Wigan Boys and Girls Club (Wigan Youth Zone)
Monthly Update June 14
General Manager
This month’s report focusses mainly on our ‘Carnival Chaos’ 1st Birthday Celebrations and
our last fundraising event at Dean Wood Golf Club. We also have to mention the World Cup
where we have planned activities around the Games however the least said about England
the better. We have also had our annual visit of a group of young people from Chernobyl,
hosted the council lead Business Engagement Launch and held some school taster days. The
Birthday event went down extremely well and although initially the weather was against us
and some of the outside activities were rained off, I have to say the day was a huge success.
We had over 2000 visits throughout the day and everyone who attended, both young and
old, had an enjoyable experience. Hats off to all our staff and volunteers who put in a huge
shift to maintain the activities and keep the enthusiasm going for over 12 hours.
The Wigan Youth Zone Annual report is currently at the printers and will soon be available
for distribution. As well as a great update it will also be a useful tool to give out throughout
this year to potential supporters and wider community. We are now focusing more of our
attention on membership renewals, generating new membership and improving attendance
over the summer months. We are also planning our Patrons dinner which will be held at the
YZ on Thursday 31st Jul and will be a great opportunity for staff and young people to say
thank you to our Patrons and supporters for everything they have done for the youth zone
since opening. We sincerely hope that all our Patrons and Board members can attend.
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Statistics
Wigan Youth Zone Attendance Figures (as at 30th June 14).
Week
Mon
Date
Tu
Wed
e
Thur
Fri
Sat
s
Su
Sat
Su
Tota
n
Jnr
n
l
Remarks
Jnr
31-06 Apr
180
11
181
155
197
174
93
222
9
07-13 Apr
179
13
153
80
1497
6
241
143
176
129
0
14-20 Apr
17
13
154
0
164
201
Close
11
1392
0
190
82
107
23
1000 HC Total: 1,010
194
12
605
16
1759
d
21-27 Apr
28-30 Apr
Close
11
d
2
184
13
169
177
214
3
5
174
496
Apr Total: 7,154
8
1-4 May
209
156
143
14
228
2
5-11 May
Close
12
d
2
12-18 May 183
14
164
141
156
173
11
147
196
113
76
258
11
201
99
161
187
162
167
98
230
150
146
172
95
116
66
175
166
12
203
183
129
800
80
800
144
10
1341
12
994
15
16
12
2526
4
183
146
123
164
56
170
8
16-22 Jun
1363 HC Total: 494
5
9
09-15 Jun
12
4
d
02-08 Jun
1299
5
1
26-31 May Close
17
0
4
19-25 May 121
1022
4
5
178
14
12
1292
6
139
105
112
128
2
74
190
10
1162
May Total: 6,513
4
23-29 Jun
122
13
6
160
117
80
165
6
78
200
12
1185 Jun Total: 6,165
7
Registered members = 6363
Young People and Activities Update
June has been primarily focused on planning and setting up for Carnival Chaos and then the
post celebration wind down. The 1st Birthday Celebration event showed just what the staff
are capable of, the standard of activities and output throughout the day was fantastic. As a
team we are slightly concerned regarding a continued dip in average sessional attendance
figures and are looking at initiatives to redress the balance. Again, the onset of warmer
weather, the world cup and the end of the football season are all having an impact. Sunday
senior session continues to get low average attendance and we need to look at ways of
generating interest, some Sundays are better than others but we need to try ways of
improving attendance on that evening. Some sort of different event every other Sunday
may be the way forward as events have proven to increase attendance.
Junior Club: Holiday Club Update
Since the last report Junior Club has run another very successful Holiday Club and played a
huge part in Carnival Chaos. Numbers were high once again and the children had a brilliant
time doing things like making dens, creating boggles for the garden area and cooking. In
order to try and plan better for staffing ratios the Holiday Club trailed a new system that
involved getting cheaper rates if parents booked in advance. This seemed to work with
people snapping up places to get the discount. The trips out and visiting artists made the
Holiday Club a huge success.
