Action4Youth October Newsletter 2022

A Message from Jenifer Cameron

Because of covid we hadn’t been able to have our full scale Big Night Out, our celebration of our young people and their achievements, for a couple of years so it was a huge thrill to be back in the Waterside Theatre with hundreds of young people and their families. We are immensely grateful to our sponsors: NHBC, centre:mk, Alexander & Co, Rectory Foundation and Stoke Park for making it all possible and for their support for our work.

It was inspiring to hear young people talking about their experience of The Inspiration Programme, NCS, the Duke of Edinburgh Award and from our apprentices talking about their career development.

We also celebrated the achievement of more young people who completed the National Citizen Service Programme at the Wycombe Swan Theatre and a real pleasure to share their celebration.

Counselling at The Junction

FAQs about Counselling:

How does counselling work?

Counselling is designed to help you speak about your feelings and thoughts, and to give you a safe space to work through any challenges you may be experiencing.

How long will counselling last?

At The Junction, we offer between 6-18 sessions, which take place once a week. Each session lasts for 50 minutes.

What will I talk about with my counsellor?

Your counsellor does not tell you what to talk about, but they will help you to work out what you’d like to focus on.

You might find things about your childhood come up in conversations, or your relationships with family and friends. You might discuss your emotions and thoughts, your behaviour and things you find difficult.

If you have a specific issue you want to talk about, like anxiety or bereavement; your counsellor can help you to deal with this.

Will anyone else know what we talk about?

Everything you say in your counselling sessions will be completely confidential unless your counsellor is concerned for your life or the life of someone you know.

If your counsellor needs to speak to someone else, they will let you know. This is in accordance with our confidentiality policy at The Junction, and we only do so if we believe that you or someone else is at risk.

The Inspiration Programme

Wow, what an amazing time we had at the Big Night Out, an inspiring talk to us all from Naomi Riches who was eager to learn about the impact the programme has had since her first visit at our launch event. We were delighted to have a young person and a teacher share their positive experiences of the programme.

What are the benefits of the programme? “Being able to develop skills and experiences that students would otherwise have overlooked and missed out on. The range of visits and guest speakers gives students a greater appreciation of the world of employment.”

The programme has started this month with more young people than ever before, with both our full delivery and self-delivery models.

The young people have started with a variety of topics this term, two groups started with Police and Criminal Justice, and they have both experienced a session with the houses of parliament one had a virtual tour and the other a session on how laws are made. The groups were asked what they had learnt from the sessions with a variety of answers given from that Queen Victoria was 4’11 tall to who their local MP was and about the House of Lords. The two groups had 52 young people, only one person knew the name of their local MP at the start of the session.

Next month we have our first programme starting in Northamptonshire with some new employers trips and visits within that county.   

NCS

NCS Summer 2022 – Celebration Evenings

Over 600 graduates attended the Big Night Out and our NCS Celebration evening on Tuesday 27th and Thursday 29th September. Both evenings were a great success, reminding the young people of all they achieved over the summer, and highlighting their achievements to their parents and guardians across the evening. It also gave us a chance to congratulate each and every young person, as well as award some special accolades.

The Ken Birkby Outstanding Achievement Award was received by Nia Feakes, who completed the NCS programme, making friends, pushing herself to complete activities and helping her charity. Nia has a severe sight impairment and wasn’t sure how she would feel on NCS, but excelled herself and was a great team member.

Megan Bailey, one of our summer seasonal staff and previous NCS graduate, was awarded the Leadership Award for being a great role model to both young people and peers, always there to give advice and ensure others’ could learn from her example. Megan is also a proactive and enthusiastic member of the staff team, always volunteering and remaining upbeat and positive.

Sara Mir won the Outstanding Contribution Award, for her commitment to the Action4Youth NCS programme and for consistently demonstrating the values that NCS stands for. From the start she was a calming presence to those who were nervous and took an active role in introducing people to new friends.

Congratulations to all the NCS graduates, award winners and special thanks to Lily Everitt, Lara Kennedy and Ben Birkwood for sharing their NCS experiences on stage.

NCS does not have to stop there! If you would like to be involved in our Changemakers programme, we have the following events taking place in half-term:

Milton Keynes 25/10/22, 9.15am-12.15pm – ClimbQuest, Kingston Centre, Restaurant Row, Milton Keynes MK10 0BA.

High Wycombe 26/10/22, 10.30am-1.30pm – Lexmark House, Cressex Business Park, Coronation Rd, High Wycombe HP12 3TZ

Slough 28/10/22, 12.45pm-3.45pm– Slough Ice Arena, Montem Lane, Slough SL1 2QG

Aylesbury 24/10/22, 10.30am-2.30pm – Flip Out, 46 Friars Square, Aylesbury HP20 2QF

The Caldecotte Xperience

After a fantastic meeting at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre for the Big Night Out, we have gone back to work at full steam. We have been receiving a lot of new enquiries for 2023 and have to say that May/June next year are looking great – nearly fully booked. Autumn 2022 looks as exciting, as we will have 10 NCS groups staying on site from the mid-October till the end of November, and we are currently busy scheduling these programmes. 

Furthermore, it will be a testing season for us for brand-new activities for groups, like indoor games, discos, and night orienteering. We will provide feedback from schools and kids in a November Newsletter.

Fundraising

We are delighted that the Garfield Weston Foundation has awarded Action4Youth a grant of £50,000 across 2 years to support our core operating costs. This investment in our ongoing work is extremely welcome, and we are so grateful to the Foundation for their recognition of Action4Youth’s vital efforts to improve the lives of young people from all backgrounds and communities.

We are also grateful to Sport England through the Leap Together Fund and the Mobbs Memorial Trust, who have both awarded us funding for The Junction.

If you wish to find out how you can help us to continue our valuable work, please contact 0300 003 2334

Find out more here:

Thank you.

We are grateful to those partners sponsoring our Big Night Out.