International youth work experience

I was invited to run a one day session at YMCA Fairthorne with Karina for a youth work international program for Volunteers from England, Ireland and Kosovo. Before I got there I was very nervous traveling to Fair Thorne YMCA, I even question myself “ am I ready for this? “Are they going to enjoy the session? At the same time, very excited for having this opportunity. Anyone could have been selected to do this that me and Karina got selected, something I always be going I’m grateful for.

This was my first time actually running a session to an international group.  Our role was to talk about YMCA international opportunities.  I introduced myself and told my story, how I started at my local YMCA, something I am always proud of. While telling my story made me realize how far I come, its almost been a decade since I have been at the YMCA. I also talked about YES which I attended for first time this year, it was a great  insight for a young person like myself to see what YMCA Europe does and meet inspiring young people that show so much passion for YMCA.

After we talked about the International opportunities we took the group to the hall, we did leadership games something which Karina and I learnt at our regional training in Switzerland. Great way to develop their communicating skills and initiative.
  It was great to see what we have been learning on our Change agent program playing leadership games, something simple as that can be very effective. The participants were laughing enjoying them selves, engaging with each other that put a smile on my face. Great feeling to see young people coming together from different cultures having fun.

Next day we did the George William tour in London the founder YMCA 1844, a  great story by a great leader  the reason why we are here today. 

This was great experience for me, hopefully me and Karina will have the chance do something like this in the future.She is someone I'm comfortable working with. We ain't just Change Agents, we are good friends as well. We will probably be working with each other after the Change Agent program.

    

Home

Well.... i have now arrived home after extending my Canadian Discovery visit. 

After a fantastic first week with a great bunch of YMCA folk i headed back to Toronto to meet up with the family. We took in some more sights, got to see a lot more of Toronto that wasn't possible in the first week and also had the chance to visit a couple of other YMCA projects.

A project that stood out for me in the second week was one that we didn't get chance to see the first week; this is the YCafe Training and Education project which is located in a municipal authority facility - Metro Hall in downtown Toronto. 
Adam the centre director was very welcoming and spent a good amount of time showing me around and explaining the philosophy and outcomes of the project using catering and life skills as a means to gaining fulfilling and lasting employment. This is done whilst also being a social enterprise serving 300 meals on wheels per week, operating a cafe and also providing 2000 meals a week to homeless and young people agencies. Excuse the pun but real food for thought......

Ross' Reflections

Hello readers my name is Ross and I am a part of the Bridging Bonding & Linking Capitals Leadership course. I had no clue of what it was before I arrived, I was really nervous and anxious on what to expect and even had thoughts of turning round and going back home when I arrived at London Kings Cross. I had never travelled as far as I did, from home in Northumberland, by myself so it was a big challenge for me. The journey took about 8 hours and was very exhausting which made me even more nervous. Fortunately when I arrived I was greeted by a great bunch of people from different places in England, Northern Ireland and Kosovo. We all bonded really quickly and I instantly knew I was with a group of amazing people.

Throughout the week we did lots of activities and the group bonded really closely. All the activities were really good and inspiring but my highlights were, my inspiration/my hero, The George Williams tour and the final campfire.

I really enjoyed the my inspiration/hero session because not also did it give me a chance to tell the group about my hero and why am I here, but it gave me the opportunity to listen to the groups stories which I really respect them for sharing. It was really emotional and hard for me to share my story and the whole group thanked me after which was really nice. It was also good to hear other stories because it makes you realise that everybody has problems in their life, some worse than others, and it’s good to hear how they were helped to deal with them and how they are now inspired to inspire.

I also really enjoyed the George Williams tour as it really expanded my understanding of the YMCA roots. I had no clue that the YMCA had such an epic history. To find out that George Williams, a peace keeper, was buried next to two great warriors, Nelson and Wellington, and to stand were George Williams had his first gathering to find the YMCA was probably the most inspirational time of my life. To be the runt of litter and really have no hope, then to go on and start a massive organisation, made me think that you can do anything if you put your mind to it.   

Another one of my main highlights was the final campfire. The final campfire was really touching. We gathered round the fire with the people we had only known for 6 days, although it felt like I had known them for a life time, and gave a leaf to the 3 people we bonded with the most. It was quite challenging as I wanted to give a leaf to everyone as they’re all amazing people. After we done that we said our good byes and thanked people for being so understanding, honest and for giving the best of themselves. It was really hard as it felt like the end of an amazing journey, but deep down I knew it was only the beginning of what will be an outstanding adventure.

Naomi's Reflections

The Inspirational Emotional Rollercoaster - My First International Conference.

Anxious and worried are words that come to mind when I think of how I was feeling on my way to YMCA Fairthorne Manor on Friday evening. I did not know what to expect and I was worried if I would fit in with the others. As soon as I arrived at Fairthorne I was greeted by Andy, one of the facilitators and a board member of YMCA Ireland, and I instantly felt welcomed and at ease. I met the rest of the team and were chatting until we had to meet for a welcome evening.

