Community Outreach

Transition Extreme’s Outreach projects provide facilities, activities and diversionary opportunities for young people living in Aberdeen. We introduce young people to exciting, adrenaline packed sports in a bid to divert their attention from ‘negative recreation’ and onward to positive life ‘transitions’ building self-confidence and aspirations.

Our projects remove barriers to youth participation and enable young people to engage in new opportunities. This has increased confidence and has encouraged positive engagement throughout other areas of their lives. We aspire to support young people to gain a sense of ownership over a community facility and thus a feeling of success and achievement as a result of their increased confidence and motivation.

Overall the projects provide a safer environment for positive recreation for young people, a place for them to take pride in, feel a sense of citizenship and responsibility in what they achieve.

The Outreach projects have continually encouraged youth participation and enabled young people to engage in various new opportunities. We have noticed a positive increase in the participant’s confidence and sporting ability. We have successfully supported young people to gain a sense of ownership over their local skateparks, supporting them to maintain their park and organise skatepark events.

Currently the projects have taken place in Northfield, Bridge of Don and Torry. We plan to roll the projects out to Mastrick, Westburn and Tillydrone within Aberdeen City. Following on from this we wish to focus on other areas in Aberdeenshire such as Peterhead and Fraserburgh.

Bridge of Don has been one of our success stories with over 35 participants turning up every week. Our focus for this project was to rejuvenate the skatepark and build relationships with external agencies of the community such as Grampian Police and Aberdeen City Council Youth Work Team.

Bridge of Don’s skatepark was greatly underutilised, however since Transition’s involvement in the community the skatepark has become a hub for positive recreation. The skatepark has been cleared of broken glass and general debris which has helped to install a sense of pride within its users and the surrounding community with parents and users’ turning up at weekends to ensure the park is clean and safe to skate in.

‘Transition Extreme’s Outreach project has been fantastic for the young people involved. My son’s confidence has grown week on week and the interaction with the Transition Extreme staff has been invaluable. The community has benefited from the visits to the skatepark by the Transition Extreme staff and the obvious police attendance. There have been improvements to how the skatepark is being treated in a positive way and hopefully this will continue to improve and be used on a more regular basis. COME BACK SOON TRANSITION EXTREME!’
Quote from parent of participant, aged 10years (2012)

Transition first launched its project in Torry in early 2012 with resounding success (despite the weather). Torry has been known for a lack of community spirit and has very little facilities for young people to utilise. What few facilities there were, were often in need of some love and care. Since Transition’s involvement we have seen a significant improvement in the sense of community and care of thier local skatepark. Our focus throughout this project was to improve confidence and pride within the youth community, looking to find young people to become guardians of the park and carry out park maintenance. Currently there are 9 custodians taking responsibility of the skatepark to ensure that it is clean and safe to ride.

‘My son really enjoyed the ‘Transition to Torry project’. His sport skills have improved and he can’t wait for the project to start again. The Transition Extreme Coaches and Project Coordinator were brilliant with Dylan and really nice to me as well’
Quote from parent of participant, aged 9 years (2012)

The Transition to Northfield project has been running since 2010. The project has proven to be so successful that we have continued to run the project every year with great success and attendance with over 25 participants turning up each week. Essentially the project is an outreach coaching programme aimed at young people from the Northfield area. The programme has not only taught young people how to ride their local skatepark but has identified 10 young people to become custodians of the park. These custodians have taken responsibility for becoming guardians of the park and ensuring that it is regularly cleaned, removing any broken glass or hazardous objects. They also encourage other young people to come along to the weekly coaching sessions and help to teach them the skills required to safely ride the park. The Transition to Northfield project was the first of our outreach projects. Given it was such a success it has provided us with a platform which we have been able to roll out the project into various areas around Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

“My son Dylan has been visiting the Northfield skate park for the past 6 weeks for the sessions that Transition Extreme has been running there. I just wanted to send an email to say how great I think this scheme has been for him. He has ADHD and I struggle to find activities that focus him, whenever he comes to the Northfield skate park or visits Transition Extreme he really enjoys it and puts one hundred per cent into it. The instructors are great and always have patience to spend time showing Dylan new things. As a result we are going to get Dylan a year membership for the centre for his Christmas. Thanks for your time and effort, keep up the good work.”