Saturday morning Junior Club started the ‘Carnival Chaos’ one year birthday bash’ with a
massive programme of activities! The weather was not kind but the people came in their
thousands and it was a huge success!
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Sports Hall
Since the last report the sports hall has held a Boxing event and a Charity Karate
competition to raise awareness of the sport and to raise money for cancer treatment for
one of the karate club instructors. The event raised £3,000. The sports hall played a huge
part in Carnival Chaos especially with the wet weather program having to kick in.
Junior rugby team have had their first match over at Oldham, winning 7-4. The standard was
surprisingly high and they are looking forward to their next game.
Wigan Wyzards (Wizards) has now become an affiliated Basketball club with England
Basketball and will be entering a league which starts in Nov. We continued to play in the
North West Youth Zone league against the Factory this month, with the Factory just edging
us.
For our 1 year anniversary the sports team invited Wigan Warthogs (wheelchair basketball)
and UK Futsal to the YZ. Both were a massive success and Wigan Warthogs will be based at
the youth zone from the beginning of July with open access for all our members. UK Futsal
have joined with WYZ to start a Futsal League every Saturday Night 4 – 7pm from the 28th
June. Futsal is one of the largest growing sports across England.
Through our Athletics programme we have unearthed a talent at High Jump. He will now be
training every Wednesday at the YZ as well as down at Robin Park.
Coming up next month:
Senior Basketball Match V Blackburn
Multi-sport Match v Blackburn
Leigh schools sports event
B Team Night – Basketball
Junior Tag Rugby event at WYZ
Senior Basketball Match v Oldham
Senior Tennis Comp at the Factory
Start of ‘Smash-Up’ Badminton
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Gym
Carnival chaos was a great success with so many people coming through the doors of the YZ.
Mike said that it was like the opening day in the Gym with hundreds of people coming in
and trying out all equipment on offer. On the day he had a ‘Row the Channel and back’
challenge which would normally total 70,000 metres however this target was broken half
way through the day with one young person doing 10,000 metres!! It was fantastic to see so
many young members coming in and having a great time.
The Gym also got involved with interactive workshops from public health and smoking
awareness. This proved to be worthwhile, not only for our members but parents as well.
The beach body transformation challenge is coming to a close and with hard work and
dedication some young people are seeing a big difference from when they first started.
Harrison is one of those; he has been turning up to every PT session with 100% effort every
time. He has gone from struggling to do squats to now being able to do Bosu squats, which
are performed on a pad, is extremely difficult and a really tough exercise to perform.
Masterchef - This event was a great success with 10 departments getting involved. It was
great to see the competiveness and enthusiasm from staff and YP alike and was fun,
educational and very much encouraged team work. Congratulations to everyone who took
part and to the winning department which was Health & Participation. The winning dish:
This was a chicken mould with mash potato quenelles, broccoli and lemon puree, a
homemade white sauce and puff pastry on top.
Football
For the one year anniversary event the Football department held a world cup style football
tournament for our under 12’s, 14’s and 16’s. These were run on different times throughout
the day and we had 29 teams enter overall. The teams came from all over the Wigan
borough with local teams entering along with YZ teams, Wigan Athletic community trust
projects from Atherton and Shakerley and Manchester YZ who also entered a couple of
teams.
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We also provided an inflatable speedometer along with a freestyle footballer who
performed tricks to entertain the teams watching and waiting to play.
We have started and are now well into season 3 of our 5 a side football leagues with our
under 12’s, 14’s, 16’s and 19’s teams playing weekly against each other. The end of season 2
caused a drop in numbers so it will be important not to have a lull between seasons. The
inter-youth zone 5 a side league is also running well and we are 2 games in with a 3 rd game
planned at home against Blackburn.
The Girls only senior comp held at the YZ had 6 teams competing and went down really well
everyone. Ian is putting together a competition file which will contain details of the monthly
tournaments for each age group within the YZ.
