Afon Youth Timeline : May 2012 May 2013

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1 NOVEMBER 2012 NOVEMBER 29 TH MEMBERS BASH! 75 young people attended an evening of music and fun with a local band, female singer, rap artist and disco. Lots of food was on offer and a Christmas gift of music vouchers for every young person from Afon Youth. The highlight of the evening was a video link up to North Wales where Duncan Forbes received the Pat Chown ~Award on behalf of the forum for the work they do. There were lots of tears when the North Wales audience stood and applauded the young people, in recognition of their fantastic achievements! Quote: Fantastic Night can we do more! 30 th NOVEMBER Afon Youth continue to support the Own2Feet Project, providing young people with Starter Packs when they get their own tenancies. There are weekly workshop session, building relationships, discussing topics such as Eating on a Budget, A Good Neighbour, Employability Skills. Fun, interactive, young people acting as peer mentors. Quote: It s so good that even though some of forum members have never been homeless and come from different backgrounds than me, they are so friendly and really understand what I am going through.

2 19 TH DECEMBER AFON YOUTH CHRISTMAS BASH! Afon Youth set their priorities for the coming year, which included more community involvement, direct action on issues that affect them, project for girls only, lead on the alternative housing for young people, best practice visits to support this, promote the Welsh language and introduce a bi lingual approach to the forum. Young people also wanted after school activities, including sport and dance. Then onto Bristol for Christmas lunch and Ice Skating as a thank you for all their hard work during the last year Well Done All!!! Didn t even let the rain spoil the day!! 10 th JANUARY SPORT THAT WORKS Celebrating the achievement of young people who took part in the employability programme, Sport that Works.

3 1 ST FEBRUARY GO GIRLS BEGINS! The girls only project identified by Afon Youth s priorities for the year. GoGirls aims to be a social action group for young women aged who volunteer their time to tackle and discuss subject areas that matter to them. This project is a partnership initiative with Charter Housing, with young women attending from Torfaen, Caerphilly and Newport. First session, discussing Women s Equality. Weekly sessions are now planned. 14 TH FEBRUARY ONE BILLION RISING FLASH MOB, CARDIFF GoGirls with Afon Youth taking positive action in this world wide campaign calling for an end to Violence Against Women!! 15 th FEBRUARY Afon Youth Forum meeting to discuss their Alternative Housing Project for young people now named New Beginnings. The building chosen for refurbishment for this project now named Ty Cyfle the House of Opportunity. News received that Envirowall have committed funds to the training element of this project. Young people planning further best practice visits to ensure their project meets the needs of the young people in Torfaen. Plus photo shoot of Afon Youth and Go Girls!

4 22nd FEBRUARY Best Practice visit to the Hereford Foyer. Had a really good day and thanks to all at Hereford for their help and assistance. We all looked around and they gave us lots of info that will help us set up Ty Cyfle. 28TH FEBRUARY Go Girls Dance Sessions start getting in practice for our launch event on International Women s Day!! 1ST MARCH Suzy goes to Parliament! Suzy met with MPs, discussing and highlighting the issues faced by homeless young people. Suzy went along as part of her Fixers Project for ITV News the forum will be producing a film around the misconceptions of youth homelessness. GETTING READY FOR GO GIRLS LAUNCH! Lots of Sessions and lots to do!

5 8 TH MARCH GO GIRLS LAUNCH ON INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY What a Night! Not a dry eye in the house as the young women shared their experiences with the audience women only! Over 100 women attended our launch at Bron Afon. The event was funded by WEN Wales. The girls explained the vision for Go Girls a project that aims to empower and inspire young women, to raise aspirations and confidence to enable them to be the best they can be and encourage reach their full potential. It s about girls coming together, forming a strong bond, empowering each other and tackling subjects that matter to them and doing so in a creative way. It s about sharing ideas and thoughts of what it s like to be a young woman in Wales, aiming to develop a strong sense of identity, respect and pride. This project is in 3 phases, this event was to celebrate the end of phase one and launch Go Girls!! It enabled the young women to showcase their work to date and spread the message that Together Girls Stand Strong! The launch event surpassed expectations and achieved its aims and more. The Go Girls showed that they had grown in confidence and it was evident strong bonds had formed. There was an exciting energy buzzing around the room, the girls beamed with pride as they showed off the work they had produced. Guest speakers included: Barbara Castle Bron Afon, Joy Kent, Emma Chivers University of Wales, Torfaen Women s Aid, Charter Housing Quote: Best launch event ever! Another interesting quote was: The one thing I have learnt from today is how important it is to bring my sons up properly. This shows that the event will have a lasting impact; it has the potential to encourage real change and further raise awareness of women s rights. This project will now move onto the 2 nd phase, continuing to meet monthly (and more), discussing the topics that are important to the girls, such as positive body image, self harm, teen pregnancy, relationships and women in the workplace. Phase 2 will also include considerable fundraising activities as Phase 3 will move onto an international level. They will be joining international campaigns to support women in Africa, such as the Bra Campaign, Anti Rape campaigns etc.

