CYP Summer Programme

CYP Summer Programme Update

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE STRATEGY UNIT I S S U E

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Welcome...

SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: • National Play Day • Park Launch • Summer Exchange Programme • Summer Arts Programme

…..to the September 2013 edition of the Children & Young People Summer Programme Update.

We thought it would be nice to share with you highlights of some of the activities that have been taking place over the Summer.

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Swansea does National Play Day! Children from Swansea joined with more than 850,000 others across the UK to celebrate Playday— the National day for Play in the UK on 7th August!

The Children’s Play Team and partners hosted three events, in Mayhill, Swansea City Centre and at 360° Watersports Café and Beach. Over 250 children enjoyed the day joining in with messy play, arts and crafts, beach sports, exploring the Play On Wheels Playbus and painting a

For further information on Children’s Play Team please contact Stephen Cable, Children’s Play Officer on Tel: 01792 635154

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pirate ship!

Families enjoyed playing together and one Mum commented, “How did so much fun for kids come out of, and with that bus?!

Thanks, a real memory to be treasured by so many kids. Happy day!”

Playday is also a campaign that highlights the importance of play in children’s lives. For our children’s well being everyday should be a Playday but National Playday is a

great way to promote the importance of play and campaign to ensure every child gets time to play.

Other events funded by the team to celebrate the day included successful Playdays in Blaenymaes, Morriston, Penclawdd and Montana Park.

Park Launch Montana Park Play Club is part of a Big Lottery funded project and free, open access play sessions have been running on the grounds Thursdays and Fridays 4:00—5:30pm term time and over holiday periods.

This summer saw the installation of new play equipment after a consultation process was undertaken with local children and residents to find out how children like to play and what play equipment they might be interested in.

Football posts and a basket swing

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were by far the most popular, closely followed by a bike track and climbing equipment. There is still a small sum available to further develop the park.

Current interest among 812 year olds includes a skating equipment eg. Half pipes, grind posts, a treehouse and slide.

The launch of the park was held on Thursday 1st August. The day was well supported by children, parents, PCSOs, the Youth Service, Communities First, our local Councillor Mike White and Assembly Member Sian James. The

Co-op kindly came along and donated pasties, sausage rolls, cupcakes and lots of drinks.

There was a lovely community atmosphere and the children really enjoyed playing on the new equipment and taking part in the play session that followed. There was lots to do on the park, from coloured hairspraying, parachute games, fancy dress, sports, to a treasure hunt.

We had freebies donated from The Children’s Play Team, Change4Life, Road Safety, Youth Service and Pick up Spares.

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A Busy Summer for the Children and Family Centre Team summer.

The three schemes run at Swansea Children’s Centre, St Helen’s Primary School and at Mayhill Family Centre, are all aimed at children from the age of 4 to 8 but with both St Helen’s and the Children’s Centres catering for children up to the age of 11.

The team have survived another grueling yet highly successful summer holiday care scheme season. A team of over 15 staff across 3 sites, over 120 children and 2 CSSIW inspections has made for a busy fun packed

All 3 schemes welcome children with all abilities, differing needs and have been fortunate to work closely and be supported by experience and qualified staff at Interplay. This has meant that all schemes were able to provide the

support needed for some of the children within their care. The support by Interplay has been a crucial part of the holidays and is very much appreciated by all the staff, families and children.

Both the Children’s Centre and Mayhill Family Centre were inspected by the CSSIW during the holidays and are now awaiting their reports. Initial feedback at the Children’s Centre was extremely positive ‘the children were cared for, had access to a fantastic team of staff, resources and were clearly enjoying themselves’.

To find out more about the 3 schemes please call Swansea Children’s Centre on Tel: 01792 572060 Option 5

Teddy Bear Picnic 2013 Paradise Park and Ravenhill Park

29 agencies, 120 families and 189 children attended the events.

On 30th July and 1st August 2013 the Early Language Development Team organized a Teddy Bear Picnic event at Paradise Park and Ravenhill Park.

Books and Tesco.

Children also got a free Niva UV band when they entered the event.

We also had bread donated from Warburtons and we used this for an activity.

The events were organized to engaging parents in the surrounding areas of the parks and to celebrate love parks week.

Flying Start staff did crafts that related to the bear theme and races.

The Early Language Development Team made smoothies and honey sandwiches and signed families in and made sure the event ran smoothly. The Parenting Team did Welly Wanging for the children and adults. We had fire safety with the fire engine and fire officers. In each event you could meet the local PCSO and in Paradise Park could even sit in the police car.

The events were mentioned in the Evening Post on Monday prior to event and also advertised on the Wave radio station on the ‘What’s on’ section.

