Rathbone Visit to White Stuff HQ

During the May half term, a group of young people and staff spent an afternoon designing a display board at the White Stuff head office.

The display board is going to be a great way of showcasing all the work that we have been able to do and the amazing opportunities that we have been able to give young people with the very kind and generous backing of White Stuff.

It was a very fun and enjoyable afternoon and we will be back again soon to update the display board.

Here are some quotes from White Stuff staff-

“After considering a number of local charities, we chose to support Rathbone as our Head Office charity for a three year period. We were very struck by the determination of the team to provide enriching experiences to their young people they support and their long term commitment to the children and families. They helped us to really understand the challenges faced by young people with learning disabilities and how Rathbone’s work helps alleviate some of these difficulties.”Rebecca Kong, Chair of the White Stuff Foundation.

“Since our partnership began in May 2013, Rathbone has organised a number of events to bring our staff and the charity’s beneficiaries together, including theatre trips, creative workshops, social events and a sponsored run. Rathbone’s staff have been working engaging staff from across our Head Office departments, from new starters to Directors. With Rathbone, we know our funding and support is making a real difference and it’s a pleasure to be associated with the charity.” Victoria Hodges, People & Culture Director at White Stuff Ltd and Trustee of the White Stuff Foundation

“Rathbone provides young people with learning difficulties with opportunities to learn and grow, which would otherwise not be available to them. Their programme of support makes a huge impact on these young people’s lives – socially, by improving their confidence, boosting their independence and helping to develop life-skills. Rathbone nurtures and cares for the young people; whilst ensuring the support they give is professional, they always make sure there’s an element of fun in everything they do too! We’re really proud to support Rathbone.” Sally Crane, Manager at the White Stuff Foundation

Inclusive Football Project Week 4

Last night was our 4th week of our inclusive football project.

There were around 18 young people in attendance and we had a 5 a side competition as well as a highly competitive penalty shoot out competition.

We had to end the session a little earlier than usual because the heavens opened and it poured down with rain!

As this project has been so successful, we are continuing into July with it and will be finishing with a unified football competition between a number of teams made up of young people from Rathbone and the Old Library Youth Centre.

Thursday Night Youth Club

Tonight some of us got into the spirit of the would cup and got creative to show our support for England.

Some of us were very optimistic that England were going to beat Uruguay...

As it was sunny, we also played a bit of basketball outside and had a kick about with a football.

The rest of the group chilled out and had a chat as well as designing some ideas for our banner for the Lambeth Country Show stall.

Inclusive Football Project Week 3

Last night saw the third session of our inclusive football project take place.

We welcomed back our regular faces and also had some new people join us.

We started the session off with a fun and lively warm up game- "duck,duck,goose".

Everybody enjoyed this and broke the ice with our new members.

Afterwards we had a discussion about teamwork and the importance of working together, supporting each other and challenging each other in a positive way.

We discussed the characteristics that we felt makes a team successful and work well together.

We then placed the labels on 11 pencils to signify the amount of players on a football team.

Scott then asked 1 of the group to try to snap a single, unlabelled pencil. This snapped easily and Scott explained that their cant be individuals in a team because it won't work.

He then asked us to hold the 11 other pencils and try to snap them together, they didn't and this signified that if we all stick together and follow the characteristics as a team then we will be successful.

Afterwards we got involved in some small sided games with staff taking part and trying to keep up with us!

Everybody really enjoyed the session and as it has been very well received we have decided to carry it on into July until the end of term.

Rathbone Youth Club Celebrates 50 Years of Outdoor Education at Hindleap Warren

On Friday 13th June, 4 young people and 3 staff were invited by London Youth to share in the celebration of 50 years of outdoor education at Hindleap Warren.

 

The occasion was made extra special and memorable by the presence of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh who is the patron of London Youth.

 

We were treated to a number of poignant and interesting speeches from those who work at Hindleap and from some young people who shared their experiences of Hindleap.

 

After this, we were asked to stand and mingle in certain areas of the room in order to make it easier for Prince Philip to get the chance to speak to as many guests as possible.

 

The moment arrived and we all seemed quite starstruck! The Duke asked us where we were from and asked if we had visited before. It was a privilege to meet him and have the opportunity to speak to him.

 

We were then directed into another room where all the guests joined together for a very nice meal and this gave us the chance to speak to staff and supporters of Hindleap Warren.

 

After lunch we were given the opportunity to take part in an activity, we chose the zip wire!

 

Some of us were a bit scared and worried but this began to change when Scott decided to do it as well and also dressed in a suit!

 

We all took part and it was a really fun way to end a fantastic day that we will all remember for a very long time!.

 

Week 2 of Inclusive Football Project

Tuesday night was our second session in our inclusive football project.

There was a massive turnout of young people from both out learning disabilities group and mainstream group.

Everyone took part in the session and we split the group into 4 teams and had 2 pitches running at the same time.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and were fully involved and supportive of one another.

 

Watch this space for some video interviews with young people and staff involved in this initiative!
 

Monday Night Trip to see Stomp The Musical!

On Monday Night, 5 young people had the opportunity to see Stomp at The Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.

