But now the Princes Trust Youth Development Programme – known as Team – is coming to an end after 21 years.
Norfolk County Council is winding up the scheme, which has been run through the Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service youth development team in Dereham, King’s Lynn and Norwich, due to costs.
Nate Kingsland, 17 and from Dereham, is among the participants who have called its closure a “tragedy”.
Nate, who has faced mental health issues in the past, said: “If I hadn’t done this programme I would be six feet under.
“It gave me purpose, made me believe in life again. I’d been referred to so many services in the past but none of them worked. This helped me find myself.”
Mike North, 25, was also helped by the programme.
He said: “It’s about teamwork, employment and community skills, but that’s a drop in the ocean compared to how it really helps.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear that they’re stopping this because there are going to be so many people out there who will be stuck, not believing in anything, not knowing what to do.”
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Team leader Chantelle Williams has been involved with the programme for the past 14 years.
She said the Dereham part of the programme had helped more than 200 young people, many of whom classed themselves as “no-hopers”.
She said: “Through their carefully structured programme of activities and challenges, these young people have discovered they have skills and abilities they did not know they possessed and 98pc have managed to find employment after completing the programme.
“It is a tragedy that the youth of Dereham will lose this fantastic experience.”
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Scott Norman, Norfolk’s deputy fire chief, said the service had been “very proud” to have run Team, and he wanted to thank all staff who had played a role in it.
A question of cost
Mr Norman said that although the fire and rescue service was still committed to supporting children and young people, it was no longer possible to keep funding Team, which it has been commissioned to run by the College of West Anglia in King’s Lynn.
He said the service would continue programmes such as Crucial Crew, which trains Year 6 children in fire safety, as well as the fire cadets programme for those aged 13 to 17 in Wymondham, Diss and Hunstanton.
Mr Norman said: “Our colleagues at Norfolk County Council’s Children’s Services already have specialist teams working with young people not in education, employment and training and we are exploring with them how we can continue to support this work for this cohort of young people.
“We made the difficult decision not to bid to the College of West of Anglia for another four-year contract to deliver the Team programme because, along with many other areas of the public sector, we are facing unprecedented financial pressures which makes it extremely challenging for us to run projects outside our statutory remit which are overspent and put pressure on our budgets to deliver our statutory services.
“It is our duty to ensure we are making the best use of the resources and budget available to ensure we are preventing fires and emergencies, protecting people, buildings and the environment and responding to fires and other emergencies.”
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