second year that we’ve delivered a three-day course in mechanics and riding.

Young people sign up through schools or the Islington Council Summer or Easter Uni Programme website for courses during the school breaks.

The first two days are workshop based: explaining health and safety issues, learning about tools and then some actual mechanical work on bikes and scooters – all leading up to the big riding trip.

We find that many of our youngsters, who would not normally be referred onto a regular Open College Network Course (OCN), join this way.

At the last Challenge SPARKPLUG won the Mechanic’s Section and came second in the overall competition.

We try to take young people that have worked really hard and deserve a reward.

The Challenge has three sections: an 80 lap race around a motocross track, a trails section and a mechanic’s competition.

Recognizing that participation in most of our activities would normally be young men, we initiated a young women’s scrambling team.

Recent stories of the rise in anti-social behavour by young women have shown that this expansion was warranted.

This has become the perfect vehicle to show young women, that there are other ways to act "tough” and the program is perfect for the young “tomboys” who want to compete with the boys.

It is also especially effective at building up self-esteem and confidence when actually riding with and competing with the boys!

To be honest we’ve found young women are a lot easier to teach, and become much better riders.

It's a well recognized fact that by taking kids out of their regular environment and exposing them to a different world, we can give them a glimpse of an alternative lifestyle.

Considering that some of our youngsters have never been outside London, we see a trip to the country as a great opportunity to stimulate change.

These trips are legendary amongst those who have participated as we really give them a change that many have never experienced before. Imagine four days and three nights, out in the middle of nowhere – camping and riding motorbikes in Mid-Wales near Rhayader.

Not only do we teach young people how to ride trails, but they also learn how to fend for themselves - cooking, organizing events and even washing-up – something that most of their mothers would not believe is possible!

While these trips are highly effective unfortunately because of the cost, we can only do them on a limited basis.

This is due to the fact that we must take everything we need with us; the camping gear, bikes and now, the rising price of petrol has added to the expense.

We know that these trips work as we've had some very problematic youngsters attend and their reactions to the event have been notable – they all want to do it again!

Last year we took the Canonbury Project and Holloway School Project.    No one will ever forget the Wales experience.