Joshua Sanders - Skilzone

The name Skillzone covers a multitude of safety orientated courses, and is therefore a ‘ safety education centre ‘. Joshua is the manager running the Centre under the auspices of Gloucestershire Fire Service. The funding is provided out of the Fire Service budget.

The zone, in Tuffley Lane next to the Fire Station, is run by four paid staff plus 42 adult volunteers and 3 youngsters. It is made up as a ‘village‘ with a road, police station, shop, and houses. The object is to give 2 hour courses to children, young adults and the vulnerable, on the dangers of everyday things in life, and how to keep out of trouble; whether it be due to house fires, accidents including road accidents, online, or criminal activity. A current chord was struck by the course on knife crime (Knife or your Life) where the accent is on trying to prevent junior school youngsters from carrying knives in the first place. 

They work with the police on underlying causes of crime, such as breaking up gangs, but sadly not on drug crime which is at the bottom of so much these days. Obviously prevention is much better than cure, but should cure be necessary, the children are shown, the Magistrates Court, the custody suite in the police station and have the pleasure of trying out the cell for 30 seconds!

Life can be a risky business, but the good news is that there are 50% less house fires than ten years ago and less road traffic accidents.

Overall this skillzone is a fairly unique project as it covers so much, with some original ideas that hopefully will catch the attention and save some fraught situations for people for the rest of their lives.  Very well worthwhile and valuable to the community in this online world, where there seems to be less and less emphasis on practical matters. Rotarians were advised not to leave stuff on the stairs.

Our thanks to Josh for an enthusiastic and thought provoking talk.

Peter Burton