R Time Stockport | Life Leisure

About us

R Time is a project funded by the National Lottery for young people living in Stockport that provides free, positive, fun activities and allows young people to have a voice and shape provision across the borough.

R Time is made up of a partnership between Life Leisure, Youth Justice & Targeted Youth Support and Sector 3, but most importantly the R Time Youth Network is made up of partner organisations, groups, and communities.

Each week, the R Time team can be found in the community on outreach, or delivering weekly sessions across several venues. These sessions are delivered by a number of R Time Youth Network partners and include a variety of activities to inspire and engage young people.

What are we aiming to do?

To create space for the voices of young people in Stockport who do not access building-based youth provision.
To contribute to the reduction of anti-social behaviour by providing positive interactions for young people across Stockport.
To work with local communities to provide provision for young people across Stockport.
To work with young people to develop relationships, build trust and create positive pathways.
To achieve collaboration and cohesion between youth workers within Stockport.

If you are interested in getting involved, please email Donna Higgins and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

R Time Youth Network

The R Time Youth Network provides support, guidance, funding and networking opportunities with partner organisations, groups, and communities.

We are aiming to provide a forum for Youth Workers across Stockport to network together, connect grassroots provision and drive equity across the borough. We will provide a space to discuss topics and issues relevant to youth work in Stockport, creating a channel of communication between youth organisations to support each other and our young people.

The partnership between all parties ensures that safeguarding the young people is at the heart of everything we do. The network meet bi-monthly to develop better opportunities for young people in their area, to listen to what the young people are saying and to take actions forward for the young people.

If you would like to join the network, to keep up to date with the youth provision in Stockport and actions going forward from the network email Donna Higgins.

Youth alliance

We are proud to say we are working with the leaders of youth voice in Stockport and would like to invite young people from your group to take part in an exciting new initiative being led to gather the options and voices of young people in Stockport.

The Youth Alliance project is being led by local social enterprise PIE, with support from Autisk and R Time, to help ensure we can engage with as many young people as possible to get their voices collated and heard all over Stockport over the next three years.

We will be holding youth panels and we would love to invite young people from your organisation along to these sessions. A late lunch will be provided on the day, along with a small incentive for each young person who attends (we are just confirming what this is!).

The initial session will help form the outline for the programme over the first year – including hearing the views of young people around what they are interested in, issues that young people has raised and deciding on a name and branding for the group.

We are hoping to have 15-20 young people attend this session, representing as many communities and groups of Stockport as possible. It is really important to us that we have as wide a reach as possible to gain as many Stockport voices as we can.

Any young people who would like to sign up for this initial programme should register using the link below. For more information, please contact Beth.

Sign up here

Careers pathway and training

We are partnering with Stockport College to provide a youth work course, which will enable the students to get their level 3 Diploma in Youth Work. This will enable us to develop home grown youth workers! Students who are on the course will have:

173 hours guided study in college.
Required to complete 80-hours on the job experience which averages out to two hours per week (though can be more) of work with a youth group in the community.
The course will be running from this September, free to students and a small bursary is available to those attendees who earn below £30,000.
We also have some funds available via our Lottery bid so are working with the College to decide how best to use, we want to make it equitable for all.

We have different ways in which the course can be accessed by:

Offering the course to your staff.
Being able to support a student who may not be working currently their work placement hours.
Or know somebody who would like to access this course (for free).

The course is open access, and students will need a good standard of Maths and English level 4.
If you would like more information and an application form, please email Donna Higgins and quote ‘Careers Pathways’.

Apply here

R Time have a wide range of training opportunities for not only young people but also local workers and volunteers who work with young people in Stockport.

Courses include:

Youth mental health first aid
Emergency first aid
Activator courses in a number of sports
Managing challenging young people

If you would like further information or are part of a community group who would benefit from training at your local venue, please email Donna Higgins.

Our youth workers

We are a team of people who want to engage with young people who don’t want to, or aren’t able to, access building-based youth provision, empower them to be positive voices in their communities and informally educate them through young person led activities.

We will wear R Time lanyards and clothes so you can spot us out in the community!

Holiday provision

During the school holidays our detached team are out and about across Stockport more than ever. We spend most of our afternoons on various parks playing games, giving out food and drink and chatting with young people who are out in the community. We sometimes even have special guests join us on sessions to provide even more exciting opportunities. Keep an eye out for graffiti art workshops, visits from the fire service and special sports sessions, as well as much much more.

We’ll be updating our social media with our additional sessions – so check there for the most up-to-date info.

As part of our R Time Youth Network, we have created an online mapping tool for those providing youth provision, outreach work and activities across Stockport. We are looking to add as many youth related activities as possible, so if you would like to add your information online, please contact Ross McGuigan for more information.

STOCKPORT YOUTH ACTIVITIES