We are in early stages of putting together a WYZ football team which we hope will compete
in the Wigan and District Youth Football league next season. This will be a big step in the
right direction for the YZ as we look at becoming a Charter Standard club over the next 12
months.
Independence and Inclusion (Youth-Inc)
The biggest event for Youth-Inc since the last report was the first CADS event to be held at
the YZ as part of the Big Lottery ‘A Level Playing Field’ funding. The 3 days of activities from
10am-3pm went very well with young people taking part in circular dodge ball, new age
curling, gym sessions, art activities, sitting volleyball, group karaoke and being news
reporters for the morning. The young people were able to display their work in the YZ for
others to see.
13 young people attended and we are now promoting the summer CADS event within
schools and disability groups which will hopefully be a much bigger and better Youth-Inc
Summer holiday project over the 6 weeks school summer break.
Inclusion now has a group signed up for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards which meets every
Wednesday evening. They are focusing on their expedition and plan to do this on a canal
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barge in September. To prepare for this they are learning to cook independently using a
Trangia stove and have also been practicing putting up tents.
10 young people with disabilities signed up for a 6 week ski course at the ‘Chill Factore’,
helped by funding from ‘Sportivate’. The course now has just 1 week left to run and the
young people have really worked hard. Each week they have been taught different
techniques and have gone higher and higher up the slope. They are becoming much more
confident every session and have overcome some of their initial fears of getting on the
snow.
YP are continuing with their 60 day gym challenge and have been benefitting from this by
getting fitter and some losing weight. Rob is organising for some of the group to do the
Wigan to Blackpool bike ride (and back!) but do it in the gym. The challenge is to cycle over
100 miles between them on the exercise and hand bikes.
Over the next month we have some very exciting events. Rachael Latham the Paralympic
swimmer and TV presenter is visiting the YZ. Rachael is a champion for the ‘A Level Playing
Field’ project and will also be meeting Youth-Inc in London in July when 8 young people
form from the group travel to London for the Parliamentary Launch. Everyone is very
excited to be going to the Houses of Parliament. Rachael and other celebrities will be there
and young people will be given the opportunity to chat with them and local MP’s about the
Youth Zone and what they get involved in when they are here.
During Carnival Chaos, Youth-Inc ran a stall outside (in the pouring rain) and released over
300 balloons. We are still awaiting any returns and wonder if they will go further than the
ones on our opening day that went as far as South Wales!
Outreach
Carnival Chaos was promoted by the Outreach team during all activities the weeks leading
up to the event. On the morning of the event, Outreach workers canvassed interest in the
town centre and got involved with all events throughout the day. Since the last report
Outreach and Youth-Inc have co-operated in running a full day stall at two community
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events: Golborne’s Big Lunch and Party in the Park at Pennington Flash. Both days were well
attended and the level of interest in WYZ was encouraging. Footfall at each event is
estimated at between 800 and 1,000.
The free bus from Higher Flds and Golborne has now started picking up at Tyldesley as well
as Leigh bus station. Places on-board are now booked in advance to guarantee a place.
There is also a new three-strike rule regarding behaviour to ensure a continued good
relationship with the bus provider as we hope to use them for more projects in the future.
Average attendance is over 40.
Relationship building within local groups is reaping rewards with more members of some of
the larger groups being brought into the YZ for involvement in targeted activities with
particularly pleasing results for girls rugby. A regular stream of free tours have been given to
young people encountered in the streets and parks of Wigan, with about 20% of these
converting into membership. The walk in bus service continues.
Girls Room
The one year anniversary celebrations were a huge success for the girls room all round, from
opening at 10am the place was full throughout the day. The main activity was the ‘Behind
the mask’ project which everybody got involved with throughout the day. The aim of the
project was for young people to show who they truly are and were asked to write a
statement that they wanted people to know which ordinarily they may not be confident
enough to say out loud. They wrote these comments on small masks which they decorated
and attached to a giant mask that was eventually mounted on the wall in the corridor
outside the girls room.