To get estimate numbers in attendance a sign in sheet was circulated where families received a free raffle ticket to win prizes donated by Osborn

Various other activities included

baby toys, crafts, road safety awareness games, activities and information, oral hygiene advice and brush skills with Design to Smile. Football and games with 360. Interplay did circus and parachute games.

Waterfront did digging for treasure.

Menter Iaith Abertawe promoting Welsh activities.

Leaf provided activities around healthy eating and Communities First offered support to the community, promoting various services including Citizens Advice.

29 agencies, 120 families and 189 children attended the events.

Continued….

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Feedback from families...

Paradise Park: “Today’s activities were very pleasant and the workers are very humanitarian, they do their jobs without discriminations.”

“Really good, it keeps the little ones amused.”

“Fab, maybe a bouncy castle next year?”

“Really enjoyed!”

“Been brilliant, thank you.”

Ravenhill Park: “360 worked brilliantly with my children...wonderful afternoon.”

“Fantastic day out.”

“Had an amazing day out.”

“Had a fantastic day….really friendly people.”

“Fab day, amazing for the children.”

“Brilliant day, activities for all ages.”

“Brilliant day, see you next year!”

Summer Exchange Programme During the first week of August 2013, Swansea Young People Services took part in an exchange programme in partnership with youth projects from Belfast and Cork.

The programme saw seven young people from the Blaenymaes area, travel to Belfast and engage in an action packed week alongside ten young people from Belfast and nine from Cork.

Over the course of the week the young people were able to visit many landmarks in Belfast including Stormont Houses of Parliament and Giants Causeway. They were also taken on a tour of Belfast City Centre that travelled

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through some of the Protestant and Catholic strongholds within the city.

The tour was extremely informative and gave the young people a great insight into the politics, tensions and sectarian divides within the city.

A clear highlight of the programme was visiting the young people’s estates in Belfast and spending an evening in their Youth Centre (Aards Arena, Youth Centre).

This was an excellent programme for all the young people involved. They had the opportunity to learn about different cultures and ways of life as well as forming lasting relation-

ships with each other.

The next leg of the programme will see the groups from Belfast and Cork coming to Swansea in February next year. The final trip to Cork is scheduled to take place in August 2014. The young people from Swansea are very excited about hosting and have already started putting together ideas for the Welsh leg of the programme.

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Info-Nation helping young people to take volunteering “Step-by-Step” Since then, they have taken up placements, ranging from a couple of weeks to two months, in France, Greece, Germany, Latvia and Austria.

This year, Info-Nation enabled six young people to take up the opportunity of a life time and travel across Europe to volunteer. This has been made possible through UNA Exchange’s ‘Step by Step” programme.

Ryan, Jess, Cerise, Shaun, Alex and Tom started their adventure in June, climbing Snowden to raise money to fund their places on the project.

Each young person had to raise £150 to fund their place. Assisted by young people who had previously volunteered with UNA Exchange, with support from Info-Nation staff, they worked as a team to plan a range of fundraising activities.

are currently involved with a youth/community organization.

It is aimed at those who have had fewer opportunities in life, or have experienced challenges. Tailored preparation, training, support and follow-up are provided to ensure that the programme is as accessible as possible to all young people, regardless of experience and background.

As in previous years, the young people that have taken part on these projects have created such a good impression, that they have already been offered further placements with some of the projects they have worked with.

Step by Step is an international volunteering programme for young people over the age of 18, who are living in Wales and

For further information contact InfoInfo-Nation on: Telephone: 01792 484010 or email: infoinfo-nation@swansea.gov.uk

Rural Summer Programme 2013 The Rural Youth Project has worked across the rural wards of Swansea engaging young people in a summer programme focusing on the outdoors. This has ranged from activities in local parks and communities to residential experiences in Gower.

Playing games and picnics in the parks or green spaces in rural communities have been well attended and enjoyed.

On the residential

events the activities experienced were surfing, coasteering, rock climbing, abseiling, beach games and making camp fires, and keeping youth workers up most of the night!

The programme has worked with over 100 young people through the summer holidays and the outdoors theme has been really successful.

Feedback from young people: “There’s lots of people to meet who aren’t from my area.”

“It’s a good laugh and fun doing the activities together.”

“Meeting loads of new people; Also some of the activities and opportunities we have had have been great.”

“Gives me more confidence to do things.”

“I’m more mature, I don’t act as silly.”

“I’ve been staying out of trouble, I’m more confident now.”

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Young People Services ‘Push the Boat Out’ Summer Camps 2013

The week also featured an

This year has seen an exciting and innovative partnership form between the Young People Services, Technocamps, Menter Iaith, Communities First, Careers, Keeping in Touch Project, Outdoor Activity Centres, the Ohana Project and the Traveller Education Service.

By working together and sharing resources the partnership has enabled five, four day residential learning

experiences called ‘Push the Boat Out’, to take place.

