5 weeks of Fun and life changing encounters
“this has been the best summer of my life!” Lucy aged 11.
Community Hubs Week
Through this week e:merge staff and partners were leading activities within the Hub communities including sports, graffiti art, park based crafts and games, trips and community events. In Windhill activities took place every day for children and young people including craft, sports, den building and music workshops, along with outdoor cooking leading to a community meal each day. The week was organised by e:merge but ran successfully due to the work of our partners including Christ Church, Windhill, the Windhill Community Centre, One in a Million and the Children’s Centre. Across all the communities, over 180 young people were involved in activities this week.
Sanctuary
We took 40 young people from our core community away for 3 days, camping in a wood near Bingley. These were young people we know well and the time away enabled us to deepen the relationships with this group and offer the chance for young people to reflect and relax together, to explore spirituality and faith in a safe and inclusive context, and to enjoy time living as a community in a beautiful place. There were also many opportunities for one to one sessions with young people who needed space to talk enabling out workers to help the young people develop their emotional resilience and self-esteem.
XSport
90 young people, 40 team members, 13 teams, 9 different sports and 500 sandwiches and some amazingly creative chants were all part of making XSport an incredible 3 days. Running for 9 hours each day, Xsport offered the young people an unforgettable experience through the high standard of sports coaching, the daily team challenge competition and the chance to work as a team throughout. Young people commented on the positive experience of team work with a diverse group of peers, and of the sense of positive encouragement which ran throughout the week helping them to push on to achieve more.
Park Life
In the final full week of the summer, we were based in Bowling Park offering a range of activities to children, young people and their families. Working with the friends of Bowling Park we were able to offer crafts, sports, wide games and the famous waterslide throughout the week but in a very relaxed way – no fixed timetable, no agenda other than fun and building community. Each day we ate lunch together and finished with a community bbq at the end of the week to celebrate a great week and the end of busy summer.