A NEW face has joined the community education team at Okehampton College — Emma Hall has swapped her urban life in Brighton to take up the post of youth and community worker covering a wide rural area.
Emma, 27, will be working closely with young people to set up activities for them to participate in and her first job is to find out what their needs are.
As a youth worker in Brighton, Emma has been involved with the voluntary sector and her main projects have been setting up a snack bar and internet cafe and youth magazine.
She is looking forward to the challenge of her new job and, coming from South Wales, she has first-hand knowledge of the problems facing young people in rural areas.
'I come from a small town which was near Cardiff but not near enough to enjoy its services,' said Emma. 'It's the same thing with Okehampton and Exeter.'
'Brighton is obviously a very urban area but some of the work will be similar, like getting young people to participate in things.'
A qualified youth worker, Emma was looking to move to Okehampton with her partner who grew up in the area.
When the job was advertised in a national newspaper, she decided to go for it.
'This position is quite unique in the education department because it is solely working on the youth side and it's very hands-on,' she said.
'I think there is a lot of scope to do things in Okehampton — certainly things like "Okehampton Teens to Twenties" and "The Key" health service are a good base to work from.'
Emma's main aim at the moment is to get to know people and the area: 'The last thing I want to do is talk about loads of new ideas now and then find I cannot deliver them.'