At the welcome evening we met all the facilitators: Dorina, National Secretary from YMCA Kosovo George Williams Youth Association, Adi from World YMCA, Andy from YMCA Ireland; Rachel from YMCA Romford. Karina from YMCA Fairthorne Group also welcomed us to Fairthorne Manor. Later that night we had the chance to socialise with each other more and get to know one and other a little better.

Overwhelmed (in a good way) is how I felt by the end of the second day. We learnt all about the YMCA Europe and World YMCA. We learnt about the global movement and what YMCA is doing worldwide and in Europe. We also learnt how we are trying to bring YMCAs together. We learnt about each other’s stories of how they got into the YMCA, and by the end of the day I was inspired by my peers and even more proud to be a part of the YMCA community.

On Monday we watched a film called the Freedom Writers. The film was about a new teacher in a gang riddled town in America. The teacher managed to bring together young people from conflicting backgrounds and great accomplishments, learning and friendships developed from that. It taught us the risks and the sacrifice’s some youth workers have to make in order to influence young people in a positive way. After the film we got into our groups to discuss the film and answer some questions on how we felt about it. At dinner we got into home groups, groups of four, to answer some questions about the highlight of the day, and changes we would make and how we were feeling. We learnt that watching films like this can be a great way to learn about youth work.

Energised is how I felt after our evening activity, Night Orienteering. We were given a map in our Home Groups and let loose into Fairthorne Manor to find orange orienteering flags. This was a great team activity and our group won as we stuck together and played on each other’s strengths when trying to find each flag.

On Monday we had the chance to go through different scenarios in small groups that may happen to us as youth workers, and discuss what we would put if we were put in that situation. This was interesting as although sometimes you have personal beliefs, as a youth worker, you may have to give advice or make decisions that challenge your own beliefs. That afternoon we got to do some outdoor activities that challenged our team work. We did Crate Challenge, Jacobs Ladder and Fire lighting.

On Tuesday we got the chance to plan and lead activities with the young people at Fairthorne Manor Daycamps. It was great to be out there with the children and although we all felt exhausted afterwards, it was a valuable experience for us all. My team had to use our initiative as we planned to use a parachute in our activities however this was unavailable so we had to change it on the spot. In the evening we had an intercultural experience with the international staff of Fairthorne Manor. We got to taste food from around the world and take part in a dance from Kosovo.

Wednesday was the day we met Ken Montgomery for a YMCA Tour. We saw the stained glass window in Westminster Abbey that had reference to the YMCA. We also visited the place where the first YMCA meeting was held, near St Pauls Cathedral and also Sir George William’s grave inside the Cathedral. George Williams’ plaque on the wall of St John’s cathedral is what touched me the most. The message he left under it was very moving (PLEASE SEE BELOW).

On Thursday, our last day, we were involved in a session called My Hero, My Inspiration. We got into our Home Groups and shared our stories of how we got to where we are today. This got very deep and emotional for our group as we shared stories we had not told to anyone else before. This just proves how far we have come together in one week and how close we have gotten.

To conclude this experience has been a big eye opener for me. I am so excited to be a part of something special. I am excited about the global movement and proud to be a part of it. I want to try and share my passion with other in my local YMCA and hope that they can start to be excited by it too.

Michael's reflections

Well, how to start this… I guess I will start from the beginning. When I was accepted onto this Bridging, Bonding and Linking capitals Leadership course I was unsure of what to expect when I turned up, but writing this post, five days into the course, I have to say it has been one of the best choices I’ve made. The leaders of the course are full of information, inspiration, energy and I am proud to have been given the opportunity to take part! They know how to bring 16 strangers together to perform tasks, work together, communicate and most importantly, to bond together… I have managed to open up to people I have only known less than a week which should be proof enough that these leaders are unique and have achieved massively in their aim of the first week.

I would like to talk about some of the activities we have done which have helped us bond better as people and work together to a common goal, these include plenty of “Ice Breakers” which are just small activities which gets energy up and allows the group to communicate as a team on a more personal level, these Ice breakers are silly little games where people embarrass themselves, but without the embarrassment so to say, it helps build team skills so that other activities seem much less awkward and enable us all to work together comfortably.

Two activities come to mind while on this course, one was a day trip to London, and the other was to plan and work with children during outdoor activities. The trip to London was a tour dedicated to the founder of the YMCA; George Williams. This inspiring and emotional tour of London shown lead us to Westminster Abbey where we saw the window dedicated to World YMCA and YMCA and to George Williams and his plaque, where we were told a short story of how he was just a young man from a farming family who had seven siblings, he being one which was the shortest and weakest, seemingly not destined to achieve much, but when he moved away to London and joined a draping company, who would have known this man would achieve so much by founding the YMCA. After visiting the beautiful window in Westminster Abbey, we moved to the underground and came out at St Pauls Cathedral to visit the crypt of George Williams and where he lays, resting in peace. Overall the Trip was an emotional one and thanks to Ken Montgomery for giving us this tour dedicated to such a legend and such a saviour of young people.

