Youth Club
In April 2009, a group of young women went to London on a cultural visit. With support from youth club staff, they raised the money by submitting a successful funding bid to ‘The Big Deal’. They planned the itinerary for the trip and organised accommodation and transport. On this visit, they took in the London eye, Buckingham Palace, London Dungeon, Madame Tausauds and a visit to the theatre. The group of young women had never been to a theatre before and stated that they enjoyed it immensely.
Another group of young people where supported with writing a successful funding bid in order to purchase more resources and equipment for Youth Club. This included a large television with freeview, a Wii Box with various games for fitness and a pool table. The young people now organise their own competition for pool and the Wii sports.
Nine young people took part in The mayors Award. They participated in sessions including first aid, hockey and cookery. As part of their cookery, their final task was to create a 3-course meal to celebrate finishing the award. They created the meal and the staff waited on them, with one young person commenting “it was like being in a real restaurant”. These young people were presented with their award in November.
Six young people took part in Merseyside Youth Associations pool tournament at Riley’s pool and snooker hall in Liverpool. One young person progressed to represent Merseyside in the Clubs For Young People northern counties final.
During October, November and December Youth Club formed a joint project with Merseyside Youth Association, called ‘Unite’. The purpose of this project was to engage with a group of local young people who are currently living with a disability. Using a strategic approach to integration, this group where contacted and consulted with regard to what sessions they would like to be involved in. The group where then invited to involve themselves in sessions designed around these requests. These sessions were run by both youth club staff and staff from MYA. Some young people from our Youth Club where invited to participate in these workshops. This was followed by activities in which the group where slowly integrated with the regular Youth Club members, through inclusive play and trips out. The idea was to remove barriers to attending provision (such as our Youth Club) that can be presented by unfamiliarity. It is felt that this can be achieved slowly building levels of comfort with the space, the staff and regular attendees. The project proved to be a success with many of the initial group feeling comfortable enough to continue to attend even after MYA staff had moved on.