Other events were Hair braiding with Red, Yellow and Blue extensions which were very
popular and nail designs also in Wigan youth zone colours.
Throughout the event the team fielded lots of questions from Young people and Parents
asking about the sort of things that were on offer in our Girls sessions on a regular basis.
They team also took the opportunity to do a big push on the Fashion project that the Girls
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Allowed and Fashion and Design are working on jointly for September. The team report an
increase in numbers in the Girls Sessions following this event.
Participation
The Participation Group were really excited about helping with the 1st Birthday Celebrations
and as you can see from the pictures they didn’t let us down. The chinese buffet was a huge
success and provided affordable chineese quasean as well as a traditional Chineese Dragon
Dance in the Rec Area. All this as a result of the Participation Group contacting local
restaurants and securing the chinese buffet to perform on the day. In addition to this, the
youth forum made sure the restaurant team felt welcome. Throughout the event they also
conducted tours to parents and potential members whilst wearing their new forum t-shirts
designed by themselves and worked really hard liasing with our reception team to sign
people up.
As you know Wigan is twinned with a town in France called Angers. Our YP have been
contacting students in france for interviews and try to catch up via SKYPE on a regularly
basis. This month Domonic, one of our Young Leaders, delivered a tour to a group of French
adults from Angers interested in the concept of our youth centres. He took it in his stride
and his confidence has developed immensly. Other Young Leaders also helped out on during
Carnival Chaos.
This month our LADS session invited the local PCSO’s into one of their meetings and there
were some interesting questions asked ranging from gun crime, legal highs and even
relationship issues. Our members conducted themselves well and impressed the PCSO’s no
end with some productive discussion.
Health and Wellbeing
Carnival Chaos was of course a celebratory event, but with a large number of young people
and the general public expected through the doors, the health and wellbeing and health and
fitness teams wanted to ensure that health and wellbeing was not overlooked and that the
opportunity to engage with the community on health issues was not missed.
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With this in mind they invited representatives from public health, the stop smoking service
and Young People’s Drug and Alcohol Team to attend Wigan Youth Zone during Carnival
Chaos. Regardless of there being so many appealing activities for people to join in on, the
outside services were able to engage with a large number of children, young people,
families and carers.
Jennifer Kelly from public health engaged with over 10 groups of parents and gave advice
around issues on health improvement. They also engaged with groups of children and
young people on similar issues who went on to take part in activities such as “sugar in
drinks” which increased participation. Jennifer went on to say: “We really enjoyed the
event and it was one of the most well attended and engaging one’s we have been to”.
The young people’s drug and alcohol team commented that during the times they were
present at Wigan Youth Zone it was very much a family event. However, they were still able
to engage with nine 8-10 year olds, fourteen 11-13 year olds, five 14-16 year olds and nine
16-19 year olds. In addition to this they also gave information and advice to parents,
grandparents and carers. The team stated that they were pleasantly surprised how open
people were at the event and willing to discuss the issues raised.
Indoor Rec Area
Fun and games as some of the members had the chance to win a Krispy Kream World Cup
Doughnut! We even brought in a mini doughnut maker and the members had a go at baking
them themselves!
They also thought it would be a good idea to have a bit of fun and make some ‘Grass Heads’
for the potato patch. All that was required was some sawdust, some tights, some grass
seeds, stick on eyes, some funky shapes and then just add water. The results:
There has been quite a few and varied activities in the Rec Area this month, from puppet
making, to seeing which group of members could make a chair out of balloons which had to
stand the test of someone sitting on it without it popping. We also had one of our members
teaching people how to knit – for Worldwide knit in public day.
But on Carnival Chaos Day the Rec Area was alive with lots of different activities, it was
buzzing and was the focal point for the whole event. The most popular attraction was the
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camel racing stand, everybody wanted a go and everyone wanted to win. There were too
many events to mention however the following pictures are a snapshot of what went on.
