POINT was established in 2001 to give young people somewhere safe, warm and welcoming to spend their leisure time.
Originally POINT was located in Lota Park, at Unity Hall, it was a great little building which had a computer suite, sofa, tv and was always jam packed with young people! There were no indoor toilets and only a very tiny courtyard, but it was great, homely and fun!
As many of you may know, POINT’s official name is ‘Fishguard and Goodwick Young Persons Trust Ltd’, which is a bit of a mouthful – so it was put out to the young people to come up with a more user friendly name.
A young person called Nikita Thomas who was attending at the time was the one who came up with our iconic name. . Nikita named the organisation POINT as it was the ‘point’ where everyone met. To celebrate her success in naming the youth centre – she won 4 tickets for the Stena Line!
Fast forward to 2008 and we had well and truly outgrown Unity Hall – however we had found a new home in the Popworks building in Parc-Y-Shwt. This building was much bigger, had indoor toilets and a lovely garden! The space was amazing and we soon made it feel like POINT.
Since 2001, POINT have grown considerably, where we now have not one but TWO buildings! Our Printworks building is also located in Parc Y Shwt and houses our Mentoring, Counselling and life skills support, along with a drop in 10am – 4pm Monday – Thursday
Over the years we have been successful in funding various new projects such as:
POINT Means Jobs: Where young people had access to training and job searching support
POINT Across Communities: An intergenerational project to connect the younger and older generations through mentoring, community activities and events
Nurturing the Future: Our current project where we offer Professional Counselling, Youth mental health first aid training, Mentoring
Over the past twenty one years, we have worked with hundreds of young people, and we are now working with some of our previous members children! We’ve adapted to what young people need now and we are always looking to the future, listening to what young people and the community want.
At the heart of what we aim to achieve is to make young peoples transition from childhood to adulthood as seamless as possible, and help with any issues the young people may have along the way. These fit into the 5 ways to wellbeing perfectly:
We are connected: Giving young people somewhere to go through our drop in provision. Through our amazing mentoring service. Through training the community and agencies in Youth Mental Health First Aid. Through bespoke activities like Dungeons and Dragons, Youth Forum, Mind Matters, Wellbeing activities and much more
Be active: Weekly football sessions, walking, adventure activities like coasteering, mud runs, trampolining – just to name a few
Take Notice: Taking notice of our emotions and how we are feeling through counselling, connecting us to our surroundings through the John Muir Award, showing young people they are heard, by acting on their views through consultation and the youth forum.
Keep Learning: Through accredited activities like Senior Member training, ASDAN Awards and The John Muir Award. Employability support, Youth Mental Health First Aid Training, Mentoring, Counselling, Mind Matters and engaging young people in new fun activities and experiences
Give: Through community events such as carol singing in local care homes. Mentoring, understanding and accepting differences through Mind Matters Workshops. Giving back to our Planet by being a Bee Friendly organisation and reducing our single use plastic usage. Training up the local community in Youth mental health first aid so they can better understand and help young people who may be experiencing mental ill-health
We are delighted that we have been able to provide the young people of Fishguard, Goodwick and surrounding areas, with quality youth work provision for over two decades! Join us on the 16th July 2022 at our open day to celebrate 20 years! (Celebrating a year late due to the pandemic)
We are currently in the midst of ‘next steps’ thinking for our project and we would really appreciate your feedback. If you can spare 5 minutes to answer 6 quick questions we would really appreciate it – please click here