Now, on a more cheery and energetic note, the more energetic activity which was working with the children of our host, Fairthorne YMCA. As a group of mixed people from different parts of Europe and the UK (Northern Ireland, Kosovo and England) we had to all plan activities for young children and what activities we could do the entertain them for half hour after assisting with their main activity. Luckily for us, their main activity was an assault course in which the children ran around a course of various obstacles to get to the end the quickest. As the helpers, we had to help include and make sure that all children were taking part and that they were not left out and alone, I remember one child in particular, older than the rest, quiet and reserved but full of energy at the same time, I was able to talk with him and get him involved in a One vs One race around the assault course, in which I took part, and lost to no surprise. we were thankful to this as it wore down the tremendous amount of energy of which resides within these quirky and fun children, allowing us to apply our previous planned activities which was focused more on teambuilding and competition without a hitch, and to our surprise, the games we “Invented” were common games these children would play so explaining the rules was simple and we all had fun. After our half hour was up, we lead them all back to the sports hall where they met up with the other groups in little fun games, which I describe more of a free for all to get to the best toys first. I ended up getting a Frisbee and playing with four random children, while running from another who was supposed to keep me on my toes (by whacking me with a space hopper) it was hectic to say the least, but I will say this now, I have never had so much fun in my life, playing games with these young, non-judgemental children with all their smiling faces as they manage to throw and catch successfully, the noise, the energy and the amount of laughter was just spectacular.

Now this is the part where I am supposed to close this blog post, I have no idea how to do this, so I am just going to say thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!

Louis blog day 1&2

I will be writing roughly from what I have rewrote on my notebook to then be able to go back and help inform other YMCA users what is happening here. On the first day it was very nerve racking in the car journey up here but as soon as I walked through the door clutching my bag I instantly felt accepted as I was one of the last people to show up. The first thing we did was an ice breaker called human bingo where we get a sheet of paper with loads of boxes full of different things about each other like who has two pets, who has an allergy and then by speaking to people we were able to find out things about them once we had found the box for the person we put their name in the correct box the first person to get a line up or down they call bingo after that we were given our time tables and lanyards and after that people where so tired then went to sleep, jet lag I guess.

On the first day we had a nice early start at 8 in the morning where we walked over got breakfast of a full English breakfast followed by a nice message of the day from Adi who showed us a video of a guy who was in the Olympics who pulled a hamstring in the race and his dad came running down and carried him round the track with a standing ovation of 60,000 people and at the last 10 meters let him hop across the line. The message was when to help people and when to let them help themselves and let them try on their own very touching way to start the week and the day then we continued with a lot more ice breakers just to get each other familiar with everyone as some people had people they come with and other had never met anyone. For the end of the day we done a nice I believe session where we talked about our own perspective on certain situation like drugs or alcohol and a lot more we did these separately and didn’t share unless we wanted to which I found to be a very eye opening as it helped me see what my own opinions on certain things are very good.

On the second day we started once again at a nice 8 o clock start followed by a England group message of the day; basically all of the people from England where asked to make a message of the day to help get everyone focused on the same thing. We used a video of a guy who had no arms and no legs but was not letting that stop him from completing all the things he wanted to do from kayaking to waterslides even powerboating afterward we followed it up with some messages from team England like stay strong don’t give up and a few other messages. We were then shown a history PowerPoint of youth work about how it had developed and how far it has come from being all male based youth work to being mixed race, gender and a lot more of changes that are still in use today. We also watched the film ‘Freedom Writers’  which was used to show how far a person would go to help people who are a lot different to herself and how she risked everything she had just to help them. Very motivational to help other people who maybe are not in your situation but that doesn’t mean you can’t help them. At the end of the day we done a team building exercise of orienteering where we had markers placed all over the 120 acer area of Fairthorne which was very fun and very tearing and took about 2 hours the winners got shirts from the YMCA (very jealous)

This has been my blog I hope you all have a very good day and had fun reading about all the amazing things that the YMCA are doing to help young people thank you and goodbye

Louis Cozens

Tenant representative of YMCA Southampton

 

Nous sommes arrives a Montreal

After a fantastic day in Niagara we finally arrived in Montreal and to my surprise it was a lot more vibrant than expected also a little cooler in temperature. Montreal is described as Canada's cultural capital the neighbourhood is crowded with cafes animated with literary and music activity. And is one of the cities in the world with the highest number of restaurants. Montreal is also renowned for its churches, nicknamed la ville aux cent clochers ("the city of a hundred belltowers") which makes very picturesque.

The first YMCA in North America started in Montreal in 1851. It was revolutionary for an organisation outside of the church to offer religious discussions and activities. The YMCA goal was to put religious teachings into practice and to lead by example. Today the YMCA in Montreal continues to answer the needs of the community through its innovative community outreach programs, providing refugee and immigrant settlement services, language assessment and instruction, substance abuse intervention services, shelters, programs for single mothers and teenaged moms, and youth drop-in centres.

Posted on behalf od Mark Owens