Outdoor Rec Area
During the month of June the Skate Park and outside Rec proved how adaptable it can be to
all weather conditions with some crazy golf, remote control car racing and a BMX and
Scooter competition. Not to mention the Birthday Celebrations.
The BMX and Scooter comp in association with Participation and Alan’s BMX shop went
down really well with an excellent turnout. We had some great prizes donated by Alan free
of charge but the great thing was that young people organised the event by themselves. The
main point was that the young people organised and put together the whole event, with a
little help from Joe and Wayne Carter.
Again and despite the bad weather, the outdoor Rec was buzzing during the Birthday
Celebrations with all sorts of activities taking place. Here is a snapshot.
Performing Arts, Music and Creative Media
The music department is thriving since our new staff started this month and we have been
able to diversify our offer even further. We are now offering keyboard and guitar lessons
which have been popular with both junior and senior members. Alan is also offering music
theory and we are looking into making the youth zone a registered ABRSM centre so we can
offer grade qualifications. Matt has brought in some second hand computer modules with
music production software on that are being used by lots of young people in digital music
production. We have also added some fantastic volunteers who are very skilled and again
enriching our offer!
We had a successful event with the youth zone's 1st Birthday with literally 12 hours of live
music and dance entertainment which included our member's and chart toppers! A
YouTube video of some of the highlights is now available on WYZTV here:
http://youtu.be/KkjkUHt69ro
There is also a special video for Chonkinfeckle's performance of I'm from Wigan Me
featuring our very own Martin Ainscough on WYZTV: http://youtu.be/FvRtsR7fOFI
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We are continuing to promote our dance/theatre space as a venue, and this month we have
hosted a theatre performance from young people in Bolton in conjunction with the Octagon
Theatre and have also hosted a dance performance from Liverpool Hope University's
Graduate Dance Company. Tickets are also now on sale for APAA's original Summer musical
performance 'In The Zone' and our next dance project we are working towards is a 'dance
on film' production shooting a music video style piece as a collaboration between Dance and
the Media departments.
With the support of some of our WYZTV team members, this month saw us host a group
from London who were visiting the youth zone with OnSide to get a feel for what a youth
zone is all about, with a view to getting their own in the future. The group already work on a
youth led community radio station, Unity Radio Online. From the relationships built during
this visit we are planning a project for them to come back and stay at the youth zone for a
week over the Summer holidays, taking over WYZ Radio and the two radio teams learning
from each other. Here is some of their feedback about the Youth Zone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48JjEErCt3Y
We have been working with a group of gifted and talented singers/rappers/musicians on
audition videos for the 'big break UK' competition in London organised by The Youth
Project. We will be taking a group down for the semi-finals next month, the prize being an
opportunity to perform on stage with Cheryl Cole, Pixie Lott, Rizzle Kicks and many more
huge acts, you also win artist representation and PR support! A great platform as part of our
own artist development programme!
Enterprise and Employability
With regard to the employability skills course, cohort 2 is now complete. Work experience
placements have now been completed with excellent results overall. Greg has also been
able to visit Emily on site at her placement, and her supervisor has given her an excellent
review. Emily has been given the responsibility of handing maintenance bookings for social
housing across the borough and has dealt with the work very well.
In respect of the Accenture grades, and PEARL grades, here are their achievements:
Accenture Level 1 = 3 students passed
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Accenture level 1 and 2 = 7 students passed
PEARL level 2 = 4 students
PEARL level 1 = 1 student
PEARL Entry level = 2 students
We continue to build our portfolio of employers who can offer apprenticeships and
traineeships and will be moving students into those opportunities over the coming weeks.
We still of course also continue to run our job club twice a week that embeds the Accenture
core skills and have recently supported Kieran into a part time job with Weatherspoons
which is great.
The other big event this month was the visit from Lorraine Aldred (GQAL representative).
