1st Day

We arrived last evening, and have settled into our respective host families. We have spent this morning together having breakfast and we are now at the Red House- Do you remember it guys? We have an interview this afternoon with the adult council, and an official welcome from them, and later this evening we are meeting with the youth council to talk about the Worthing Youth Council and Youth Mayor initiative.

The weather is very cold, -5 degrees and there is snow although none falling at present. We are hoping to travel into the forest to make snow angels and play snowball fights later in the visit.

Fasnet starts tomorrow and we are prepared with our costumes etc, and are learning so much about the history of the festival and how it has developed through the years.

More to come next time …. Shirley

Well we have recieved our official welcome from mthe Councillors from Waldkirch and Simon was able to say a few words to the whole ccouncil on behalf of us all.

We have also spent the evening with the Waldkirch Youth Council discussing similaritioes and differences for young people in our two countries. It wasa very interesting evening and one when we all got to know each other better.

Two days to go…

Well it’s Sunday and I got out my large suitcase (got loads to take due to presents and resources for our programme) and realised I had forgotten that the handle was broken last time out! Oh well thank goodness for Sunday trading , a swift trip to Argos and we are back in business. All packed and 1kg to spare!

I have mastered the addition of pictures but I am really getting stuck with adding videos to the Blog. I am hoping to get some pointers before I go away as I think that they will certainly add  value to the whole evaluation of the project particularly for the young people who past experience tells me don’t enjoy writing or typing!.

The German group have invited a contingent from Worthing to Waldkirch in August to attend a European event culminating in an open air concert when the two bands who came first and second in the recenty battle of the bands in Worthing will be playing… This means that the return visit from Waldkirch has been postponed until October half term which does give us more time to apply for funding etc… So good all round I think. Lets just hope that prices don’t go up!

Well, will give more updates as the next few days progress…

I did it!

Well as you can see if you scroll down the blog I actually managed to insert an image – there will be no stopping me now!

I think I could get addicted to blogging… Should I be worried?

And there’s more!

Well I have bought the presents for our host family and just have to get some English tea to complete the package. I have also ordered my costume for one of the evening activities – The young people are going as Kings anad Queens and I am dressing up as the quintessential panto actor – ‘well slap my thigh’ Prince Charming -this will certainly be worth a picture for all to see!

I suppose that is my next step – to learn how to add pictures and video bogs. – I will have a go myself this weekend and then ask for help if I make a total hash of it all.

More at the weekend…..

Further to our up and coming visit…

Well we now know where we are staying in Waldkirch in February, which makes me feel a little better. I am really looking forward to doing some solid work, whilst we are there in February,on the exchange trip in August and getting the funding bid more or less finalised with our partner. The young people have made a request to visit London with the German group in August but the money I can ask for isn’t enough for that so I will be looking round for other opportunities for this…

It looks as though James will also be coming with us in Februatry, he has had an invitation from the town to work with them on an art exhibition and as he has that interest he is hoping to syncronise his trip with ours – that way we will be company for each other, and we can be support for each other as well. 

We had a focus group meeting last evening and the young people have planned the programme, although not actual allocation of days for activities as this will depend on the funding and also the availability of workers for the workshops. I am really hoping that the workers in the team get on board with this venture as in future years I would like to expand the reach for this type of work to the generic centres. This year we are including the YOFF as well as the Youth Council, but it will be great to go further afield when  we return to Germany in 2010.

We still are unsure of a venue to host the group although it is looking more and more as though the Glynn Owen will be the place due to the high cost of alternative accommodation and the lack of rooms in our local Travelodge for the prefered dates!

Oh well that’s it for now, when I have more information I will be back!

Vist to Elztal Region Germany February 2009

Most of the group who visited Elztal in 2008

On 17th February I am taking a small group of youth councilors to visit our twin region in Germany to discuss with the adult councilors there the pros and cons of the Worthing model of Youth Council elections and the facilitation of the Youth Mayor.

As it is ‘Fastnet’ whilst we are there we are also going to experience this element of the culture in the region in the form of participating in their local customs around this time.

Their new Youth Council have just been chosen and we will have an opportunity to compare and contrast the differences and similarities between our two towns with this group of young people. On this occasion we are to be accommodated in home hospitality and this has caused a few headaches for myself however we have overcome them all and as I know the families we will be staying with I am confident that this will be an added bonus in the experiential stakes! The youth worker who is my main contact has ensured that we are staying only 5 mins away from each other and we will be able to communicate with each other easily.

I am hoping to encourage the young peopole to continue this stream on the BLOG so that their peers can also feel part of the visit, and also continue when we have a return visit in August of our friends from Waldkirch.

During our stay the young people are to address a regional assembly of adult councillors to discuss the model we use for elections of youth councillors and Simon Wimble, our Youth Mayor, will be sharing his experiences during his term of office with them.

The one thing I have found difficult with this type of adhoc trips is the funding element, and if anyone has any ideas I would be eternally grateful – Thanks

Young people on management committees

OK, here we go…. a few of you are to be peer mentors for the young  people in our centres around Worthing, start to think about how you as users can help the centres save money, get the things young people want, have a voice in the centres, get other young people active in their centre and ‘owning’ it… See you Thurday at GOC

Town Twinning