Young people from Five Lamp’s Youthy have decided to take matters into their own hands to raise money to fund a weekend residential.
A group of 12 young people aged between 11 to 16 years who regular attend The Youthy’s Senior Youthy Club wanted the opportunity to experience a weekend residential, develop team skills and take part in outdoor adventurous activities. They discussed their idea with Amy Garbutt, Five Lamps’ Youth Participation Worker.
The young people realised that they faced the barrier of funding, as a residential weekend costs around £2,000; which would either need to be funded directly by the young people or raised on their behalf. A significant amount of young people who attend The Youthy are from deprived backgrounds and cannot afford to pay for a weekend away. With this in mind, Amy worked with the young people to generate fundraising ideas which they could take ownership of.
The young people and Five Lamps staff spent two long full days in November 2011 bag packing at Morrison’s at Teesside Park and Asda at Thornaby, where they raised a whopping £1,300 towards the total. The young people were a credit to Five Lamps and showed a positive image of young people, being very polite, friendly and helpful to the shop staff and customers.
Jake Davies, aged 12 said
“I did the bag packing because it is fun and you raise your own money for the residential and it is exciting. I would like to go on a residential because I have never been before and I would like to go away with my friends.”
Jamie Cooper, aged 11 said
“I prefer to raise money because it shows that we can raise enough and it feels good. I have never been on a residential but I think it will be great. It just comes to show how well behaved we are!”
Five Lamps have supported the hard work of the young people by contributing £400 to the residential via a donation from an organisation called CCLA, who every year, instead of sending out Christmas cards, identify 2 charities to donate funds to. CCLA are a specialist investment manager for charities.
The young people, led by Amy and the team at The Youthy, are now working hard towards organising a charity night on Thursday 5 April 2012. The night is being held at The Youthy on Thornaby Road, Thornaby and will involve activities for the young people and adults alike, including cake decorating, a colouring competition hair and beauty activities, a raffle, blind card and bingo. In addition there will be music entertainment by Discarded, a band made up of Fire Brigade personnel, who will be playing rock and pop music from the 1960’s to now.
Tickets are already on sale at The Youthy for this fabulous evening for the price of £1 per person and the evening will be running from 5.30-8pm. Tracy Wilson, Youth Participation Manager said
“We anticipate that this evening will be a fantastic success and will enable the young people to raise the remainder of the funds needed to organise their residential. The young people are playing vital roles in the organisation of the event and will be taking lead roles on the evening”.