AFTER more than15 years of providing creative opportunities to young people in Barry and the Vale of Glamorgan, Vibe Experience will be closing its doors feeling pretty pleased with itself for the fantastic work it has managed to carry out in its area.

There has been a wealth of entertainment provided at its Vibe Events, music and DJ workshops, SPLASH summer programmes and dance celebrations to name a few.

Based in AREA 41 Holton Road Barry, Vibe went from strength to strength organising large scale events at the Memorial Hall every month with some of its young performers on stage and often on the same nights as other invited bigger acts including NDUBZ and Lethal Bizzle. These were the ultimate TEEN Parties for 12 to 17 year olds, extremely popular, attended by over 800 young people and staffed by fully trained youth workers and Vibe event staff.

In 2006 Vibe were awarded monies from the European Regional Development Fund which enabled them to expand the team and provide film, music and information technology workshops to young people living in less advantaged wards. It also enabled the employment of a Youth Inclusion Officer and a Finance and Admin Worker.

Mike Bendell, chief executive officer for the organisation, explained: “Vibe Experience has certainly made a difference to many young people’s lives and has helped them achieve their true potential. I started Vibe 15 years ago and the difficult decision to close the company has been due to the current economic situation and lack of funding in the voluntary sector.

"Since making the announcement I have been approached by many young people who currently attend projects or we have worked with in the past and it shows from their response that Vibe meant a great deal to them. We always tried very hard to keep in front offering young people the latest activities and attracted large numbers of young people whether it was our ‘Leisure Centre Take Over Events’ , our monthly Vibe performance events at the Memo or our workshop activities at Area 41.

"We are very proud of our achievements and real difference we have made to young people in the Vale. I just hope that necessity to work in targeted areas doesn’t mean that we forget that young people as a whole are forgotten and left out. Personally I have been fortunate to work with so many great youth workers and will always remember their dedication and friendship”.

Much of Vibe’s work in the early days was geared towards diverting antisocial behaviour from young people. Relying heavily on public funding to run projects they worked closely with the police in identifying high risk areas where young people may be susceptible to antisocial behaviour. Vibe worked with these young people in encouraging creativity and harnessing talent through the outlet of multimedia, film making, music production and IT skills. Vibe’s biggest night of the year would be to organise an event for Halloween as this was notoriously an evening with increased antisocial behaviour from young people and were run in partnership with South Wales Police and funded by the Vale of Glamorgan Safer Vale Partnership. In 2006 the event featured chart topping group FUN*DMENTAL 03 and top DJ Richie Vibe Vee from Radio 1 BBC Xtra and 2008 featured Beatbox Fozzy a hot name on the South Wales hip hop scene.

Vibe’s summer schemes (SPLASH) offered some great opportunities to young people in Barry who may not have had the chance to take part in normal circumstances due to their limited resources. In the summer of 2006 Vibe were able to offer water sports activities, quad biking and gorge scrambling within its programme as well as a trip to Oakwood theme park. In 2008 Vibe expanded its programme and offered bowling, surfing and ice skating trips as well as singing workshops, DJ workshops, dance classes and arts and crafts. The Splash Scheme was run in partnership with the Vale of Glamorgan Youth Offending Team and funded by the Youth Justice Board.