The show was amazing and showed us all how you can make music and rhythm (not noise!) with anything from banana skins, lighters, brooms and basketballs.

We all really enjoyed ourselves and for some of us it was our first visit to the theatre. We hope we can do another trip like this in the future. 

May Half Term Trip To Chessington World of Adventures

During the May half term, a group of us went to Chessington World of Adventures.

The day started off very wet and miserable but as soon as we were on our way we forgot all about the gloomy weather.

We had lots of fun, went on loads of rides and enjoyed seeing some of the staff scared of even the gentlest of rides! 

This trip was made possible by the generosity of Help a Capital Child and we thank them very much for supporting us with this trip. 

Thursday Night

On Thursday night we had a general youth club evening.

Some of us enjoyed playing pool. 

We also had fun playing table football.

Some of us got creative and made some football themed craft stuff.

As the weather was nice, we played football outside and made lots of noise with some noisy trumpets we'd been decorating!

Inclusive Football Project

This week saw the next stage of our inclusive sports programme that is kindly being supported by London Youth and The Wembley National Stadium Trust.

We had more young people from the old library than expected which was a bonus for us.

The young people engaged in a very fast, fun and competitive match and everyone supported one another.

This project is running every Tuesday through June between 6.30pm and 8.30pm at Elm Green School in West Norwood. 

 

We have selected the last Tuesday in June for the first ever Rathbone Inclusive Sports Trophy where both youth groups will be competing in a football match.

We are hoping to make this an annual event for a range of sports.     

Cricket Project

We have recently been awarded £11,000 from the Wembley National Stadium Trust through London Youth.


This money will go towards providing sports projects for young people with disabilities.


In May we linked up with Surrey County cricket club and put on a programme of cricket sessions.

Some of us had never played cricket before, thought it was boring and had no interest in it! However by the end of the 1st session, everyone was engaged and really enjoying themselves.

 

This project was a fully integrated project between our learning disability group and our mainstream youth group.

This was a real success and some of us are now going to look into joining a cricket club!

We are all looking forward to coming back after half term and taking part in another inclusive sports project which will be football!

Half Term Residential at Hindleap Warren (Day 1 and 2)

On Monday 7th April 10 young people made their way to Hindleap Warren for 5 days of outdoor adventure, activity, fun and discovery.

We made our way down to the Ashdown Forest and were met on arrival by the very welcoming Hindleap staff.



Once we had been shown our rooms and give a tour of the surroundings we all sat down for lunch.

Our first activity of the week was called "Forest Adventure".



To many, this may sound like a casual stroll through the woods.....this was not the case!

Some of us were sporting some rather fetching outdoor clothing!

The group had so much fun climbing through the woods, walking knee high through streams and "puddles"!.

Everybody got involved and supported each other brilliantly.



After drying off, we spent the evening relaxing and getting know other members of the groups.

On Day 2 the group awoke and were eager and excited to get on with their activities. The first set of activities were teamwork activities.

Everybody was very keen to get involved and to support each other. the activities challenged everybody to communicate, encourage, problem solve and work together.



Our next activity was "high ropes", this was really fun and quite scary but everyone took part and attempted the activity.

 

We had a really enjoyable second day and are looking forward to the rest of our activities.

         



Code of Conduct and Fruit Sushi....

Tonight the group sat down together and began to discuss and design a code of conduct. The idea is that it is the young peoples club, so they should discuss, agree and implement their own rules. This is to give them some ownership as well as a sense of responsibility.



 

 

This will be an ongoing piece of work and is something that the group are enjoying and looking forward to developing.

 

After the first hour of tonights session, the group took part in a cooking activity making fruit sushi. This was really fun, messy and most importantly tasted good!

 

 

The Ingredients that we used were- fresh fruit, marshmallow rice krispies, tortilla wraps, honey and chocolate sauce!

 

 

Here are the finished products!

 

Banana Surgery and Desert Island Essentials

Tonight the group took part in some activities that focused on teamwork, communication, emotions and imagination.

The first game we played was called "Banana Surgery". The aim of the game was to peel a banana and cut the banana into 5 pieces. Once this was done, in pairs we were tasked with attempting to piece the banana back to as near to its original look as possible using only cocktail sticks, sticky tape, string and elastics bands.

The game was really fun, messy and enabled us to communicate with each other, share ideas and be creative. Below are the final efforts of the group.

This game was great for enabling us to recognise and appreciate that relationships, events and reputations can be easily broken, damaged or taken apart. However they are not always as easy to put back together. This game got us all thinking about ourselves and our relationships.

We finished the evening with a fun game based on the idea that we were all about to be dropped on a desert island. We all had to choose the 1 thing we thought would help us to survive on the island. There were some weird, wonderful and cleverly thought out ideas.

Once everybody had decided their 1 item and explained why they thought it would help us on the island, we then had a group vote to decide the 5 most wanted items we would take with us. 

Tonight we also said goodbye to one of our youth workers, Abigail. Abi has been an amazing member of the team and will be missed by everyone.

Next week is half term so there are no evening clubs. However we have 3 off site activites taking place- Go-Karting, Cinema trip and a trip to the national youth orchestra.