Go play
Our Halloween Party was a great success, with children, young people and their families all getting involved with a variety of different activities.
The main activity this year was hard to miss, as we had set up our huge inflatables for the children and young people to enjoy. The favourites were, without a doubt, inflatable basketball and the giant football dartboard – both of which saw some really impressive throwing and kicking skills!
Spooky spider designs were the most popular choice from our glitter ‘tattoo’ parlour. There were some tough decisions to be made from the variety of designs and colours, and the children loved being able to pick and choose to suit their tastes.
The children and young people were able to get creative and express themselves by designing their own Halloween masks at our arts and crafts station. We saw some cool (and spooky) designs.
If all of that wasn’t enough, we had a variety of fun activities and games to play, including archery, giant jenga and supersized snakes and ladders. It was great to see families playing together and having fun. Most of all we loved seeing the children’s creativity through all the Halloween costumes on display!
Sports
The children really enjoyed playing dodgeball as part of their UV Sports session. UV Sports is a unique glow in the dark experience that adds an extra level to any activity. This session was mainly about having fun and letting off steam. We loved seeing the young people get involved and the ultraviolet environment certainly helped to make it memorable!
Our tournaments always go down well and this time it was great to see different groups of young people coming together with their wider friendship circles to play football. And we saw a good mix of new and old faces. The tournament was a great success, and we’ll definitely be running another one as it was such a fun event!
It’s always rewarding for the team to see someone’s development during the time that they have been with us – and for them to see their own development too. Those who had been to our sessions before were really welcoming towards any new young people – seeing new friendships form through sport is one of the reasons we do what do.
We had a lot of new young people join in with our basketball session. It gave them the opportunity to experience what it’s like to be a part of a Powered by CAN event, and it gave us a chance to show them who we are and what we do.
Having new people join our events benefits our existing participants by giving them openings to display their leadership qualities. We’ve seen a number of our young people take up the extended coaching role and help their peers grow and improve, and we’re really proud of them. It’s a fantastic way to bring the community together and secure the future of our programmes.
M.A.D.E
Over half term we took our community group to the studio and recorded two brand new tracks. This was an amazing opportunity for them, which they enjoyed every moment of.
We also recorded three new tracks in a very productive and focused studio session with our over 18’s. We took the opportunity during the session to discuss their current music career progress and talk about their next steps. We’ve found that talking about these subjects in the studio environment really helps people to think seriously about where they are and what they need to do to get to where they’d like to be.
Four artist interviews were filmed and are ready to edit for our M.A.D.E Sessions Interviews series. We’re excited about seeing it launch in the new year. We had lots of discussions about the music scene in general and what the young people can do in their careers – and importantly how we can support them to make things happen.
