Henbury & Brentry Youth Forum get young people clamouring for more!

Henbury Youth Inclusion Project (YIP) was very lucky to receive funding from BS10 Big it Up! to run trampoline sessions at the Brentry Lodge Youth Centre on a Monday evening. The workshops began in January and run until March. This additional activity was set up to enable young people to try something new under the expert supervision and tuition of a qualified trampoline coach and to date is proving to be a popular attraction at the youth club. We are trying to encourage young people to explore their talents and work towards progressing and achieving awards within the sport. It is also hoped that this activity will inspire young people to try new things, gain confidence and meet new friends along the way. Some of the young people are already showing great talent, as demonstrated at the recent BS10‘s Got Talent show.

The trampoline sessions start at 5pm and finish at 7pm during the Manic Monday open session, which starts at 5pm and finishes at 8pm. Manic Monday is open to ALL young people aged 12 – 17. Young people can access and engage with various activities such as table tennis, football, pool, cookery, music and various arts and crafts. Alternatively young people can come along and socialise with their friends in a warm and safe environment.

In the six weeks that the trampoline sessions have been running, the young people have positively followed instructions and have grown in confidence week on week. Feedback received from the young people clearly shows that they are enjoying learning new skills and are gaining confidence in their abilities to achieve.

Youth Page: It's All Good News!

Young people from Henbury and Brentry have been making the headlines in the Bristol Evening Post and on BBC Radio Bristol.....and it‘s all good news! The media have been reporting on activities in which young people have been involved as part of the Henbury and Brentry BS10 Big It Up! Project.

This follows a grant of £442,000 from the Government‘s Inspiring Communities and Local Government Initiative. A Radio Bristol reporter interviewed the Deputy Head of Henbury School and some of the pupils when the BS10 Big It Up! Pledge was launched. And the good news is that there‘s more publicity to come. Watch this space!

Youth Page: It's All Good News!

Young people from Henbury and Brentry have been making the headlines in the Bristol Evening Post and on BBC Radio Bristol.....and it‘s all good news! The media have been reporting on activities in which young people have been involved as part of the Henbury and Brentry BS10 Big It Up! Project.

This follows a grant of £442,000 from the Government‘s Inspiring Communities and Local Government Initiative. A Radio Bristol reporter interviewed the Deputy Head of Henbury School and some of the pupils when the BS10 Big It Up! Pledge was launched. And the good news is that there‘s more publicity to come. Watch this space!

BS10 Big It Up! Or Inspiring Community Project?

BS10 Big It Up! Or Inspiring Community Project?

Who says it’s only for young people? Find everything about the biggest project ever in our area on this link. www.mybs10pledge.co.uk

Have you made your Pledge? If everyone do a small pledge then we can all make a big difference.

Henbury Streetz Project

Earlier this year a Street Dance group was formed for young people, based at the Emmanuel Chapel in Satchfield Crescent. Membership is not confined only to members of the church or even youngsters living close by – anyone from year 11 to 14 is welcome. The group was initially called the Henbury Youth Project and there was enough money to fund lessons from professional dancers for a short time.

Jane Leslie, the World Aquathlon and European Triathlon Age Group Champion and mother of Charlotte Leslie, our MP, took an interest in the group and pledged to raise £2,000 for them by cycling 50 miles around Bristol on the day of our Fun Day event. Jane set off in the rain at 8am with her training companion and arrived back triumphantly at 3pm to cheers and applause from the crowds gathered on Barnard Park. Her ride raised the fantastic sum of £2,300 from sponsors and collections along the route.

The group was also successful in their bid for funding from the BS10 Big It Up! Project’s resources and received £4,000.

Having access to this money will enable its members to branch out and include other activities for young people. There are already plans for Beat Box and ‘MC’ing sessions, which have been especially requested by boys – though none of the different activities will exclude anyone.

Although the group is now financially better off there will always be the ongoing need for further funding to enable the activities to continue. Bristol Rover FC is holding a Festival of Community Activities prior to and during the home match on 16^th October, starting at 12noon. On this occasion the Club has very kindly offered to have a bucket collection for the Henbury group. The entire group of collectors – adults and children – have been invited to the match as guests of the Club. The young people have also been invited to perform at a home match next year.

This venture is entirely a community activity and not affiliated in any way to Council or youth services. As such we should applaud and support them in every way. They are giving the youngsters of our community activities which they specifically want and in so doing hopefully are providing them with a sensible and confidence building structure to help guide them into their future.

Summer feedback - A message from the young ones

“This summer was really busy, there was well loads going on, young people got involved in various activities that gave us kids the chance to experience different things and learn new skills.