Targetting NEET young people in transition and at post 16 and some of the most vulnerable young people at pre-16, the programme generated huge interest and uptake from young people. After four weeks of the programme, 58 of the 60 available spaces were taken up with one week still to run.

The re side nt ial was focused on the key opportunities for learning in youth work which are, educative, expressive, participative, inclusive and empowering. It also sought to develop some of the top employability factors being highlighted by the CBI w h i c h i n c l u d e communic at ion skills, problem solving and flexibility.

extreme night where challenges ranged from walking on glass and fire, through to a ‘Bush Tucker Challenge’.

Continued...

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The young people had to work together in teams of 5, competing against each other in a wide range of challenges, with the winning team taking home a cash prize. Some of the challenges included a ‘Come Dine with Me’ style cooking competition, a ‘Young Apprentice’ style entrepreneurial task, raft building and team building challenges. Technocamps ran an innovative App and Robot building competition over three days, helping the young people engage in and develop some of the latest and most up to date IT skills.

The young people started the challenge by being dropped in by speed boat and completing an orienteering challenge to find the camp. The week also

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features an extreme night where challenges ranged from walking on glass and fire, through to a ‘Bush Tucker Challenge’ where the very brave even ate Kangaroo testicles and handled live snakes and spiders.

A Diary Room went on through the evenings where ‘Diary Room’ workers helped young people explore and identify the skills and learning they gained from the tasks and challenged them to look at their own contribution and interactions throughout the day.

The challenges of running such a high number of long residential camps is extremely hard work for all the staff involved and massive thanks is thoroughly deserved by all the individuals and organizations that have contributed to its success.

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Some of the challenges included raft and team building

The feedback from young people has been nothing but positive, with one young person describing the programme as ‘the best experience of their life’.

Swansea Youngsters take part in Summer Arts Programme A group of 12 Swansea young people have been using their summer holiday free time artfully to get a specialist qualification and even employment.

The 14 to 17 year olds have been taking part in the Swansea Young People’s Services Summer Arts Programme and tried out a range of performing and visual arts including dance, drumming, T-shirt printing, circus skills, sculpture and DJ-ing.

They can use the sessions simply to learn new skills or to work towards their Bronze Arts Award. It’s one of a series of Swansea Council-led summer programmes for young people which give those taking part Youth University accreditation.

The 14 to 17 year olds were mentored for a day by a pr o f e ss i o n a l photographer.

Will Evans, the council’s cabinet member for learning and skills, said: “The programmes are open to all young people but as well as being good fun they are also designed to engage those who are at risk of becoming NEET—that is Not in Education, Employment or Training.”

“Some of the young people who are on the summer arts programme have already moved into employment or another related course which is fantastic news.”

Youngsters with photographer Graham Harris during the photography workshop at Gorseinon Youth Network Centre

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SPARK Blaenymaes SPARK Blaenymaes started the summer by holding the annual National Play Day event on the 7th August.

Present were dancers (Troy Boyz and Mini Maniax), resident rock bands from the Rock School project (Good for Nothing and Troubled), music, stalls by Swansea Metroplitans ‘Olion’ project, sports and activities from Streetsports.

The centre also teamed up with ‘Olion’ to deliver some great projects including graffiti, t-shirt making, jewellery making and making musical instruments.

Both the rock school bands also played the Olion festival on 15th September in Townhill.

For further information contact SPARK on: Telephone: 01792 585538

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Eastside Family Support Project Family Fun days and Community Trips Eastside Family Support Project held 2 play sessions for the families living in the community, the sessions were attended by 88 adults and 144 children.

The families engaged in lots of different Art and Craft projects, face painting, messy play, fun food activities as well as enjoying the bouncy castle. Families also got the chance to get advice and support from projects such as the Road Safety Team, Communities First, Healthy Together, Community Police and the Recycling Man. Feedback was positive and included comments such as ‘It’s great having the centre in the community’; ‘You always do a lot for

the children’; and ‘Loved the crafts; we will make these at home’.

34 Adults and 36 children went on a trip to Oakwood Park and 30 adults and 36 children to Bristol Zoo. The trips are aimed at giving the families a chance to do something different, for many of our children these trips were completely new experiences. Our feedback forms included comments such as: ‘We would not have visited these places if trips were not on offer’; and that they liked the fact that we allowed them to pay small amounts towards the trip on a weekly basis.

All worn out after a busy day at the Zoo

For further information contact Eastside Family Support Project on: Telephone: 01792 644106

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Children & Young People Strategy Unit For more information, or to contribute information in a future newsletter, please contact The Children & Young People Phone: 01792 637743 E-mail: cyp@swansea.gov.uk

Summer Newsletter

Strategy Unit.