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| Carrickfergus YMCA team get away from it all |
Sat 31 January 2009 |
Fifteen Staff and Volunteers with the various YMCA projects in the borough went away on a weekend of teambuilding and training week end to the YMCA's outdoors activity centre at Greenhill, Newcastle.
The weekend covered activities such as canoeing, archery, crossing lava flow (you really had to use your imagination for that one) and workshops where the team got involved in discussions and plans covering Child Protection, Health and Safety, and the YMCA's cross community programme for the next 12 months.
Carrick YMCA's General secretary Bob Loade said " There were a few doubts about the weather, but we pressed on regardless and had a great time. The YMCA like many organisations has lots of good plans, but its all about making those plans a reality for the people who come to our centres and get involved in projects with us. The participation from the youth trainee leaders was fantastic and they displayed a great deal of maturity in talking through some difficult issues and that bodes well for the future."
Community relations works shops were facilitated by Davy Norris, Area Youth Work manager with NEELB, and John Kelly from the Rural Development Council. They asked us how inclusive are we really are? Challenging everyone's views and assumptions about people and the way we behave. This lead to some interesting debates, especially when the group was asked who would they rent a YMCA flat to. The proposed tenants where a very mixed group, ranging from a reformed drug dealer, an Orange man, a Sinn Fein councillor, to an ex-bank manager. In total there were eight potential tenants. At the end of the debate the flat was provided on the basis of greatest need, which is a big part of what the YMCA is about.
The canoeing proved to be a real character test, with wintry showers and a gusting wind blowing across Castlewellan lake. Alice Cole one of the trainee leaders, had never canoed before and didn't like the look of it, but she braved it any way. Will she do it again or not is another question entirely?
Archery proved to be very popular despite the freezing weather. In a Boys verses Girls contest. The Boys won, but only because another trainee youth leader Johnny Kennedy came to their rescue with some sharp shooting. Overall a lot was learned and the team had a great time together. At the close of the weekend Maurice Shearer, Glenfield / Castlemara PAKT project manager, led the group in prayers for the borough. His concluding comment was that he "wanted the YMCA to plan a year of big dreams for the youth and families attending the centres and to work to make those dreams a reality." It was a really fitting comment to end the weekend with and was a good measure of the teams enthusiasm for the work they do.
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