Fundraising Extravaganza in Whalley Range – proceeds to WRYOA

Do You Like Having Fun

A monster fundraising extravaganza with live music: Friday 17th October

Recognising the good work that WRYOA does, local community members have arranged a fundraising extravaganza, with all proceeds going to the Whiz Youth Project. The event will be held at that the Carlton Club in Whalley Range on Friday 17th October, at 8pm till 1am. Entry will be £3 and there will be two great local bands playing (the Low Numbers and the Shaftburys), with a  raffle afterwards. The night is guaranteed to be a good one. Funds are sparse, so this is a fantastic opportunity to raise some cash for the young people who attend the project, so come along and bring your friends.

Carlton Club, Whalley Range, Manchester M16 8BE

Friday 17th October
8.00pm to 1.00am, Carlton Club, Whalley Range
£3 on the door

Thai Boxing / Fitness Training

Fitness training activities are led by Michael Dunn and are Thai Boxing focused. Some young people like to attend this class as it gives them a general keep fit workout that includes running out and about in the Whalley Range area. This aspect of the regular fitness activities gives the local community a chance to see what is going on at the project, showing them that young people are committed to doing something worthwhile — and is a great way of promoting the project. Girls have regularly been taking part in the sessions also.

Thai boxing and fitness training

Whiz Tucker Trials

Whiz Tucker Trials takes place on Wednesdays (mixed), influencing and educating young people on eating a healthier diet and gaining an understanding of the impact of food on the wider well being. Cooking sessions involve cooking a variety of foods to suit our diverse group of young people, educating them on different styles of eating; vegetarian and different cultures (i.e. halal, Caribbean) eating habits, thus contributing to the development of an integrated response to health and well being. Young people are more often taking the lead on these sessions now, which is fantastic. We often cook food for Thursdays provision also.

Whiz tucker trials

We have our dedicated volunteers to thank for the continued provision on Wednesdays.

T-Shirt vinyl printing workshops

Young people thoroughly enjoyed these workshops, which were led by Matt Farrell, a former Youth and Community student with MMU. Young people designed their own images using intricate computer software, and then transferred the image to vinyl, which they then had to cut out and transfer onto t-shirts. This process required much patience and concentration. We saw some great teamwork here also.

Giving back to the community – Clean & Green in Whalley Range

Young people at the Whiz project recently received a £700 grant from GMP to purchase a new pool table. Thirteen young people volunteered to take part in an organised litter pick in Whalley Range, in partnership with the police. We are very proud of our young people for this and they did a fantastic job too, as you can see from the before and after pics. They have all said that it has made them think twice about throwing litter, now that they’ve actively taken part in a cleanup. One young person said that from now on he’ll keep litter in his pocket until he finds a bin. A great learning to be had here – as well as cleaner streets in Whalley Range.

Giving back: clean & green (1)  Giving back: clean & green (2)

 

These before and after pictures show how hard the young people worked on the day.

And below is a picture of the team who took part in the cleanup. Two local PCSO’s also joined in the cleanup and later commented on how they were very impressed with the commitment displayed by the young people.

Giving back: clean & green (3)

Jewellery making workshops

These workshops, led by Kerrie Feeney have proved to be very popular with the young people, including boys. Some lovely pieces of jewellery have been produced, some of which were sold on a jewellery making stall at the Celebrate festival, which also went down a treat on the day.

Whiz at Celebrate Festival 2014

Whiz workers and young people worked hard at the Celebrate community festival this year, working on the information desk, running the jewellery making stall and selling bracelets on the grounds, cleaning up the grounds, helping out on the cake and tea stall and serving the volunteers food.

Young people raised £23 on the jewellery stall, selling mostly loom bands which are very popular with young people just now.

Whiz at Celebrate Festival (1)  Whiz at Celebrate Festival (2)

Play scheme – 6-14yrs holiday provision

Manchester Play (MCC) funded one week (4 days) of fun activities for children aged 6-14 yrs., during Easter holidays. The play scheme was well attended; 16 children registered with us in total.

We received a further funding to provide activities for first three weeks of the Summer holidays. This play scheme was the busiest we’ve had in a long time, with 42 children on the register.

Drayton Manor Trip – 2014

Our Summer programme at Whiz wasn’t as busy as previous years due to lack of funding. We managed to stay open for the usual hours, with mostly in-house activities and a trip to Drayton Manor. We encourage local residents and parents to join us on our trip, and this year we took 25 from the immediate neighbourhood in order to build relationships between the youth club and local residents. This was very successful and feedback was very positive, indicating that we should open the trip up to more members of the community in future.

Drayton Manor trip 2014

Free Talk English Courses for speakers of other languages (ESOL)

Talk English Manchester April 2014

This exciting course will start at JNR8 after the Easter break on Monday 28th April – and every Monday during term time from 10 am -1pm.
The enrolment day is Thursday 17th April from 10 am – 3 pm

The Talk English Project is offering free beginner English courses for speakers of other languages (ESOL) across Manchester.  These courses will be taught by volunteer ESOL teachers who are being trained and supported through the Talk English Project.

Talk English Courses are free and are aimed at adults whose English is very limited (Entry 1), who don’t speak English at all (Pre-entry) or who may not have accessed ESOL courses in the past.Through the project we are hoping to reach adults who are not currently eligible for mainstream ESOL courses funded by the Skills Funding Agency, which are mainly targeted at people who are actively seeking work.

By attending classes, learners will be able to improve their basic communication skills for everyday life.  The courses are not accredited and do not count towards citizenship, however learners will receive an internal certificate recognising their attendance and achievement at the end of the course

Enrolment will take place during class times from 22 April 2014 but learners will be able to enrol on the classes after that date if there are spaces available.To enrol, learners must bring proof of ID and proof of address. All classes will take place once a week and will run until July 2014 in the first instance.

If you have any service users who need very basic English classes and are unable to access courses due to waiting lists or eligibility, please refer them to one of our classes.  Please find details of courses attached and a poster for you to display in your centres.

Elena Jones
Talk English Area Coordinator (Manchester)
Manchester Adult Education Service
Abraham Moss Adult Learning Centre
Crescent Road, Crumpsall, M8 5UF
Email: e.jones@manchester.gov.uk
Mobile: 07717788673
Follow us on Twitter @TalkEnglishMcr