Each year Torbay welcomes between fifteen and twenty thousand visiting international students over the summer period. An appreciated boost to our tourism economy, the students spend time visiting our attractions and learning our language and culture. Unfortunately for some the experience is not always memorable for the right reasons, coming up against hostile behaviour from a minority of the bay’s younger residents with some visitors becoming victims of crime and verbal abuse.
In response, local Police and Safer Communities Torbay launched operation TVIS (Torbay Visiting International Students), where officers from both agencies have been working hard all summer delivering safety talks to the new arrivals.
In addition to the preventative work that has been going on, the agencies also decided to tackle the issue of intercultural hostility head on by organising an event to promote understanding and spark some welcomed bonding between the bay’s young people and our visiting students.
On Thursday 29 July 2010, the young people of Victoria Park Youth Centre and Devon School of English participated in an evening of activities. Football, tennis, interactive computer singing and dancing were amongst the games organised by Victoria Park’s Youth Centre members, of which over 30 young residents turned up to meet the 20 visiting Spanish students.
Chris Roots from Victoria Park Youth Centre comments;
“I am really proud of how the Paignton youngsters interacted with the Spanish students, I hope we can organise many more events like this in the future.”
Rachael Weaver of Safer Communities Torbay says;
“The event was a real success, going to show that a lot of the potential conflicts between young people can be avoided by putting on things like this to develop relationships and understanding between the cultures. It was a fun-packed evening which seemed to be enjoyed by all.”
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