The volunteers at the Yasp cafe are all young people and they offer mental health support to users. Photograph: Hazel Davis"Somebody walked past recently, sniffed the air, looked inside and said, 'What ARE you?'" laughs Martin Stanier. In his Bowie T-shirt and broad grin, you could say the same about him. Stanier is volunteer co-ordinator at the Young Adults Services and Projects (Yasp) cafe. Well, it's a cafe, but it's also a drop-in centre and resource for 15 to 25-year-olds. The staff don't like the term drop-in centre, though and that's why the Yasp cafe exists in the first place.
Situated on the busy main street in the Manchester suburb of Levenshulme, Yasp was created by Manchester Mind 12 years ago in response to the high suicide rate among Manchester's young men and the low take-up of mental health provision among black and ethnic minorities. Its location is ingeniously far away from any potential gang problems but on a busy bus route to and from many of Manchester's disadvantaged hotspots.
The cafe's users are a surprisingly wide range of ages and demographics. Kerry, 24, has just graduated from Salford University but is living in a hostel after a breakdown in her relationship with her mother. She explains: "I got quite depressed and started not coping very well. I had been on a waiting list to see a counsellor for eight months." Kerry went to an anxiety group where she was told about Yasp. "I went along and while I was sitting downstairs someone just came over and asked if I wanted to do some volunteering. I had only just walked through the door."
For Kerry it was something to immediately hold on to. "I was feeling a bit lost because I had just finished my course and I don't really know what I am going to do next." Yasp gives her, she says: "a really nice place to hang out, where I can go online if I need to."
Sometimes the surface issues mask some deeper problems and this is something Yasp staff members are alert to. Joe, 19, with a wide smile and a quick laugh, has ADHD. He wandered in one day a few months ago because he needed help with job applications. He's been coming here ever since, where "Debbie" helps him with all manner of things that get him down. "Sometimes when I am having a bit of a shit day she just helps me out," he says.
What unites all of the users is their need for a resource that doesn't pin them down to a rigorous course or schedule. As Yasp manager Sinead O'Connor explains: "We operate a very tolerant attitude to lateness or absenteeism in the cafe."
When young people come to Yasp they might come via a word-of-mouth recommendation or they might wander in off the street or they might find it online. Some young people will only ever come to eat or use the free Internet. Whatever happens, they will be subtly made aware of the resources available.
All of the volunteers are aged between 15 and 25, some have used the service before and some, but not all, have had direct experience of mental health problems. Young people with mental health problems struggle with finding work but an astonishing 25% of Yasp service users go on to find paid employment.
"The shop front really works," says O'Connor, adding: "It tends to be invisible to other people and visible to young people so they just walk off the street." The service is also starting to get a few referrals from social networking sites, as well as other voluntary sector services, social services, asylum support teams and GPs.
Summer is particularly pertinent for Yasp. "It's the time when young people have left school or education and are wondering what comes next," says O'Connor. "There's a great big gap between when you finish in June and September. Lots of young people don't have anything to go on to. Either you can be at home on the XBox or you can be out doing something that everyone thanks you for. There's also a spike in teenage pregnancy at this time of year."
It's now that the service promotes its mentoring scheme most heavily.
Yasp, which receives funding from the Big Lottery Fund, also delivers presentations in schools (and in the last year has presented to more than 1,000 young people), talking about the common symptoms of mental health problems. The Yasp volunteers are trained to deliver this service. O'Connor says: "There is something very powerful about a young person talking with credibility because they are embodying everything that they are suggesting the young people do. It really makes a difference."
Training for mentors takes place over four short days or three full days in Levenshulme or in Manchester city centre. Caed, who's 18, is off to university in September to study psychology and has come here to volunteer simply because he is interested in the field. Caed works in the cafe and is just about to start mentoring two people, recently completed the training. "The training was really, really interesting," he says. "It seemed a bit out there to ask someone of my age and lack of experience to be a mentor but I have realised it is all about listening and working out what they need. And having a consistent figure to talk to."
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