Changing Gearz background

The Changing Gearz Project was set up in 2015 and is part of the ESF funded Inspire to Achieve and Inspire to Work projects in Torfaen County Borough Council. The Inspire projects were set up to target support for young people aged 11-24 who are not achieving their potential in school or are unemployed and to help them engage, progress and develop; achieve qualifications and move successfully into education; employment or training.

Changing Gearz & young people

The Project has been set up as a cycle project which aims to train young people in bike maintenance and repair and cycle training. Young people must be age 14-24 years old and meet the NEETs agenda to get involved. For more information please contact the office on 01495 750338 or email info@changinggearz.co.uk

Changing Gearz is based at the Inspire Centre in Panteg Industrial Estate in Griffithstown, Pontypool, where the project uses bikes and cycling as a theme within which to work with the harder to reach young people in Torfaen. Young people have the opportunity to work in very small groups or one to one, with qualified cycle mechanics, and learn new skills and achieve qualifications, go out on bike leadership activities, develop their confidence and build positive relationships; with the main aim of helping the individual progress successfully within or into employment, education or training.

One of the key themes of our project is to try and use recycling in our work with young people. This is the case with our bike work where the project uses donated bikes from the public or obtains them from Police Forces so that young people can fix them and then make them available to the public; and also does the same by training young people to work on and repair old computers which are then reused or distributed to members of the public.

Recycle & re-use

The project also helps the community to recycle bikes and bike parts instead of them ending up in landfill. In addition the project is looking to develop ways of using any left over cycle parts as part of an Arts project with young people looking at creating sculptures; making clocks; seats etc.!