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WYZBULLETIN >>>Edition. 1 July 2017<<<

Dance and Performing Arts Priscilla ‘Queen Of the Desert’ As part of our journey to not only inspire but also discover and uncover talent in the WYZ studio 3 department we feel it is important for our young people to experience first-hand not only being on the stage but being an audience member. Our young people are not only being taught about performing and skills but also connecting with the audience to bring out an emotion. Our very own teacher Felicity was performing in ‘Priscilla queen of the desert’ in which we took a group of young people to watch. It was very inspiring for the young people to be taught and encouraged by someone they could now see on the main stage in bright lights. St Peters Orall school visit We had the pleasure of St Peters visiting our youth zone this month. We had over 100 young people come through our doors with some dancing for the first time ever. It was a brilliant success with some first shy to engage or try something new they soon warmed up after a fun warm up and dance games, they then learnt a routine in which they performed in groups and assured us they would be back.MusicOur Music room continues to be popular for both junior andsenior club sessions, we have now started regular ‘Choir’ clubsession with a ‘house band’ made up of members who havebeen taking our drum/guitar lessons. We are also working oncustomising/upcycling a second-hand piano that has beendonated by our volunteer Dan, which features a transparentpanel to see the inner workings.Our UK Youth funded project the Change Squad podcast, hassparked some fantastic and important conversations on someserious issues affecting young people including Drugs andAlcohol and Self Harm. It has also enabled us to buy two newprofessional podcast condenser microphones and a mobile USBmixing desk so we can record discussions practically anywhere!

Art Holiday ClubThe Art department have been on a winning We showed our young people a great time atstreak recently. This month our department was holiday club and even put on a performancenominated for Volunteer department of the year. for others to watch, we explored comedy andWe received this award for the second Year in a row. mime as well as performance skills including some of our young people with additionalThe Art room has been recognised as a room needs, it was great fun enjoyed by all!which consistently has the most volunteers than anyotherdepartment in the youth Zone.Two of our volunteers also won special awards onthe evening. Emily Phoenix won volunteer of theyear.Emily has volunteered in the Art room since WiganYouth Zone opened in 2013. In her time in the Artroom she has offered continued support to the roombringing new ideas and leading on her own projects. Emily is a valuable member of the team who the young people look forward to seeing and working with every week. Jenny Thorbarrow won volunteer of the Month for May. She has been volunteering for a year. Her reasons for joining us were to build on her confidence. It has been great to see her come out of her shell over the past few months. Jenny is a keen Artist herself she is currently working on ideas for an animation. The young people who enter the Art room are always excited to see her latest illustrations.Presidents CupThis year’s Presidents took place in Carlisle and WiganYouth Zone was, as always, ready to go into battle. Thisyear was different, there was 10 other Youth Zones whowas ready to compete and take on the challenge.It was brilliant to see so many Youth Zones from aroundthe country to come together and not only compete in avariety of sports and challenges but to also integrate insuch a way.We took a group of junior and senior members that tookpart in boccia, seated volleyball, wheelchair basketball,rugby, zoneball, dodgeball, climbing, arts and topped offwith a brilliant dance.