This was a bit like preparing for an Ofsted visit. Lorraine met Phil and Beccy on the day, and
Greg prepared all the necessary paperwork with Sikander giving the guided tour. She was
blown away by what she saw, what the guys do on the course, and what the youth zone
does overall. This was a very important visit in order for us to become an approved GQAL
centre to deliver PEARL, with our official education provider number to follow.
We look forward to cohort 3 which starts on Monday 7th July. Recruitment has started in
earnest and we have collected a number of interest forms and interviews have now started.
We have now enrolled our first few students onto the course.
Jamie Swift – Jamie is one of our students on the course and is autistic. This has been a
huge learning experience for him, yet he has approached everything with genuine effort and
endeavour. He was the first to do his self-presentation during the academic element of the
course, and he got a lot out of learning first aid on the residential and cooking for himself
and the team. It was of course quite difficult finding him a work experience placement as
many businesses are not really geared up for supporting such a young person. Adactus
however have been brilliant and have taken him on placement at their office in Leigh. I
would like to thank Jayne Allison at Adactus for her efforts in supporting Jamie and our
program and all the people and companies that get involved.
Enterprise: We have set up a seniors enterprise group where young people have made a
long term plan on different methods of making money. The group meet on a Monday 4-6pm
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as a planning group where they plan their activities in a group work business planning
meeting and then on Thursday evening this particular group sell their products. They have
included selling jublies, cakes, loom bands and milkshakes. The group intend to make
enough money to go on a trip which they are also in the middle of planning.
The junior Enterprise project is as successful as ever and the recent trip to DW stadium on
completion of the project in partnership with Wigan Athletic was very successful and young
people got the opportunity to go back stage in and around the stadium and access areas
where young people would normally not be allowed. Juniors have been selling their
products Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. They were also involved in painting their
shop front which was built for us to utilise on Carnival Chaos. We have also had success in
running IT sessions with Juniors and looking at Internet safety and what to be aware of
whilst online.
Carnival Chaos was a great day and we had teams of both juniors and seniors involved in
planning the day. The morning half of the day juniors sold chocolate milkshakes and fresh
fruit smoothies which worked a treat with both parents and YP. The team had their shop
front set up and all had different roles. In the evening with the seniors YP decided to move
upstairs into the 121 room and set it up like a shop to get passing trade from YP visiting the
dance studio for the show. They made £130 in total, just on the anniversary.
Art, Fashion and Design
Catherine our lead in the Art department was extremely proud, as we all were, to be part of
our one year birthday celebrations. She says that one of her main visions just over a year
ago was to have the Art room walls bursting with colour and to be able to offer a wide range
of activities, well she has achieved her aim and more so with regards to the art room walls
bursting with colour, especially after the big paint splat activities! They filled water bombs
and water guns with paint and let YP enjoy squirting the paint on a huge sign that says
‘Believe in Wigan Youth Zone’.
Other activities on the one year celebration included Chinese calligraphy, animation model
making and textiles, making phone cases and weaving.
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The sewing club on Wednesdays is still very popular. Below are pictures of Owen and Kieran
AKA ‘The Ultras,’ making their very own football banner which they will take to all of their
football matches. They have been forming their very own fan base for WYZ football team.
At a recent bag packing event Doris seen in the pictures below said to a member of staff
that she would like to come into the youth zone and share with the young people how to
make lace and crochet. The young people thoroughly enjoyed this and have been coming
into the Art room to do more. Doris spoke very highly of the young people at the centre.
Climbing and Outdoor Adventure
As you can imagine, the climbing wall was extremely popular throughout the event and the
only time it wasn’t in use was during the fire breathing display and the wheel chair
basketball event. Duke Edinburgh continues as do residentials and trips to crags and the
great outdoors.
Archery and bush craft are still very popular and the team did a great job adding something
different to the YZ Golf Day at Dean Wood.
We are about to advertise for a new Climbing and Outdoor Adventure Lead as this position
is now vacant.
Fundraising. The following has taken place since the last meeting:
Held our first Charity Golf Event of the year at Dean Wood which was very successful.
