The youth team was back in full fun day flow this summer attending seventeen events across the Sevenoaks district and hosting two residentials.
Every year, during the summer holidays, the youth team runs and attends free family friendly fun days across the district. This year, after not being able to run any events last year, they pulled out all the stops. Each fun day boasted activities from archery to inflatable darts, nail and face painting to cupcake decorating and garden games such as Connect4 and Snakes and Ladders. Our electrical contractor, Brenwards, turned up to a couple of events, where they set up a football goal and organised penalty shoot outs and games for football mad young people. To make sure no one went hungry there was an onsite ice cream van and the team provided free bags of popcorn – giving away a massive 3100 bags over the four weeks.
Richard Dowling, Youth Services Manager said, “Being able to provide these events for young people across the county again has been fantastic. They’ve been really well attended, and we’ve had great feedback.”
Over the summer months, while young people are on holiday from school, the team runs residentials. These are two-night trips, usually to an outdoor adventure park somewhere in Kent.
This year members of the team hosted two residentials for young people aged 8-19. The Young Adventurers, the name of our youth groups for 8-12-year olds in towns across the Sevenoaks district, travelled to Grosvenor Hall in Ashford for two days of outdoor activities. The activities included indoor rock climbing, raft building and high ropes. Not only were they able to try new things and challenge themselves but it was a great opportunity meet new people from different areas and backgrounds.
The second residential was for a group of older young people from our Edenbridge-based youth group, HOUSE. They spent their two-day residential in London where they hit all the top sights and museums. They saw views of London from the London Eye, met celebrities and royalty at Madame Tussauds, caught a film at the IMAX and even managed to fit in a trip to the theatre to watch Hairspray.
Richard said, “Residentials have a tremendous and lasting impact on young people and are a
vital part of what we do - they’re a great learning experience. In total 70 young people went on the residentials, and for the majority it was their first time away from home, so it’s really special to be able to give them that opportunity.”
You can find out more about our youth services here.