Thursday, 24 June 2010

Update on Frenfords

Dear All,

Subjet to an update to my last post about the Frenfords event on August 8th about who can come, the event is a free for all event. This means that is it open to all ages; parents are also welcome as well. This is to clear any problems that this is a restricted event for 13 -19 yr olds.

A Fly on the Wall: My Week, Loxford Youth Centre

Although not authorised to do so (not that we would have needed authorisation) me and Rebecca attended an event called 'My Week' between June 7th to the 11th at Loxford Youth Centre. This was an express invitation from connexions who we had meet at the stake holders meeting to which I have previously written about.

The purpose of the event was to improve the relations between the Youth and the community. The youth were exposed to a series of events such as climbing a wall at Mile End on the Monday to one on one interviews and a trip to Lambourne End on the Wednesday to engage in much more fun. The conclusion of the week ended with making a video on how drugs impact our community on Thursday then a final finale with a trip to Nando's chicken on Friday.

The event was a useful insight into other youth opportunities out there and what exactly was on offer for them. It is fantastic to see that young people aged 16-19 are able to have these opportunities as opposed to doing nothing and walking the streets. A lot of them were highly charged individuals with a passion to do well and advance their CV's. We really developed a rapport with them and some went on to consider other possibilities such as joining a London Fire Brigade course or to volunteer with the Youth Action Team.

Our fly on the wall visit is just one of many trips we plan to conduct to see just what is out there and how to get the youth further involved in their community.

MY WEEK!!

Hey Guys!! Rebecca here with an update of what happened at My Week!! Something that i help facilitate in....

Well on the 7th till the 11th of June 2010 myself and Alex were invited to attend MY WEEK which is run by Connexions and NEET. We actually got this chance by attending the stakeholders meeting on the 2nd to be part of My Week.

So, on the Monday, we had introductions, we meet the team and did some ice-breaker exercises with them. The day, followed by a lovely lunch, the young people got together and decided with staff that they wanted form the following few days.

Tuesday the young people went to Mile End to do wall climbing as group activity.

Wednesday the young people were taken to Landbrourne End activity centre.

Thursday the young people were taken to Gearies to have a look around the institute and get a feel for what is available for them. They were then given techniques on interviews and what to do during interviews, how to behave and so on. Here Randy joined me and we did a 1-2-1 with some of the young people and discussed how they could improve there answers or there demeanor when being in an interview. They were then taken to Connexions to make films with an organisation.

Friday, the young people stayed at Loxford Youth Centre where they were able to complete and amend CV's and cover letters. Alex and myself also gave a presentation about the YAT and the Summer Uni workshop that we will be holding at Ilfoirmation!! We then went to Nandos to have food!! (paid for bt Connexions :D)

Overall, this was a great week where we learnt about how other organisations work and what they are doing to help young people be more productive with their lives. More updates coming soooon!!!!

Have a great week :D

Rebecca

xox

Friday, 11 June 2010

Youth Talk as featured in Barking News



Well done Adonis for securing press coverage for the 'Youth Talk' event, the collaborative efforts of both the Youth Action Team and UpRising. As mentioned in the above article; Tahseer Khan, Iman Hamouch and Adonis Leboho feature in the picture.

Tuesday, 8 June 2010

Frenfords Summer Jam August 2010

To round off what is looking like a good summer, the Youth Action Team in partnership with Frenfords Centre is planning the 'Frenfords Summer Jam Event 2010' taking place at its venue in Seven Kings, Ilford. The event is still 3 months away but lets just go into some of the details of the event so that you will get a flavour of what is to come.

Whats in store?
Well there plans to be a series of events for the young and the old such as Snooker, Pool, Quick Cricket, Dance Studios, Nintendo Wii events and many more.

Why are we doing this?

Frenfords is moving from its current venue off the High Road to more plush buildings currently being constructed off The Drive towards the western end of Ilford. We aim to promote the centre as much as possible to give the old premises a great send off before the process of moving on begins. The new buildings offer greater space and extra facilities than the current building. It is hoped this event will attract many more young people to use the fantastic facilities available at the new Frenfords facility.

Who can come?

This event is not an open event to everyone, if anything the current buildings are at maximum capacity. The event aims to bring in young people up to 19yrs, after all they will be the primary users of the events on offer. The event will be promoted consistently in the run up to August so please tell your friends about this event, it promises to be a big one.

How do I get further information?

Further announcements will be made on this blog as the event takes shape however if you don't want to wait, please email NELYAT@hotmail.com for any questions you may have.


We hope to see you there.




North East London Youth Action Team

Stakeholders Meeting at Loxford Youth Centre

The Stakeholders meeting was an event that took place on the 2nd June 2010 at Loxford Youth Centre. The aim of the meeting was to hold discussion topics on various issues in the London Borough of Redbridge.

As a member of the Youth Action Team myself and Rebecca Awan sat on the table concerning the opportunities to volunteer in the borough. It was striking to see that for a London Borough such as Redbridge just how fragmented it was in terms of the organisations that knew about each other. In addition, the fact that the north of the borough lacks or is lacking the opportunities that are in the south.

As we all know, Redbridge provides excellent links to the City and is served by the A12 and A406. The table also expressed concern that the local economy is loosing out to Central London because of the vast array of opportunities the centre of London brings. It was decided that to address these problems more needed to be done to make organisations like the Youth Service, Housing Service and the Youth Action Team aware of each other. It is hopeful that a sub-group involving all these organisations will be created for greater dialogue between us all.

Tuesday, 1 June 2010

Youth Talk 2 Police- 25th May 2010 @ Barking Town Hall

What was a cautious and uncertain start to the evening, ended in an unexpectedly vibrant debate on issues surrounding stop and search, crime and public engagement. At 5.30 the conference room filled with delegates consisting of Barking residents, UpRising and Youth Action Team members, all participants between the ages of 16-25. Our panellists were Inspector Ivan Hayes (Barking & Dagenham Police), Guy Dehn (Witness Confident), Randy Khela (YAT member) and Adiva Kestenbaum (UpRising).

What we feared most were all things associated to live events, a silence filled room, no questions being asked and eyes glazed over. You could say we were very hopeful. So what we did was prepare a list of questions beforehand as insurance. However, to our surprise and delight, the audience responded to the panellists fantastically and we abandoned our plan B. Statistics were shared, opinions were expressed and most importantly rights were learned with regards to stop and search and protection when giving a witness statement. Where most the participants had initially admitted that they felt that they did not trust the police or share any positive experiences, by the end of the evening there was consensus amongst them that they understood the police a lot better and would definitely like to work with them in the future.

As this is a pilot project, we would definitely like to do an event similar to this but on a bigger scale.