Inspiring Communities: The first few weeks

All about me:
Hi all, I’m Karen Whitehouse and I’m one of the youth workers working on the Inspiring Communities project.

I’ve been a youth worker for eight years and have recently earned my DipHE in Youth and Community Development Work at the University of Cumbria in Lancaster. I’m also going back there in September to top that up to a BA(Hons).

I’ve worked with a number of young people in the past eight years and have been lucky enough to organise lots of activities with them. These have included:

• Circus skills
• Residential trips
• Arts and crafts
• Cooking
• Day trips
• Sports

And have been able to help young people gain many certificates and awards.

I look forward to meeting lots of new young people through this project and supporting them in a number of activities.

Street Soccer

We have attended the street soccer sessions that were run at the Hindpool MUGA. It was great to meet so many budding footballers and to get to know the regular attendees over the weeks. We sometimes took part in the games and I learnt that I am not cut out as a goalie!

It was also good to meet those that attended the sessions as spectators. We spent a lot of time talking with those people and often making up our own games with one or two of the spare footballs. We are looking forward to the sessions starting up again at Greengate Junior School.

The Relics

The Relics tuition sessions are a great way for the young people to develop their musical abilities. There is so much going on with the singers, guitarists and drummers, the workers split up and work both upstairs and downstairs so we can make the most of our time there. Whilst the musicians are developing their skills week by week, the singers are expressing themselves through words and one or two have even begun to write their own songs. It has been very inspiring reading these new lyrics and great that the young people want to share their talents.

Barracudas

This session is split into two sections: the drumming workshop and the carnival practice.

I’ve quickly discovered that drumming is not my forte but I hope that points for trying makes up for the shortfall in talent.

During the carnival practice I have been working with the stilt walkers and continue to be amazed and impressed with their courage and abilities. My main role is to support and encourage the newer members to the group, and have become a dab hand at helping people get their balance and helping them up when they fall.

What has been particularly good is seeing how some young people attend more than one activity, and that some of them got involved after the launch event. I have been talking to some of these people and will hopefully have some personal testimonies to share with you all soon.