Young people went away on day trips, residential weekends as well as helping in the community events. The activities gave young people something to do, a chance to do something positive for our community, and gave the more challenging kids the chance to see how to behave whilst they were on trips.

Our greatest achievement was climbing Snowdon organised by PC Nick Merrick. Snowdon is the highest mountain in Wales and England. We also spent three days fishing, not every one’s cup of tea but we really enjoyed it.

The Youth Forum spent a day working with Matt Dowse at Kingsweston House, looking at all the “Big Idea” bids for HBCC & Inspiring Communities. This was not as much fun but it had to be done! And we were rewarded for our work.

We would like to thank loads of people, the Community Council and all the other funders for giving youth groups money that was used to pay for the trips. And thanks to all the residents, staff, volunteers, and groups that helped to run holiday activities.

Our next big project is to organise a Talent Show, hopefully for the February school holidays next year. We believe that everyone has a talent – even if they don’t know what it is yet. We are looking for individuals and groups to take part or help run the evening, so please contact us if you are interested. “

Kane Davies, Reece Wigston-Richards, Harry Alker - Henbury & Brentry Youth Forum Members.

If you would like more information about the Youth Forum you can contact us through Lisa Bailey on 0117 377 2614.

7 projects benefit from your Big Ideas!

In July, Henbury and Brentry Community Council asked for your ideas about how to spend £25,000 on projects that would engage and inspire young people aged 11-14 in our area.

57 ideas were submitted either through the website www.bs10youridea.com or were posted in the ideas box in Henbury Library. The ideas ranged from building a new swimming pool to litter picking teams to clean up the local area! We always knew that there would be too many ideas put forward to put to the public vote so we arranged a short listing process which involved young people from the youth forum and senior members of the Henbury and Brentry Community Council. The short listing took place at the end of July. To get shortlisted the idea had to:

Be realistic and practical

Support young people in our area to be inspired

Be exciting and engaging (young people were on the short listing panel)

Help young people to build self confidence, get involved and do well at school

Take place from September 2010 to March 2011

Provide value for money

After much discussion we came up with a list of 19 ideas that we thought should be put to the public vote. We grouped the ideas together in packages that added up to £12,500 each. This meant that we would be asking members of the community to vote for two packages so that we could spend the whole £25,000.

Voting opened during August and ran for two weeks. In total there were 443 votes cast, either through our website, through the ballot box in Henbury Library or during the public meeting that was held on Saturday 4^th September. Thanks to all of you who turned up to the meeting and to all of those people who made the voting such a success. We hope that everyone who wanted to vote was able to do so.

THE RESULTS The two winning projects were:

Get Modern – a project to provide funding to renovate and improve three youth venues in the area. Total grant £12,500 (£4166 for each venue).

To complete the final refurbishments to the Scout Hut Renovation, including hand rails for the access ramps, flooring, kitchen patio to the rear of the building, repainting the hall floor and providing new and improved kitchen equipment.

To fund the creation of a youth cafe at Emmanuel Chapel, providing furniture, paint and facilities for the youth group.

To provide equipment to the Youth Centre including a TV, new computers, gym equipment, a sofa and new kitchen equipment.

All of these projects will improve the facilities in the area and we hope that it will mean that more young people will take part in the activities that take place. All of the youth venues will be advertising their improvements in the next newsletter! The Get Modern idea received 33% of all votes cast and was the project with the most votes.

Get Creative – a project to provide creative opportunities for young people in the area.

- To fund a project to buy musical instruments and pay for tuition for as many young people as possible (£4,500).

- To provide funding for the Community Talent Show which will be put on by the Youth Forum in February next year (£2,500).

- To provide funding for the Henbury School Community Fun Day which will be run and organised by young people (£1,500)

- To pay for the street dance project and music project running at the Emmanuel Chapel for a year (£4,000)

These creative ideas will mean that a lot more young people can take part in inspiring and exciting projects. The Get Creative project received 28% of all votes cast and was the project with the second highest number of votes.

By the time the next HBCC newsletter goes to print many of these projects will have taken place or be about to happen. We look forward to sharing some exciting stories with you soon!

Henbury and Brentry Community Council

Henbury school children create community brand!

Friday, 4 June 2010.

Henbury School pupils Kane Davies, 12, and Josh Small, 12, with teacher and parent Kelly Mahoney, 32, have created a colourful brand for a community programme to help young people unlock their talents.

Their bold design, BS10 Big It Up!, was one of five created by schoolchildren, teachers, and parents at an Inspiration Lab and community BBQ. Their creative efforts were supported by designers from Uscreates, a London- based social design agency.

Sue Tunstall, of Bristol City Council, said: “It looks great, and delivers on all the rules of marketing - simple, says only what it needs to, has high visual impact and is different to everything else that's around.”

