Young people taking part in our Prince’s Trust Team programmes have been supporting their local communities with projects across Suffolk!
One of many parts of our Team programmes ran in partnership with the Prince’s Trust is undertaking a project in the local community. Their community projects require planning, fundraising and a lot of hard work. Here are just some of the great projects across Suffolk & North Essex from our Haverhill, Lowestoft and Ipswich teams…
Lowestoft
Our Lowestoft Team researched lots of different projects around the area. Lucas, a young person on the programme told the team that he regularly attends the Mencap Unity centre, which has been running in the town for 8 years. The centre provides activities for those with learning difficulties providing them with opportunities for those who need it and they welcome many to come and join in with their activities.
They decided to help the MenCap centre for their community project, as they are in the process of opening a gaming suite next to their current centre. The team have spent the last couple of weeks working hard to decorate rooms at the new centre. They have been scraping old paint away, as well as painting and decorating the new rooms!
Our young people have been really excited to be involved with the start of Mencap’s gaming project.
Ipswich
Over in Ipswich, our young people have been tidying up the gardens at Quay Place. We spoke to our Ipswich team to find out why they chose to do their community project at Quay Place and what they have been up to so far.
One Team member said:
“We were finding it hard to decide on where to do our community project until George mentioned Quay Place! He said he’d noticed the gardens were looking a little bit overgrown when he passes it.
We contacted them, and they loved that we wanted to help out! We have been working hard to clear the garden area, adding new plants and we even put up a shed. We were able to buy all of our materials from the money we raised from doing a bag pack at Iceland.”
The team have worked really hard over the past couple of weeks weeding, clearing overgrown plants as well as putting up a shed for Quay Place to now store gardening equipment to carry on the great work our young people have done.
Haverhill
Our Team of young people in Haverhill began planning for their community project as soon as they came back from their action-packed residential activity trip. They decided that they wanted to create a garden area for their project and started to research possible project ideas. After meeting with Churchill Special School, the team felt that creating a Sensory Garden for the students would have the most longevity and would be the most rewarding not only for themselves but for the students at the school. They raised funds for their project by holding a tombola and a bake sale. The group were really proud of raising a grand total of £312, which allowed them to purchase the materials needed for their community project.
The team took pride and enjoyed planning and researching sensory based ideas, including raised flower beds which would help to engage the students. They used the money raised from their fundraising to purchase three raised flower beds and filled them with plants, herbs, ornaments and sensory-based materials.
The team members all had different roles during their project and liked seeing their different roles coming together to complete the project. The group were proud of what they were able to achieve, and the Head Teacher was very happy with what the group achieved.
Our Prince’s Trust Team programme is a great way for 16-25-year-olds to build confidence, gain new skills and find their next step in employment, education or training. Made up of different activities including a Community Project all which help to build skills and plan for next steps.
If you are interested in enrolling in one of our programmes or know a young person that may benefit from this 12-week experience, we have courses starting all across Suffolk this May. Please contact our Team Leaders:
- Thetford starting 7th May 2019 – Contact: jacobc@inspiresuffolk.org.uk
- Ipswich starting 7th May 2019 – Contact: peterr@inspiresuffolk.org.uk
- Sudbury starting 7th May 2019 – Contact: naomit@inspiresuffolk.org.uk
- Lowestoft starting 7th May 2019 – Contact: staceyf@inspiresuffolk.org.uk
- Colchester starting 7th May 2019 – Contact: sharonm@inspiresuffolk.org.uk
- Felixstowe starting 20th May 2019 – Contact us by text or phone on 07568 107877 / nextsteps@inspiresuffolk.org.uk