Visited Ian Walker (3P Logistics) regarding on-going support.
Met Mike Mathews (Town Centre Manager) regarding Business Supporters/Events.
Met with Nick Hopkinson MBE regarding fundraising support.
Met with Attain ref on-going Patron support.
Held meetings with the following people regarding becoming a Patron or funding support:
Kathleen Goddard ref becoming a Patron.
Mark Alder becoming a Patron.
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IKO Roofing becoming a Patron and various support to the YZ, further meeting with MD
arranged.
Rock FM.
Patrons
Goddard and Smith Solicitors from Pemberton have agreed to become a Bronze Patron
along with Mark Alder from MA Brickworks and just waiting to hear back from Marion at
True Colours. Jaine Riley Taskmaster resources and Steve Hanlon have signed up as Business
Support Group members and Steve McManamon (Speaker at the last business breakfast)
agreed to become a Patron in the New Year. Planning for the Patrons Dinner is well under
way and will take place at the YZ on Thursday 31st July. Diary date e-mail went out two
weeks ago and official invites are in the post.
Trusts and Grants
We recently received a grant £200,000 from the Football Foundation to support the
excellent work with our football provision, football leagues, girls football, competitions,
events and our Try, Train, Team offer. We have also recently heard from Garfield Western
regarding our bid for £40K, they have asked for some financial information regarding our
budget and income generation strategy and will be in touch soon.
Events
Profit from the Clay Pigeon Shoot at Wrennalls Hall is confirmed as £10,500, thanks again to
Judith and Martin Ainscough. The Golf Day at Dean Wood 30th May was a great success and
made £4651. A big thank you to Dave Clarke for championing the Golf Event and to Steve
Taylor and all the Staff and Young People who helped out on the day. The Ladies Garden
Party held at Wrennalls Hall and organised by Judith Ainscough was a real treat and raised
£4784. Well done Judith and all the lovely ladies that attended. We are still looking for
riders for the Bike Ride 13th July as we need as many riders as possible. We currently stand
at 50 riders; any help generating some more interest would be greatly appreciated. The
Annual Ball is now sold out!
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Communications
It has been a busy month of press coverage marking our one year anniversary. The Wigan
Evening Post and Observer ran a week-long series of articles to mark our achievements
throughout the past year. These included:
Wigan Evening Post
Monday – An article interviewing Martin Ainscough, Wigan Council’s Director of Children
and Families Anne Goldsmith, and Wigan Council cabinet member for young people
Councillor Sue Loudon. All gave their thoughts on what a fantastic year this has been.
Tuesday – A case study on Lauren Brown, a member who suffered from panic attacks and
mental health issues. After help from Youth Zone staff she now has confidence, raised selfesteem and even works some sessions here.
Wednesday – Article on a selection of volunteers who have been here for the full year, what
they have achieved and how it has changed them.
Thursday – Another case study, this time on Eilish Murray who had been on job seekers
allowance and other benefits for years. She now has work thanks to our Get a Job course
and is reaping the benefits of her new found confidence and independence.
Friday – Case study on Adam Wray, who has gone from a Play station addict to gym buff in
the past year, thanks to our gym staff. We also featured a half price membership voucher on
this day.
Wigan Observer
Four full pages including a plug for our Carnival Chaos event, an article on fundraising, a full
interview with Phil Marsh on the youth work highlights of the past year, the importance of
safeguarding at the Youth Zone and a story on Owen Bolton who recorded his own song and
music video at the centre.
This paper also featured 10 free entry passes to the Youth Zone.
A further double page photo spread in the Observer the week after Carnival Chaos.
A full interview introducing our new music workers Alan Gregory (who starred in the TV
Programme, ‘Come Dine with Me’) and Chris Layhe (a member of the 80s rock band Icicle
Works).
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Press articles coming up:
Article appealing for bike riders for our Wigan to Blackpool bike ride – and the donation of
any unwanted bikes for our riders.
Article to advertise the next round of our Get a Job club.
