best. I have taught in Pen-y-Dre for 34 years and have always worked with disadvantaged children and this is the best project that has ever worked with our pupils.”
Lynne Jones SEN Teacher- Pen-Y-Dre Comprehensive School Lucy Harris, Peer Mentor Coordinator for the Merthyr Hub Team, gives an example of the joint working going on between the Merthyr Hub Team and the Merthyr Youth Service and shares some stories from Merthyr’s busy summer programme. Throughout the time the Real Opportunities team has been working in Merthyr the staff have been working very closely with the Youth Service to help create the best and most suitable atmosphere to integrate our young people into mainstream youth settings and to help the Youth Service train more Peer Mentors. This summer the Youth Service invited us to join them on a two day trip to Llangrannog Activity Centre to complete an OCN in Teamwork and Team Building. During the trip young people also had the opportunity to try out lots of activities such as skiing, horse riding and quad biking. Real Opportunities participants also shared bunk rooms with mainstream young people and had lots of fun.
A young person trys the harp during the Welsh Culture and Heritage Residential Throughout the summer a range of fun and exciting activities were run to support participants to develop independent living skills. Young people worked on travel, budgeting and telling the time by undergoing a variety of activities. They used the bus service around Merthyr to develop travel skills which included identifying the bus they needed, asking for a ticket and recognising the correct stops to get on and off. The young people thoroughly enjoyed using the bus and particularly enjoyed choosing new, fun destinations to travel to like Cyfarthfa Castle and Pen-Y-Dre fun day, which were two of their favourites!
The Youth Service in Merthyr also invited participants from the Real Opportunities project in Merthyr to celebrate Welsh Culture and Heritage on another two day residential at Treharris Boys and Girls Club. The group had the opportunity to try out clog dancing and play different musical instruments including guitar, harp and flute. All the young people integrated well during the residential and throughout the different activities and came together before going home to write their own songs which they sang and recorded and got to take home on a CD as a memento.
The team arranged trips to Cardiff Bay and Big Pit, which they used to run budgeting workshops. Young people developed budgeting skills, gained an understanding of why these skills are useful and how it will impact upon them in the future. They then had the chance to explore their surroundings and visit somewhere new with their peers. The last trip of the summer was to St Fagan’s, which the team used to focus on time telling skills. The young people had great fun. Each had a planner for the day identifying points of interest around the site. It was then the young person’s responsibility to record the time we arrived at each destination and state where we needed to go next. Everyone was keen to take part and give their input! All the activities were based on developing the young people’s practical independent living skills, but they gained so much more than that. It gave them the opportunity to socialise with other young people during the summer break, meet new people and make new friends. It gave them the chance to develop their confidence and have some fun and exciting days away from home. The whole program was a really positive experience.
Young people at Cyfarthfa Castle. 5