Youth Service - Stroud District Council

Stroud District Council deliver youth and community work with and for young people across the Stroud district.

A small team of specialist youth and community workers deliver youth participation projects and programmes with and for young people in their communities.

It's a free open access service. 

We engage with young people between the ages of 11 and 19, to enable them to influence decision making which brings about change in them, others, the services they receive and their communities.

Young people accessing our service are typically looking for one or more of the following;

• To make new friends and learn new skills
• To change the way their community sees young people
• To be a voice for other young people
• To design and run community projects and campaigns
• To have a say in local decision-making

The youth work team are friendly and supportive, enabling young people to be taken seriously whilst having fun. Much of the service is delivered through group work and is facilitated by the youth work team. 

Initial access for a young person is via one of our 9 locality based youth forum groups across the district. These are based in either the market towns and surrounding areas or large youth populated villages of the district. The groups are as follows;

• Berkeley Vale Youth Forum
• Cainscross Youth Forum
• Cam and Dursley Youth Forum
• Chalford Cubed Youth Forum
• Hardwicke Youth Forum
• Nailsworth and Minchinhampton Youth Forum
• Stonehouse Action 4 Youth
• Stroud Town and 5 Valleys Youth Forum
• Wotton Youth Forum

Our service also includes the facilitation of Stroud District Youth Council (SDYC). An award winning* youth led organisation that was established over 20 years ago by Stroud District Council. SDYC is made up of representatives from the aforementioned local youth forum groups and secondary schools in the Stroud district. It is the recognised active voice for young people in the Stroud district and works with many organisations and service providers in the county to improve services.

Through it's membership of the British Youth Council (BYC), youth voice representatives are able to advocate on behalf of others and influence matters being tackled regionally and nationally.

*BYC Youth Voice Awards 2020: Youth-Led Organisation of the Year