All five brands were voted on by students, parents, teachers, young people and residents at community events, on a Facebook page, and on posters around Henbury and Brentry.

Kane and Josh's idea received 169 votes of the total of 302 cast, and once voting was over the boys got to work on turning the brand into a final image with a professional graphic designer from Uscreates.

The brand will soon be seen all over Henbury and Brentry at places and events such as Better Together's new Youth Forum, the Community Cook-Up (a weekly cookery club), and Vision My Future (films created by young people to explore future careers).

All these community projects are funded by Inspiring Communities, a government programme aiming to support communities to raise the aspirations and educational attainment of young people.

See all the photos from the Inspiration Lab and the final brand image on the Facebook page BS10 Big It Up!, or at www.bs10bigitup.com.

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Uscreates is a social design agency working across the UK to help create stronger communities: http://www.uscreates.com

For more information on Inspiring Communties:

unities.gov.uk/communities/neighbourhoodrenewal/inspiringcommunities

For further information please contact Alan Boyles, alan@uscreates.com or 07980634253.

Intergenerational Volunteer Project

Young Bristol is working in partnership with the Youth and Play Service and other organisations to deliver an intergenerational volunteer project in, as part of the Inspiring Communities programme. The project brings together 11-14 year-olds and the over-50s through community activities and events, and aims to improve relationships and understanding between the two groups.

Young girls fromCentre host a regular tea party in the library for residents of theClose sheltered housing scheme. Everyone enjoys the event and conversation is varied and interesting, with topics ranging from school and family experiences to life in the Land Army and relationships. We are hoping to set up a similar event for residents of The Chalet just off Station Road, and other shared activities are also in the pipeline.

If you have any suggestions for activities, would like to get involved or just want some more information, please contact Chloe Young Bristol on 0117 9537921, or by e-mail at cs@youngbristol.com. There will also be posters in Library and other community hotspots advertising upcoming activities and events.

How would you spend £25,000?

Henbury and Brentry Community Council are asking for your ideas about how to spend £25,000 in the local community.

We have £25,000 to spend on projects that will engage and inspire young people aged 11-14, encouraging them to do well in their education. The projects will run from September until March 2011.

Ideas for these projects can come from anyone in the Henbury and Brentry area, from young people, parents, carers, families, community groups and organisations working with young people – ideas are welcome from anyone.

Once we have your ideas we will put them to the vote and you will have a chance to vote for the projects that you think are the best. We will try to include all of the ideas that we get, but we have to make sure that all of the ideas that are put to the vote are top quality and are aimed at young people aged 11-14. We will work with the Youth Forum to make sure we get this right! Everyone in the Henbury and Brentry area will be able to vote either through the website or through the voting boxes that will be in the library, some local shops and online.

We are collecting ideas during July, voting during August and getting the projects going by September.

You can post your idea on our website (go to http://henburyandbrentrynewsletter.blogspot.com/ and follow the link www.bs10bigitup.com)

Or pop your idea into the “ideas box” in Henbury Library

Or text your idea to 07880850007

Come to the public meeting in August to hear about the ideas that you can vote for

Vote for the projects that you think are the best

Watch out for the results in September and see your ideas come to life!

Community involvement in the Inspiring Communities Project for Henbury & Brentry

After a slow start the Inspiring Communities Project has widened its scope to include 'community initiated and sponsored' activities with a grant of £25,000 approx (net after management costs to the Community Council). The overall project, which is about raising the aspirations/achievements of those Year 8 children from our ward who would not otherwise achieve the target level of 5 GCSEs, is run by Sue Tunstall of Bristol City Council.

The grant is held by The Community Council which has recruited a manager, Matt Dowse, to handle the 'participatory budgeting' requirements of its contract with Bristol City Council. In plain English this means that the £25,000 will be spent on activities/events both proposed by and voted for by residents of Brentry and Henbury.

Matt Dowse, who will run the community-wide involvement and consultation, has wide experience in working with communities and young people. He would be pleased to answer your questions and hear any suggestions for activities if you would like to contact him direct on 0788 085 0007, or by email matt_dowse@blueyonder.co.uk. During July and August there will be a public consultation, as well as the opportunity for everyone to put forward ideas for projects and funding. A public vote to choose the projects/funding from the ideas that have been put forward will take place in August ready for the projects to start in September and run through until March 2011.

This group is planning a stall for the Henbury Fun Day on August 21. “Save Money / Save Energy” is its main theme. ‘Sustainable Home’ leaflets from the Create Centre will be available and the energy consumption meters (which can be obtained free on a loan basis) will be explained. Additionally a ‘Top Ten Tips’ leaflet will be on the stall for everyone. For more information contact Kay Ridgewell on 0117 950 5721.