Well, its happened, the final activities of the summer are now done and we have survived 6 weeks of what is the busiest time of year for us. Before i start getting all nostalgic for a summer thats not quiet done, its worth saying what we did this week.
Monday being a bank holiday gave us a rare day off. tuesday saw the last session with the construction scheme team building before they take on the course and start down their careers in the construction industry. The had a fun day of motorised events getting to grips with engines and testing their skills.
Wednesday saw 2 separate helping hands trips, the first was to quaser where everyone got the chance to test their skills and also be reminded that in the quaser room, the pdyp staff are near unbeatable. This was followed by our final trip of the summer to Xtreme Bounce.
Thursday was another double helping hands. Group 1 decided they wanted to test their quaser skills. Once again they had an amazing if sweaty time, and were reminded that if our staff ever decided youth work was no longer our career, competitive laser quaser could be. The second group took a trip on the metro to newcastle to test their brains in the games room. Sadly they were unable to beat it but they were so close. Accidentally locking one young person in the room as she went for her coat also made everyone laugh.
On top of all these activities we have continued work around employment, one to one support and our day to day work.
So now that the final weekly recap is done. Lets look at the summer. Every year i sit writing this thinking how amazing the summer is. This year has been full throttle from start to finish. We have done more activities than i think we ever have before. We have visited theme parks, spent a week on residentials, spend 4 days with adventure sunderland, ran multiple helping hands groups, ran parents groups, continued our construction scheme and played laser quaser and trampolining more times than reasonable to count. At the start of every summer i think how are we gunna survive how busy we are and every year at the end of the 6 weeks, i think, where has it gone. some people talk about having a summer of a life time, i think we get one every year. So now we get to look to the autmn and winter and all the projects and work that brings. Dont think we are taking it easy just cos the summers ended, we plan to keep as busy as ever.
from all the staff at the pdyp id like to thank the funders, the sessional workers and all the young people for their efforts in making it so good.
p.s, if anyone wants to know how we survive the summer smiling, the answer is Coffee and lots of it
