Welcome to the April edition of our E-Newsletter. Spring is well underway here at BGC Wales and we have lots of activities planned over the next few months.
The Project Team has been working hard across our network, supporting volunteers and new clubs as well visiting provisions in North Wales. They have also been engaging with clubs and young people as part of the Raise Your Voice Project through our discussions over Pizza & Politics.
Our Project Team has also been busy in the background planning a host of exciting national and international opportunities as part of the Welsh Government's Taith Programme. We have also been working with a number of local authorities, providing residentials focusing on young people's wellbeing at The Lodge.
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WELCOME NEW MEMBER CLUB - Reservoir Youth Club (BARRY RFC)
A huge welcome to the Reservoir Youth Club in joining the BGC Wales Network.
Situated in BARRY RFC, the club is open every Wednesday 6.30pm - 8.00pm offering an open access youth club for young people aged 11+
BGC Wales is proud to be working in partnership with Barry RFC, Cardiff Blues and the Vale Youth Service in supporting the new project. If you would like to get involved or would interested in volunteering at The Reservoir, please get in touch us at office@bgc.wales
TAITH is the new funding stream for international engagements. The deadline for TAITH is May 12th. BGC Wales is on the sector advisory board and as such can help you with your applications. For more information please contact Kari at kari@bgc.wales.
It’s been a busy month as I settle in getting to know the young people in the clubs around the area. I have been delivering craft workshops and facilitating wellbeing discussions. I have enjoyed leading sessions at The Lodge for the young people who have come away. This includes discussions, games and walks out in the fresh air. I grew up learning about nature and the names of the trees, flowers and birds. It surprises me to find how little young people know when it comes to recognising different plants and animals. I hope to share my knowledge when we are out and about, and help the young people to appreciate how much being outside can help with their wellbeing. Just for fun I have included a small picture quiz. See how many flowers you can name.
We will be contacting clubs who involved in the project shortly to provide them the information board. These boards include full of information about what Fuel Poverty is, why it happens, how to save energy and what you can do to help saving money, whether that is at home or within a club.
If there are any clubs who are interested in this project, it’s not too late to sign up! Please get in touch with Paz at paz@bgc.wales.
Talking about politics with young people is ‘Easy Cheesy’.
In the run up to the local elections that are taking place on 5th May 2022. Project staff have visited 11 clubs, working with almost 200 young people across the BGC Network over the last 2 months to deliver Pizza & Politics sessions. These sessions are designed to help giving young people a flavour of what politics is all about at a local level. Whilst also encouraging debate about issues that are important to them in their communities.
This project is a direct continuation of our Raise Your Voice campaign which helped young people explore matters that were important to them and how the political landscape could impact on those things. If you’d like more information on please click HERE
To book a session with us please contact contact Paz at paz@bgc.wales
Unfortunately we will be postponing the planned OVOE residential. It was scheduled to run from 22nd-24th April. We will keep everyone posted with the progress and updates via our social media - so your eyes out on this.
We apologise for the disappointment, however, if you need further information about this project please contact Kari at kari@bgc.wales
Our Youth Work Manager took the trip to North Wales to visit New Dragons Youth club this month.
The club funded by Flintshire County Council, located in Mynydd Isa focuses on supporting young people with speech and language needs as well as offering help, support, and guidance to friends and family of those who attend. It was inspiring to see so many young people engaging in the club's activities that were being run by the experienced staff team that led by Linda Brackenbury.
We’re looking forward to welcoming the New Dragons to our residential facility this summer for an activity packed weekend.
The Lodge has had a very eventful and exciting month with a number of different residentials taking place. The Lodge offers exciting, tailored residentials to suit the needs of the young people attending. We offer a range of different adventure activities, wellbeing workshops, outdoor team building sessions and bushcraft activities. The outdoor activities we can offer can range from BMX riding, GoApe, Surfing, Mountain biking, Mountain walks, Coastal walks, Quad biking, Star Gazing, Geocaching sessions and lots more. All these outdoor activities can help young people with their wellbeing.
We recently went on a Pen-y-Fan sunrise walk with groups of young people from Bettws Boys and Girls Club and KPC, both based in Bridgend. The walk was a success and we got to the top just before sunrise - it was amazing. This was a great team building and bonding experience for the young people, and they pushed themselves to get up in the early hours and reached the top of the mountain ready for sunrise.
KPC had an awesome time staying at The Lodge and loved their stay “Amazing classic weekend, definitely will come again”. The building created a great space for setting up their DJ set and using it as a music room for all their young people to have fun listening and dancing to different music.
We just hosted the young people and staff from STEER. The group had an amazing time at Go Ape Margam, enjoyed a night walk down to Bryngarw Park and finished off their great few days with paintballing and an assault course at Adventures Wales.
We just had a great group of young people stay with us for 2 nights from Cardiff Care Leavers. They all had a great experience and loved their stay at the Lodge.
The young people left this all this amazing feedback in our guestbook:
“Had the most amazing time here. Lovely, sweet staff and beautiful area. I've already been here twice and I can’t wait to come again”.
“Had an amazing time. Thank you so much for the experience. Hopefully see you again soon”.
“Had a great time and enjoyed everything we did here. I got to experience some amazing stuff. I got to make amazing memories. Hopefully we will see you again. I would love to come back”.
As the Volunteering Wales Project has now come to an end, BGC Wales would like to thank all the volunteers who took part and helped to support their local club and community. A total of 41 volunteers took part in this project across 4 different youth clubs, which were Grangetown BGC, Bettws BGC, Nantymoel BGC and KPC Youth and Community. The majority of the volunteers are still helping their club and community, and have great ideas to share relating to new activities and helping to develop their club. The Level 2 Qualification in Community Sports Leadership is still taking place in Grangetown and the volunteers are now very close to the end of the course. Also, the Young Leaders Award has just started in Nantymoel and a number of volunteers are taking part in this.
2022 Affiliation has started! Clubs who would like to continue to be part of the BGC Wales network please download our new form. If you are a new club / organisation and undecided, please visit our website www.bgc.wales Our resources page eLearning should be able to provide more insight. Should you wish to speak with one of us before affiliating, please contact us at office@bgc.wales and one of us will get back to you as soon as we can. By affiliating with us your club and young people will be eligible to take part in all BGC Wales activities and take advantage of other services and advice.
Our mailing address is:
Boys' and Girls' Clubs of Wales
Crane House
Rover Way
Cardiff CF10 4US
United Kingdom
Telephone 029 2057 5705
Charity Registration No: 1009142
