Outreach projects

A group of residents at Netherhall House has been involved in running a project called Epicentre in Brixton, south London. The project aims to help schoolboys improve in their studies. Each boy is allocated a personal tutor to help him each week. Help with homework and academic problems is followed by an activities period in which boys get to know each other and work in collaboration in electronics projects, quizzes, etc. In addition, trips in and around London are run during the school holidays to give the boys a chance to visit places such as the Tower of London and the theatre, nearly always for the first time. Many of the boys come from broken families and socially difficult backgrounds where there is a poor attitude to studying and social intercourse. Epicentre aims to help the boys overcome some of these problems. Epicentre follows in the wake of the Citywise project which has been running in Glasgow for some years, sponsored by Dunreath. It started in the Castlemilk area, but is now being established in Govan. University student volunteers dedicate some of their free time to give personal tutoring to the boys, just as in the London-based activity.

Westpark

The year 2000 saw the Junior Club become independent of the Seniors with its activities moving to Saturday mornings. The main efforts of the leaders were directed towards building up this younger group, and helping them to develop their skills and aptitudes. A good number of them invited friends to take part in the activities, and it was encouraging to see how quickly these newcomers felt at home. The November fireworks party and the summer barbecue were particularly well attended with many new families attending. Meeting the parents of the new members has been a rewarding experience. In explaining the aims of the club we have found plenty of parents who share such concerns and who have high aspirations for the all-round education of their children. We are now helping a group of these parents to plan jointly some activities for their younger children.

Club links

NEA runs a variety of activities for school-age children, including youth clubs and social service projects.

The well-established clubs at Kelston and Westpark are affiliated to the National Association of Clubs for Young People and also to London Youth and the Middlesex Young Peoples' Clubs respectively. They also maintain close links with the Borough Council Youth Services. For example, the club leader at Kelston is employed part-time by Wandsworth Borough Council as a youth worker based at Kelston. The clubs have a management committee made up of parents and others, who are responsible for the material aspects of the club and who also help to organise parents evenings, such as the Christmas party and summer barbecue. Affiliation to NABC brings benefits such as liability and personal accident insurance, as well as minibus insurance at favourable rates. Kelston have been able to borrow equipment from London Youth, such as a keyboard which is kept at Kelston on permanent loan, and a second keyboard was purchased with a grant whose application was actively supported by the organisation.

Wandsworth and Ealing Borough Councils have similarly supported the clubs through grant aid, in the former case with an annual maintenance grant over many years as well as one-off grants for specific items of equipment, such as our video camera. In the latter case, Ealing Borough Council made a grant towards the construction costs of the clubhouse which was completed in the summer of 1998.

International summer courses

Since 1952, Netherhall House has been organising international summer courses for groups of students to come to London for a few weeks to improve their English and familiarise themselves with the rich cultural heritage that London has to offer. One aspect of these courses is the role that Netherhall residents take as language teachers and group leaders. Netherhall also provides students to take on a similar role on such courses taking place each summer abroad. This offers a great opportunity for a number of Netherhall students to spend their summer in a culturally and professionally enriching activity in which they can also improve their own grasp of languages.

Study centres

Apart from the many club activities organised for younger boys in these centres, Kelston and Westpark have programmes in operation for fifth and sixth formers. Facilities for study after school on weekdays are combined with sport, study and cultural activities on Sunday afternoons. Highlights for this age-group included a weekend at the Pheasantry in the grounds of Wickenden Manor, part of which was devoted to visiting and helping out at a local old peoples home. There were also cultural summer trips to continental Europe. In August 2000 this culminated in a few days spent in Rome where participants attended the International World Youth Day with the Pope. That event attracted more than two million young people. Perhaps the most striking legacy of the trip was the personal enrichment and widening of horizons which came from meeting people from all over the world. In August 2001, the trip involved spending a week close to Torreciudad in the Spanish Pyrenees, from where we were able to carry out a number of cultural visits and outward-bound activities. The study centres also get involved in fundraising for Kelston and Westpark and some members help run activities for the younger age-groups in the clubs, such as refereeing for the NBC football competition on Wandsworth Common in March.