Positive Activities Survey Information back

Research has shown that young people who get involved in out-of-school activities also do better in later life. But they're not just good for your future. They also:

• Help you learn new things
• Get you involved with local groups
• Help you meet new people
• Let you cheer up, have fun and enjoy yourself!

We believe that every young person should have the chance to take part in positive activities that suit them.

You can find groups and facilities which offer activities for young people on the the new Activities Oxfordshire website.

• www.activitiesoxfordshire.info

Positive, active, involved young people

We know that lots of you already do activities. But we wanted to find out more about what you do already, what you would like to do, and what (if anything) stops you taking part in activities.

So, at the beginning of 2010, we took part in a national survey of year 11 students which looked at your involvement in activities. In Oxfordshire, 2,843 students were surveyed and this is what we found out:

• Over the last four weeks 62% of you had taken part in activities.
• You found out about activities mainly from friends.
• You are most likely to get to activities by walking or by car. Only 13% of you travelled to activities by bus

 Did you know?

You can plan journeys by bus in Oxfordshire using Traveline Southeast. Just type the postcodes you want to travel between into the search boxes. On Activities Oxfordshire, click on "Plan a Journey to this organisation" under the title of the activity.

More to do at the weekends

Just 14% of you said that you take part in activities on Friday and Saturday nights. One of the reasons given for this low uptake was that only 20% agreed that there is a good choice of activities for young people available at these times.

Did you know?

As part of a recent drive to increase things to do and places to go for young people, lots of Young People's Centres in the UK have started opening at the weekends. Most of the larger Young People's Centres in Oxfordshire now run one or more sessions at the weekend. Why not see what's on at your local Young People's Centre?

Too busy to have fun?

When you were asked "What sort of things stop you from taking part in activities?", you gave three main reasons:

• Not having the time
• Not being able to get there
• The activities not being available when you want them.

That first reason was a surprise. We're pleased that you're so busy and active, and wondering if you know about activities that we don't!

If you are a member of any club or involved in an activity why not see if it has already been added to activitiesoxfordshire.com? If not, could you let us know? There are contact details on the site.

We want to list as many activities as possible so young people can easily find out about things to do and places to go near them.

Take along a friend

Over 500 of you said you did not go to activities because you had no-one to go with. Almost everyone gets nervous about going to new groups and new places, especially if you don't know anyone who already goes there.

There's a group that's looking at ways to make this easier, but for now, three simple rules can make travelling to any activity less stressful:

• Buy your tickets in advance
• Plan your travel, including how to get home
• Keep in touch with your friends

Even if you end up going to something on your own, you can still keep in touch with friends and family by text or phone, to let them know how you're getting on, or that you're coming home early.

• You can find out about Going Out, Meeting People, Keeping Safe and more in the Survival Guide

Thank you to everyone who took part. This information will help us to work towards improving the offer of Positive Activities to young people across Oxfordshire.