Wells Youth Network

Hi, we are Wells Youth Network (WYN). Our role is to support the young people of Wells and the surrounding area. We are very aware of the fact that there is little to do around here for young people like ourselves. We are fed up of being bored and have decided to do something about it. Things have got to change, no one is going to do it for us so if we want this to be a fun and exciting place to live then we’ve got to sort it out ourselves. We do need your help though!

What have WYN done so far?

Well we managed to get off to a pretty good start.

We have the use of an office in the Sackhouse. We all have jobs so it varies when we are there but someone is usually there on a Wednesday afternoon. Feel free to come in and see us.

We have had regular meetings with Richard Draper and Richard Butler from the Benjamin Foundation. The Benjamin Foundation is a charity which aims to provide services for children and young people across Norfolk. Examples of these services are; support and accommodation for the homeless, advice and counselling for 13 – 19 year olds, after school clubs and holiday clubs. We held these meetings to discuss the use of the Sackhouse building in Jicklings Yard. We’ve not decided which project would be best yet but we have had some good ideas.

We also met with Churches Together who gave us some advice based on their experience and also kindly offered to support the work we are doing and help where they can.

Sas, Tash and Luke attended a mentoring course run by the Yes! Project.  This means that WYN are well equipped to deal with the issues that young people face on a day to day basis. So if you need to talk just get in touch, we’re happy to listen and will try our best to help out where we can.

At Christmas Tide we organised a children’s Christmas Party. All the tickets sold out and we had a great time joining in all the silly party games. I think the kids enjoyed it just as much as we did though!

We sent out a questionnaire to Blakeney to find out what young people want to see over there. We got the results back and not just from Blakeney, we’ve had responses from Baconsthorpe, Cley, Cockthorpe, Letheringsett, Wiveton, Stiffkey and Warham as well. Sas and Emily went to The Harbour rooms in Blakeney to see some of those who filled in the questionnaire. They had some great ideas; discos, youth club nights, canoeing, clay pigeon shooting, x-box competitions, table tennis, kick boxing, internet café, learning activities, sailing, 5 a side football, somewhere to hang out and a pool table to name a few! While Sas and Emily were there, they also joined in the discussion on setting up a youth club in Blakeney. The Hangout House is in The Blakeney Harbour Rooms from 6.30 to 9.30pm on a Sunday night for 11-17 year olds. It starts with a table tennis competition. They all showed an interest in fundraising so that they can have better equipment and possibly go on day trips out such as ice skating or paint balling. They came up with far too many ideas to mention but the most popular were dog walking and sponsored events. They made it very clear however, that their kind and helpful nature did not stretch as far as cleaning old people’s toilets!

We visited Wells Primary School and Alderman Peel High School to find out what young people want. Everyone drew around their hand and wrote down their ideas in their handprint. We’re going to make an exhibition out of all the hands so that everyone can see your ideas. Here’s a summary of what you wanted.

WAP gave us a grant to by some DJ equipment. We now have a great mobile disco. We held an over 18’s club night in the Maltings at the end of July which helped us to raise some money. We also did an under 18’s disco in Walsingham which proved to be a good laugh.

This is our uniform, pretty good hey?!

At the end of July we had a graffiti art workshop with Kevin Parker. Kevin showed us what to do and we made some backdrops for our DJ equipment. It was a really good day. We had such a good time that we’ve invited Kevin to come back on the 31st of August to do another one.

What’s next for WYN?

Well really that’s up to you. We’ve made a good start but we need your help. We’d really like to recruit some new members so if you want to get involved and make a difference then please get in touch.

We’d like to do some more graffiti workshops and possibly some DJ skills workshops. We want to put on some more club nights and we need to decide what we want to do with the Sackhouse building.

None of this can happen without you though.

How do I get involved?

Send us an email – youth@wellsareapartnership.org.uk