Youth Activity Day Event Report

Transcription

1 Youth Activity Day Event Report The Youth Activity Day took place at Cornerstone arts centre, Didcot on 23 May It was a collaboration between Cornerstone and Oxfordshire Play Association, with the support of South Oxfordshire District Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Soha Housing and Didcot Town Council. The aims of the Youth Activity Day were: to provide positive activities suitable for an age range of 9-16 years to encourage young people to engage with Cornerstone who had not previously been to introduce young people to arts activities to engage with local groups and facilitators and build partnerships This was the first time that both Cornerstone and OPA had put on an event that was aimed at this particular age range, especially at unaccompanied children and young people. The activities were chosen to be suitable and attractive for the age range and the venue, including ensuring a high proportion of creative and arts activities.

2 Activities Oxfordshire Health Bus (unstaffed) Earth Trust outdoor tent with fire bowl and pancake-making SODC Leisure team pop up pingpong (unstaffed) Army Cadet Force information stall Didcot Explorer Scout Unit information stall Didcot TRAIN jewellery making and information Didcot Early Intervention Hub (OCC) drug abuse information stand Angels & Stars Stage School outdoor dance performances Kids Arts indoor graffiti wall Selma Wakeman prop and costume making FlawRTists break dance and hip hop workshop and performances Readipop DJ and electronic music workshops The activities all ran between 4pm-7pm. Supporting staff attended from Oxfordshire County Council (Jeremy Day), South Oxfordshire District Council (Karen Tolley) and Soha Housing (Jackie Logan). Along with OPA s Martin Gillett these staff helped to spread the information to young people around in the area and brought them to the centre, also handing out information and getting the youth participation survey completed. Finally, five young ambassadors attended the day. These year 10 students who had applied for work experience at Cornerstone were from local schools and had attended a meeting in advance to assist with publicising the event. On the day, they were tasked with helping other young people to access the event and also to gather comments from other participants. Approximately young people attended during the three hours of the event. Most of these were in the age bracket (anecdotally) though some older young people attended, some staying in the outside area. The FlawRTists and Angels and Stars activities brought a further approximately 60 young people in to perform. Some young people attended with their parents, but many were unaccompanied, attending with friends or siblings.

3 Promotion and Publicity Cornerstone designed and produced 500 flyers advertising the day. The design was influenced by comments from one of the young ambassadors. Cornerstone decided to use the other side of the flyer to promote two events that might be of interest to young people at Cornerstone. One of these was a theatre piece called Bitch Boxer. Unfortunately, although the message of the show was positive and fitted in with the YAD aims, the word bitch was a step too far for many schools and other young organisations and consequently we think the flyers did not have much impact. Three promotional banners funded by Oxfordshire County Council via the Activities Oxfordshire strand were put up around Didcot. Cornerstone used social media streams to advertise with the help of the young ambassadors. Cornerstone staff delivered three year assemblies at Didcot Girls School in the week leading up to the event. Didcot Herald attended the event and published a small piece in the following week s paper (28 May 2014)

4 Feedback Feedback was collected by gathering comments on post it notes which were stuck on two flipcharts by the door: What do you think? Good things happen Some fun, some meh It always does fun activities Not enough activities/enough resources for all the people Leave instructions about what to do Fun, but I d like a bit more instruction, my friend and I just wandered around

5 What did you like? I like the DJ s I got to play ping pong It was very good The music making Pancakes That the theatre is good Graffiti, ping pong and dance Cornerstone always has something good for all ages from toddlers through to adults. A fantastic facility for Didcot. Popcorn Graffiti wall and bracelets One mum fed back that her autistic son had had a great time on the DJ workshop and had interacted with other children and got very involved. Some mentioned that there wasn t quite enough to do. Sadly two activities pulled out at the last minute including an outdoor obstacle course run by the Army and the Oxfordshire Youth Bus, both of which might have provided a significant amount of activity of a different kind that might have appealed to more young people. The rain during the day also didn t encourage young people to come out although it cleared up later in the day. Anecdotally, staff noticed that there were several groups of children who stayed around for quite a long time during the event, going from activity to activity. Generally, there was a fairly steady but small stream of people coming in to find out what was going on. The outdoor Earth Trust activity drew lots of people in because of the fire and the fact that free food was on offer; they were busy throughout and several young people engaged with this and with some staff outdoors but didn t come into the venue. Feedback from supporting staff/volunteers included that although there was a special menu put on by Elegant, the café at Cornerstone, the menu was not well enough publicised and the options were still too expensive. General feedback from the young ambassadors which was borne out on the day was that the day was not so attractive to those over 14 or so. Some of the older young people who came through Didcot Train and other staff did not enter the building but stayed outside. Comments from the young ambassadors implied that to attract an older audience (e.g ) a different kind of event is needed e.g. an evening music event. Feedback from activity providers was generally very positive and they said they d enjoyed being part of the event. The two dance activities brought their own young performers who enjoyed the opportunity to perform in a new venue in front of new audiences. Cornerstone as a venue was praised as was the logistical organisation.

6 Many thanks on behalf of Cornerstone and OPA staff go to: South Oxfordshire District Council especially for Karen Tolley s input Oxfordshire County Council for funding of promotional banners and staff time Didcot Town Council for funding the activities and supporting promotional activity Soha Housing for funding the activities, staff support and supporting promotional activity Didcot Girls School for giving time in their year assemblies for Cornerstone staff to talk about the event All the activity providers who attended.