Danny Bryce is a Youth Worker in Northern Ireland with the Western Health and Social Care Trust. Thanks to our cycle training, he's found a great way to engage with the young people he works with.
Danny Bryce has undertaken cycle training through our Leading the Way programme (North West) which he can now use in his job as a youth worker to engage with young people. Photo: Sustrans.
Danny is employed by the Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT), one of the workplaces in the North West which is eligible for support from the Leading the Way programme funded by the Public Health Agency.
Through our North West Active Travel Officer, Kieran Coyle and our partners at the Active Travel Centre, Life Cycles, Danny has found a great way to engage with the young people he works with to their mutual benefit.
Danny said: “I work with teenagers and we first got involved through Life Cycles bike upcycling project. A lot of the young people wouldn’t have the resources to have bikes of their own so they spent four weeks learning about the mechanics and maintenance of bikes, doing all the work themselves and at the end they had their own bike in good working order.”
Bikeability instructor course
Danny then did a Bikeability course with Monica from Life Cycles, who is also one of our volunteers. Through that, he found out that we were running a Bikeability instructors’ course in the North West where there is a shortage of qualified instructors.
Danny said: “It was great for me because I wanted to make sure the young people were safe when they were going out on their bikes and by doing the training, it meant I would be able to take them out independently.
“Through the course, I became more familiar with Sustrans and the work they do from the Active Travel Centre. Michelle was doing the course along with me."
E-bike loans available
Danny continued: "I met Kieran Coyle from the Leading the Way programme and found out about the e-bikes that were available to borrow and I now go there regularly to take the young people out. The e-bikes are really popular.
“Sustrans were very beneficial in terms of coming out with us to get the kids familiar with the greenways and Kieran taught them some basic skills.
"Down the line, we’re hoping to get Bikeability training for the young people.”
Danny works with the young people on a one-to-one basis and it can sometimes be challenging to find something suitable to engage them.
Danny said: “Young people vote with their feet, if they’re not interested, they won’t do it. But if they are motivated, they will.
"Once you get them engaged, they become more relaxed and you can have conversations and help them work through any difficulties.
“It’s good to get physical exercise out in the fresh air."
Cycling is therapeutic
"I also find, for anyone who is neurodivergent, that the constant motion of cycling is very therapeutic, and it’s really valuable helping people to focus.
“It’s been a real partnership, collaboration – through the work of Sustrans, it’s helped me deliver my work. I find that cycling is a really good activity in terms of doing individual work, it stimulates conversations.
“The young people are delighted, they love being out on the Greenways and some of them now go out themselves with their families, it’s made them very conscious of what’s out there," added Danny.
Danny has now signed up as an Active Travel Champion for his workplace where he encourages colleagues to avail of the activities at our North West Active Travel Centre through the Leading the Way North West programme.
Find out how you can sign up to our Leading the Way Workplaces programme.
See what routes on the National Cycle Network in Northern Ireland are local to you.
