Over the recent Easter school holidays young people in the final year of their YAT Adventure Programme took part in a selection of hobby based workshops as part of the “Looking forward” theme for the day. The impact and importance of our volunteers was very evident on the day, as they took responsibility for leading the different workshops. By sharing the passion and knowledge they have of their own interests, we aimed to inspire our young people to consider taking up something new and possibly a bit different. We selected activities which are accessible locally and affordable to all. Our volunteers skilfully opened up discussions about their chosen hobby, explaining what’s involved and how to pursue it.
It was great to see different young people engaging with different activities and sparking interest in different things. I wish I’d been pushed to try so many new hobbies when I was their age!
Liz, Programme Volunteer
It was a pleasure to see the volunteers leading the day confidently and competently, sharing their enthusiasm and creating an exciting buzz as everybody got stuck into a wide range of activities.
I hopefully showed them that as well as having lots of fun, playing board games can help your social skills, teach you new things and, without realising, put things like probability, strategy, dexterity and creative thinking into practice!
Sophie, Programme Volunteer
Young people joined in with geocaching, board games, photography, wildlife identification and frisbee golf sessions, alongside informative and engaging introductions to the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the Scouts. It was great to see the young people coming to the end of their time with YAT enjoy time outside, connecting with the natural environment as we identified wildflowers, hunted for geocaches, took photos in nature and applied our navigational skills to uncover treasure hidden deep in the woods!
I just loved being in the woods, I want to do lots of things in nature.
Charlotte, Young Person, Age 14
We gave the young people the chance to let us know which hobbies they might like to pursue and we received an overwhelmingly positive response to all of the workshops our volunteers facilitated.
As a workshop leader, I was impressed with their enthusiasm and willingness to learn new things. I was happy that many of them expressed an interest in pursuing certain activities and already enquiries have been made to make it possible.
Sarah, Programme Volunteer
Witnessing the young people and volunteers working together, inspiring and respecting one another, really shone a light on the impact having this wide range of adults involved in helping has. Many of these volunteers have been witness to the young people’s journey on the programme, first meeting them two years ago at the very start. Seeing the young people greet them with smiles, familiarity and a deep sense of respect reminded all of us just what an important part of our impact the volunteers are. A big thank you to everyone who was involved in delivering these hugely successful days.