Paul Calvert spoke with Derek Marshal

Derek Marshal

Engaging young people in Scotland through extreme sports and working with 80 former street children in Uganda, Paul Calvert spoke with Derek Marshal to find out about his work and what drives him, when he visited Bethlehem.

Paul: What is life like in Scotland?

Derek: A lot colder than it is here in Bethlehem and very busy. I'm involved in a number of projects: a large youth centre in Dundee, which is a former industrial town of 150,000. We spend a lot of time working on youth activities for the young people trying to keep them out of problems.

Paul: I have been to your project in Scotland with the youth. Please could you tell us what you do there?

Derek: We are really looking for a tool to engage young people and the vehicle that we are using is extreme sports. This includes skateboarding, BMXing and inline blading. Then we move young people into other programmes and activities.

Paul: You have a huge building; do you have ramps where the kids can go up with their bikes and the skates?

Derek: Yes, we built the first purpose skate park in the United Kingdom in 2004 and we have about 16,000 square feet of ramps.

Paul: What is youth work like in Scotland? Is it difficult working with youth?

Derek: Yes, it becomes difficult depending what age group you are dealing with. We tend to be dealing with a younger age group. We are dealing with primary age groups, maybe 6-12-13 year-olds and we have found that a bit easier. We used to deal with an older age group and it became very difficult to try and engage with them. We stepped back a bit and now we start with a younger age group. We also work with all the primary schools in the city as well.

Paul: In Bethlehem there isn't really anything for the youth to get a hold of. What is there for the youth in Scotland?

Derek: In comparison to Bethlehem and what I have seen around here, we have much more resources that have been made available for the young people. However we still have the continual complaint from people that there is nothing to do. We still have the crowds on the street corners despite facilities, services, programmes and sports activities that are made available.

Paul: What is family life like for the youth in Scotland?

Derek: Family life for many of the children we deal with is very disjointed. We have a large number of single parent families and usually that means mum and the children and often dad is missing. There are a whole range of issues that come with the young people we work with.

Paul: Is drug abuse quite prevalent in Scotland?