| Re: Neds/Chavs
As woolly as it sounds, I'm definitely in the 'reach out to them' camp too.
At our LNR the Friends group is made-up mostly of senior citizens, retired couples, etc, and frankly they tend to be a little too fearful of the youths who hang out around the visitor centre. Yes, this is a rough area of Nottinghamshire and the park neighbours a council estate they might have based Shameless upon, but most kids aren't that bad. Let's face it, standing outside in the cold and the rain on a winter day probably isn't their first choice in leisure. They really do feel they have nothing else to do.
Anyway, as a solution to the perceived problem the Friends group and council chose one of those youth detterent alarms that supposedly only teenagers can hear. Personally I hate the thing, we shouldn't discourage young people from visiting any LNR.
The rangers on the other hand do invite them on working days, on my last visit they had the youths cleaning up the car park, and during fundraising events they will help us pack up the stalls at the end of the day. Okay, they do scribble on benches every so often, or mess around with the doors, but there is definite potential for inclusion with the running of the park.
Nonetheless, the prejudices of the aged Friends group persists, and there is a current stand-off between them, the council and the rangers about how to handle the youth problem.
So there are good ways and bad ways to deal with it, I think you just have to not necessarily see kids as the enemy.  |