TUCKED away in the docks, on the very edge of the city centre, is Liverpool Water sports Centre, a community facility that offers much more than meets the eye.
It's not just messing about on the river - the venue is also home to Mobex North West, a charitable organisation working to make positive changes to the lives of the youth and community groups it helps.
The work of Mobex forms part of successful rehabilitation schemes for adults and aims to steer young people away from anti social behaviour through its focus on outdoor education and physical challenges.
Run by a small and dedicated team from their base at the water sports centre - which can be found off Mariner's Wharf, a short walk away from the Liverpool Arena - Mobex offers a wide range of activities with their outdoor specialists, who offer training and support to a variety of people of all ages.
Operational manager Jonathan Hannaway said: "We work with all sorts of different client groups, young and old, doing various activities like climbing, mountain biking, gorge walking and hill walking."
Service users come to them mostly on the recommendation of drug rehabilitation agencies, the probation service and children's services or schools. Mobex offers a completely voluntary programme that users attend under their own steam.
At the heart of its ethos is the desire to motivate its users and restore their confidence and self esteem, helping give them the strength and the focus to stay away from old, destructive behaviours.
It comes under the umbrella of projects provided by social enterprise Local Solutions, other services of which include Bully Busters, Shopmobility, and Mobex's sister organisation Merseysport.
"If users come from a criminal background, it's about steering them away from that," says Jonathan. "It is ultimately about them getting a job and moving on, getting motivated. Some people do have complex needs and serious issues and we are trying to break that cycle.
"With youngsters it's all about intervention and prevention and trying to stop them going on that ladder.
"In the city, there are lots of distractions - drugs, crime, and relative poverty. I'm from Speke and I was lucky my dad got me into the outdoors when I was a kid."
Run by a core team of two full time employees - Jonathan and his colleague Andrea Doyle - and backed up with casual staff and volunteers, Mobex works with small groups of 8 to 12 people at a time, with some elements of one to one support.
Their trips take users to places like Hadrian's Wall, Snowdonia, Colomendy, Scotland for hiking, biking and climbing activities - and more besides.
Residential experiences encourage everything from physical challenges to more practical activities including learning to cook and budgeting. This is particularly useful for those on rehabilitation programmes, learning to adapt to the responsibilities of every day life once more.
Jonathan says: "It's not just about criminality - some of these people have been abused their whole lives, and it's about them overcoming it and moving on, hopefully getting a job and coming off benefits.
"Some people we work with have never even been outside the city, and even to see cows and sheep and nice views - they get a buzz.
"It definitely works taking young people out and letting them do stuff. They get labelled, people assume they're up to no good, standing on the streets."
He adds: "We do see an improvement of the behaviour of the people we work with.
"One guy who's working with us at the moment is a former service user who became a volunteer, and he's a great success story.
"If they didn't want to be there, they'd walk with their feet. But I think we do good work. We're not the only ones doing this, but it's a valuable service."
Mobex marks its 25th anniversary next year.
It has its roots in the Young Explorers' Trust in the 1980s. That began, with European funding, as a way of getting people off the dole by training them up as NVQ qualified outdoor educational instructors - because at the time it was seen as a growth industry throughout the continent.
Liverpool was the first Mobex, but since then sister branches have been set up in Cumbria, Newcastle, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
Projects can last over several months. Those referred from the probation service can stay on and become peer mentors; and drug referrals can keep attending for as long as they need the support.
Other tailor-made projects have seen Mobex spend the day in Altcourse Prison with a mobile climbing wall to work with a small number of specially selected prisoners, and working with individual schools needing assistance with pupils on the cusp of developing anti-social behaviour problems.
Funding comes from a wide variety of organisations, often specific to each individual project, and securing the money is a never ending cycle of work for the team.
However, that never dims the team's ambitions, and Mobex is always on the look out for ways to expand. A number of culture-led programmes have been developed in the last 12 months - including a poetry project with Liverpool University's Victoria Gallery and Museum, and work with Toxteth TV and Liverpool Biennial's canal project in Bootle - and in an ideal world, it is something Jonathan would like to take further.
"If we had funding for an arts worker, we would do more down that road, like photography, drama or IT," he says.
"We're always looking for new things; we like to think we are inventive and not stuck in our ways."
For more information on the project, visit www.mobexnorthwest.org.uk
This article is brought to you by
www.yourbusinessezine.com
www.twitter.com/yourbizezine
Post a comment