by faithyoung | Jun 4, 2019 | Blog
June is here … long daylight hours … summer on the horizon … and another Community Works 12-week workshop session is due to start!
Kink, our office pooch, knows when it’s time for our next workshop session as there’s the chance of extra custard creams in the biscuit tin: everyone needs to keep their energy levels up!
So, what are we talking about? What’s this 12-week workshop ‘thing’ all about?
Part of our Community Works project (18 to 25 years olds), we’ve had some Big Lottery funding so young adults can learn some practical skills that will help them throughout their lives.
We, the Futureworks team (Kink included although his spanner skills leave a lot to be desired) help young people learn woodwork, basic plumbing and electrical skills … let’s face it, all of us will need to fix a tap, wire a plug and put up a few shelves as we make our way through life!
Our learners are fully supported by tutors who have years’ experience (sometimes too many to mention) and there are no minimum requirements to join. To make the learning even more fun, we keep the groups small and very welcoming.
And then there’s the community bit!
So you’ve got your kit, you know what to do with it … now it’s time to help people in the big, wide world!
This is nothing to worry about though. Our fully supportive team help leaners to help others and get a great sense of achievement. Some of our Scarborough residents need a bit of assistance here and there and our learners are ready to help where they can.
Our workshops have lots of different goals and outcomes. We help in the wider community. We help our learners develop practical skills. Our learners also gain confidence in a world that can have its challenges.
The learners acquire their skills in a fully supported way with no such thing as a ‘daft question’.
And our next one is due to start June 2019!
Does this sound like something you could join? Are you aged between 18 and 25? Then we’d love to hear from you! You can phone us on 01723 449616, or email us info@futureworksny.co.uk- we’d love to hear from you!
by faithyoung | May 29, 2019 | Blog
Well, you can probably imagine it … we’re in the mini-bus, perhaps feeling just that bit too excited as we made our way to Carlton Lodge, near Thirsk.
That’s where the sensibleness ended!
So what does Carlton Lodge do? And why did we go? And, more importantly, did we survive it ?!?!
It’s an activity centre about an hour’s drive from Scarborough.
The site includes tree climbing, axe-throwing, archery, kayaking and high ropes. Definitely a challenge if you’re not a fan of the great outdoors … however, most of us enjoy fresh air, blue skies (if we’re lucky) and the occasional dip in the water…
So we arrived and our energy levels just about bursting out of the mini-bus!
Like a bunch of excited teenagers … actually, most of us were an excited bunch of teenagers LOL … we checked in and headed for the water area.
Zip wire was the first activity, everyone was scared it was hard climbing the pole onto the platform but everyone managed it with lots of encouragement and positive vibes! Next on the activity list, raft building and kayaking.
So if you think of boating as being chilled out like Peasholm Lake and the laid-back dragon pedaloes, think again! All the water-based sports need safety kit and training before choosing your boat, donning your helmet and picking up your paddle!
And not only had water underneath the kayaks, we also had a dousing of rain from above. To be honest, we couldn’t have got any wetter if we’d tried.
And that’s when the fun began, because we all started to laugh … particularly when Sarah managed to roll in her kayak and go underwater. Sarah surfaced with a smile on her face!
After a meal and a bit of sleep, we then tackled axe-throwing and archery.
Axe-throwing is dangerous and you need a good eye … yet we were all okay … and then we came to the archery.
Believe it or not, this is actually quite hard! When you see it on the TV, it looks so easy as in archery they pull back the bow and let the arrow fly.
It’s no wonder it’s an Olympic sport because most of us had sore fingers and arms at the end of it.
Carlton Lodge offers lots of problem-solving activities, so there’s lots to do and we loved our visit.
We feel we hit the bulls-eye with this particular trip as we had a such a laugh, got out into the fresh air and learned to work as a team as well as acquire some new skills.
We’d like to thank the team at Carlton Lodge … we’re sure ‘we’ll be back!’