Our Youth-Inc Inclusion Group going to a Parliamentary Reception.
A full article on Drumcroon will appear as soon as the work is due to start.
Social media
Likes on Facebook as of June 18th – 4298.
Followers on Twitter as of June 18th– 3257.
The Carnival Chaos event proved very popular on our social media with scores of
supporters, parents and young people wishing us happy birthday, sharing our photos and
praising the work of the Youth Zone.
Emails continue to go out to our members and their parents encouraging renewals through
our online system.
There has been the odd teething problem, which is inevitable, but on the whole the system
has work well and members are slowly renewing.
The annual review has now taken shape and should have been sent to print by the time of
the board meeting.
Some work has taken place to support a bid by Onside to BBC Radio Manchester. If
successful, the bid would make all current Onside Youth Zones the chosen charities of Radio
Manchester for the next year resulting in a potential £750,000 worth of funding and a huge
amount of media exposure.
The next big project is the text messaging service. Once final prices provided by ATTAIN
have been agreed by the board, it will take around two weeks to set up.
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Over the next month, Angela will be working with the admin and volunteer teams to send
fundraising and promotion emails out through the ATTAIN system. This will allow us to use
more attractive designs and track the response to emails a little better.
Volunteer and Training Update
We currently have 196 volunteers on our database that have been active in the last 3
months, trained and available to take part in activities. In June 111 have been active.
Volunteer activity:
111 active volunteers this month.
1650 hours given to WYZ by volunteers.
196 volunteers on current volunteer database (active within the last 3 months)
9 volunteers attended classroom based training and are currently undergoing practical
training.
17 volunteers interviewed so far in Jun.
12 have registered interest in becoming volunteers through Do It website since the start of
June and have all been sent application packs.
Volunteer training booked in for 19th/20th July in line with the start of the summer holidays.
25 already booked on.
May’s volunteer of the month is being announced on Wednesday 25 th June. The recognition
is for Craig Renilson for the commitment and support he has given to the Enterprise and
Employability section of the Youth Zone.
Craig has been supporting the get a job course since it started in January. He now delivers a
module on ‘employer/employee relationships’ and supports job club on Wednesday
evenings. He has also designed a new module for the course on ‘Aspiration’ which we are
looking at integrating into the course.
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Alongside this Craig has also donated £300 of his own money to provide interview clothing
for the young people attending the ‘Get a Job’ course, as well as offering work experience
and apprenticeships within his MacDonald’s franchises.
As part of our one year celebration, National Volunteers Week was used to showcase our
year-long volunteers in the build-up to Carnival Chaos. As part of this, Selina and Angela
interviewed some of our year-long volunteers to share their stories of the first year at Wigan
Youth Zone.
Our year-long volunteers include: Tania Da Silva, Janis Leipa, Victoria Rossiter, Mario West,
Alexandra Popa, Tony Bewley, Ben Walmsley, Charlotte Malecki, Emily Phoenix, Maxine
Geary, Julie Riley, Kim Hill, Laura Bent, Lauren Younge, Mark Townley, Steph Murphy,
Rebecca Cunningham, Phil Parkes, Rachael Foster, Rebekah Cadman, Jose Cordeiro, Terry
Obaseki.
New Volunteers - Wigan Warriors player Anthony Gelling is now a volunteer for our sports
department helping with our basketball team with fellow volunteer Janis Leipa.
Two new volunteers QingQing and Xaiochun have brought in some Chinese Culture activities
and have already made a huge impact on the art department, providing some fantastic
opportunities during Carnival Chaos.
Volunteer Recruitment - Leigh 6th Form held a volunteer recruitment day on Tuesday 17th
June. During this event we had 25 people register their interest in becoming a volunteer or
young leader at Wigan Youth Zone. Applications have been sent out to their email
addresses.
The Job Centre work experience programme had now sent 9 applications in for the summer
holiday club. The closing date for applications is 30th June so we are expecting a minimum
of 20 applicants for the programme.
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