Macaroni Woods

For those of you who read this regularly you will know I work for a charity called XLP and this weekend I took a group of young people from one of the estates I work on away. 

We went to a place called Macaroni Woods in Gloucestershire and had a winner of a time. It's a residential home in the middle of woodland which is pretty epic. The house has a number of bedrooms as well as a games room, huge living room and great kitchen where we let the kids show us their culinary skills. 

So the whole aim of the weekend was to give these kids a chance to get out of London and to try something new. We took 10 young people from Deptford. Most of them hadn't been out of London in the last year, 2 hadn't ever been outside of London. 1 hadn't ever learnt to ride a bike, 5 had never been ice-skating, 8 and never seen a live pig and 10 had never seen a live turkey. So it was a weekend of new experiences. 

(Emily from my team holding a chick)

We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the woodland, cycling around on bikes that the place had and around a campfire.  

What struck me most about the weekend was having conversations with the kids and understanding a bit more about what life is like growing up on the estate. I think I have totally taken for granted that I grew up in privilege. 

One guy I was talking to told me that he knew his friends were bad influences on him and could get him into trouble, but what was he going to do. He sees them every day on his estate - if he doesn't talk to them he'll get beaten up or worse. He told me that the best he could do was to stay on the edge and not get involved in any of the more serious stuff. 

It was an eye opener for me. So much of the time we have simplistic answers - If you have bad friends, ditch them and make new ones. Some people aren't that lucky. That isn't an option for them. However, in the midst of huge challenges that guy is at college studying hard with a career in mind. There is hope. 

Macaroni Woods was an adventure and I'm returning in March with another group of kids so I'll let you know how that goes too. 

A Social, A Ceremony and A Birthday

This last week has been a bit mental work wise. Nothing new there - but it has included some epic highlights that I wanted to share.

TEAM SOCIAL
On Tuesday evening my team gathered together for some quality time at the pub. Now you might be thinking, the pub, as responsible youth-workers really? But honestly it was a great evening because of the chat and jokes. I was surprised at the lack of alcohol that was consumed!

Half of my crazy team

The creative side of my team was coming out and it has been great to see people coming out of their shells and just being themselves.

JACK PETCHEY AWARD CEREMONY
On Wednesday night I took two boys from Lewisham over to the Jack Petchey Award Ceremony in Camden to celebrate that they had been given awards for their contributions and achievements at XLP projects they attend. It was a brilliant evening. If I'm honest more to do with the other XLP staff and young people who were there than the ceremony itself, but it was an evening of real celebration and joy at people's achievements. 

What I loved was that our group of young people getting awards was the last group (after about 25 other groups) and even though we'd been clapping and cheering for the last hour we let rip and brought the house down when our kids went onto the stage. Was really special and great to see my boys being really proud of themselves. 

ALISON'S BIRTHDAY
Today has been our first team birthday of the year. As a team we were already booked into go and have dinner with a couple from XLP, so we turned it into a team birthday meal too. It was also the first time our team has had to complete the £1 birthday gift challenge. Essentially buying a gift that the recipient will potentially like/find funny for no more than £1 (including card). Pretty sure this was the winner this time

Not 100% happy with how my team see me! Ha. It's been a great evening being able to laugh at each other and generally enjoy being together. 

Tomorrow I take kids away for the weekend...don't expect another post anytime soon...I'll need some solid recovery time first!