6 The Go Girls hope that they will be able to raise enough funds to visit Kenya in June TH MARCH Go Girls get together to celebrate their achievements and work on their priorities for Phase TH MARCH Afon Youth meet with the Fixers creative team to take forward their ideas to produce a film that will blast the myth that young people become homeless through choice or their own fault! 3 RD APRIL Go Girls session, discussing body image and the power of the media. All took part in photo shopping their own images. 4 TH APRIL Pat Chown Award Evening. An evening of celebration, arranged by Afon Youth. John Chown attended and presented the award personally to members of the Forum. Young people presented the work they were doing to staff, members and invited guests. 11 TH APRIL Cynon Taff Tenant Group, visiting to speak to Afon Youth about youth involvement. What works, what do they do and why do they want to be involved? Young people prepared presentation, illustrating everything they do and answered any questions.

7 11 th APRIL Filming with Fixers at Ty Cyfle! It was freezing but fun! 17 TH APRIL OWN2FEET SESSIONS CONTINUING Cooking on a budget Pasta bake, curry and coconut cake! 17 TH APRIL Afon Youth Forum and Fixers Filming! Our film has been chosen to appear on ITV News on May 9 th!! ITV attending the forum today to film the group and interview some of the young people involved exciting times!

8 24 TH APRIL Radiate, our employability programme begins, with Afon Youth piloting the scheme. Partnership initiative with Charter Housing, funded through Engagement Gateway. Young people will be installing radiator panels in the homes of tenants, improving the energy efficiency of their homes and enabling income maximisation. Young people will receive a Level 2 Credit 3 NOCN accreditation. 26 TH APRIL Afon Youth meeting to discuss final changes to Fixer Film before airing on ITV News on May 9 th. Preparations made for community consultation regarding the Ty Cyfle building. 26 TH APRIL Skills Taster Session Lots and fun and learning at the Skills Taster Session. Young people working with our trades guys, hands on experience of the different trades that could be available to them. Trades guys set up boards for the young people to try out external wall insulation, plastering, plumbing and electrics. Thanks guys! Try it and See! 7 TH MAY Young people prepared and presented their outline proposals for Ty Cyfle to the community in the Garndiffaith area. Local councillors also attended. Afon Youth spoke to local community members, explaining their vision, busting myths around young homeless and

9 allaying any fears they may have had. Very successful evening with no objections raised to the project. 9 TH MAY Afon Youth on ITV News!!! Suzy was interviewed on air nerve racking but she was absolutely brill! The film was shown. This can be found at Afon Youth will be working with Shelter to promote their video in schools. We have also been asked to present at the Welsh Assembly getting to the heart of the government!! Well done Afon Youth! 24 TH MAY Go Girls Session Excellent session today discussing positive mental health. Amy from Fixers presented her film and shared her experiences. Planning for Viva Forever in London next week!! 24 TH MAY Afon Youth met with the Wales Co-operative Centre do discuss their idea of a housing co-op for young people. The discussion was around why they were interested in co-operative housing, what makes that kind of housing attractive to them and which model would they prefer and why. Really interesting and informative session gave the young people a greater insight and understanding of their aspirations for the New Beginnings Project. 29 TH MAY Go Girls Hit London!!! Fab day in London that not even the rain could spoil! Many had not been to London before and thought the whole experience was awesome. The girls are now a strong social group, who enjoyed spending time with each other. All could relate their learning from the Go Girls Workshops to the message in Viva Forever together girls stand strong!

10 The day started with the girls making boxes for their Bra Campaign, to be distributed at various points in Torfaen, Newport and Caerphilly. Then off to London by coach! Saw the sights of London, including Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square. We all had a meal and off to Piccadilly Theatre. Highlight for the girls was spotting Mark Wright at the Lipsy Awards and Robbie Williams in a taxi! Chaos Reigned!!! 31 ST MAY New cohort for Radiate! Young people will be working in the Thornhill area for the next 8 weeks. The target is to train 30 young people in the coming year, helping them to move on to further learning, training and employment. 3 RD JUNE Afon Youth s Screening Event This event was to promote and celebrate the work of the forum, with a showing of their Fixers short film that appeared on ITV news in May. The film, Out of My Hands, aspires to convey the message that not all homeless young people are in that situation through choice, but rather that homelessness can happen to anyone. Out of My Hands challenges some of the misconceptions that young people are homeless through drugs, alcohol and being in trouble. The forum led, planned and delivered this event to a wide ranging audience. There was representation from Shelter Cymru, Llamau and Torfaen Youth Service as well as officers in housing.

11 They built a fort in reception that worked as an evaluation tool for the evening and the film itself what did the guests think about homeless young people? What were there perceptions and had they changed as a result of the evening? The young people presented their reasons for exploring this topic, explained why they were so passionate and their belief that the New Beginnings Project could change lives in Torfaen. Young people who have been homelessness spoke to the audience about their experiences and what would have helped them they didn t choose to be homeless was the message! As a result of this screening, Shelter Cymru are going to work with the forum to get their film out there. They will promote it through their educational website Housmate. Llamau are very keen to work with them and Torfaen Youth Service have offered their assistance to get the message into local schools. A very successful night!