Well, it's over again for another year. The school 6 weeks holiday, something we seem to spend months preparing for, planning and re planning as groups come in or change ideas. And by the end of it, you look back and think, where did the summer go, it always flys by. But looking back, what a summer it's been. To list all the activities and groups would create a long blog that would probably rival a dissertation for word count, so here are some of the highlights.
This year we successfully ran 5 overnight stays to different residential centres where young people got to experience staying away from their parents (some for the first time ever) and doing a range of activities,
Various trips with our Helping hands groups including visits to Escape Newcastle and exhibitions at the Life Centre.
The parents went to flamingo land with their kids and had a great day.
A group of young people got the chance to go to Edinburgh fringe festival as a thank you for their contributions to the project over the years.
Due to rain during the first (typically the only day it rained in 2 weeks, thanks weather) we ran 2 street Jams, both with amazing performances from dancers and musicians from across area, the second featuring the skate and Graf art we had hoped to feature in the Official Phoenix Jam.
Our organ group flash mobbed people helping to raise awareness of organ donation,
Two of our spray painters received their first commissioned work to paint a movie set, which they did amazingly, and we can't wait to see the finished movie.
We linked with NTC Sports development team who provided sport for our events and we took their volunteers kayaking, paddle boarding and coasteering, which was a huge success.
On top of all this we ran numerous sessions to skate parks, trampoline parks, laser quaser, surfing, kayaking expeditions and anything else people came in for, all while maintaining our crisis and one to one support for those who needed it.
Well there's probably more we could write about, but with the summer winding down, I think it's time to sit down, have a cuppa and start looking towards winter and all the fun and challenges it brings.
On behalf of all the pdyp team, thank you to everyone who has been part of the experience, and here's the next summer