WYZ Hosts Question TimeIn May, Wigan Youth Zone had the honour of hosting the filming of BBC’s flagship political show, BBCQuestion Time. The Question Time Production Team chose the venue due to its ‘energy’ when visitingthe site and the size of the facility.The Production Team arrive on Weds 3rd May to set up lighting, set and technical layout in the SportsHall at Wigan youth Zone, also using various other areas of the Youth Zone for a Green Room,Production Office and Hair & Make-up.As the Youth Zone was closed on Thursday evening, the team wanted to ensure that our members gotsomething out of the filming and participated with the whole event. As such, the Production Managerkindly agreed to allow 40 young people to attend sessions throughout the filming day with the staff andtouring the set.20 young people attended the first session at 3pm with the Technical Team, this included a tour ofthe QT set, trials and use of cameras with a live demo from cameramen, as well as tour of all theproduction vans and kit. The young people in attendance were chosen due to their involvement in theWYZ radio station and their keen interest in production, sound or engineering.The second group of 20 young people attended a very special session at 5pm, these young peoplewere seleced due to their particular interest in media. Youngsters got a tour of the set and were giventhe opportunity to participate in the live studio rehearsal of the show with the Floor Manager andpresenter and star of the show, David Dimbleby. Five lucky young people were chosen to act as areplacement panel for rehearsal purposes – these members sat on the panel chairs with Mr Dimblebyand fielded mock questions from the audience, made up of other youngsters.Following the rehearsals and set up, the filming of the show followed at around 8:30pm with guestsincluding Conservative Brexit secretary David Davis, Labour’s shadow business secretary RebeccaLong-Bailey and UKIP leader Paul Nuttall.Not only was this a fantastic opportunity for increased brand awareness for Wigan Youth Zone andfor our young people to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime activity but the Question Time event alsogenerated income for the Youth Zone in the form of room hire costs and donations!

Football Pitches Outdoor Adventure Girls Spring League The outdoor team has had another busy few months, In May the pitches of Wigan Youth with DofE training starting, residentials, holiday club Zone hosted the Wigan Secondary trips and working with other departments to help School Girls football Competition. deliver high quality sessions for the young people. Over 3 weeks Years 7/8/9 from 10 Staff have also spent some time away looking at schools took part with 120 girls in new venues around local areas and the lake district, the football league. so we can get the best out of our young people, when working on their personal social skills, buildingPlay on the Pitch confidents, self-esteem, communication skills andWigan Youth Zone was invited down problem solving, plan, do, review skills.by Wigan Athletic Community Trustto take part in the Play on the Pitch Duke Of Edinburghat the DW stadium, with 2 hours oftraining and matches it was great to We have had 4 young people complete their Bronzesee everyone enjoying themselves. award this month. Here are some photos of themThe players got to experience the receiving their awards.changing rooms and to walk out of Our first expedition was a success, our group ofthe tunnel to the sound of friends and intrepid explorers completed their first practicefamily cheering them onto the pitch. expedition in Rivington this month with an overnight camp at Bibby’s farm, the weather was glorious and the young people enjoyed themselves in the sun.

Gym Wigan Youth Zone held its first ever GOTRI event in association with British Triathlon and it was a huge success. Not only was it our first event but it was GOTRI’s first event with young people. We had over 20 young people take part 10 females and 12 males. The event is to help promote Triathlons within young people. Our members really enjoyed the competitive edge of the event which involved Cycling, Rowing and Running. There were 2 winners and they both won a £50 voucher. We are looking to do another event within the near future.OutreachUK Youth-funded Street Games ProjectOutreach delivered a holiday sports project in Higher Folds, covering two afternoons. With all thelocal young people on half term, Outreach set up outside the local community centre and offeredthe chance to take part in a variety of sports. Mixing new activities such as soft archery andfootgolf with a big game of rounders meant there was something for everyone.The sessions saw very good numbers and young people were very positive about wanting to domore activities like this in the future. Buses Total YP on buses in May: 159 (332 in May ’16) 2017 Year to Date: 957 2016 Year to Date: 1770 Walking Buses Total YP on Walking Buses in May: 49 (66 in May ’16) 2017 Year to Date: 205 2016 Year to Date: 376 General Street-based Work Total YP engaged with in May: 397 (422 in May ’16) 2017 Year to Date: 1892 2016 Year to Date: 2271

Pathway 2 Participation Pathway 2 Participation to date currently as 72 Referrals, we are currently working with 50 young people over 5 groups (4 weeks left for the first cohort). We have two evening groups and three schools; Standish Community High School, Westleigh High School and The Deans Trust Wigan (formerly known as Abraham Guest Academy) All the young people who engage with P2P will take part in environmental clean-up in partnership with The Desmond Canoe Trail to help clean up the Leeds to Liverpool Canal that runs through Wigan Pier. This group involved 14 Young people cleaning the canal near Wigan Pier they thoroughly enjoyed picking up litter whilst being in the Canoe …and it was a task in itself to steer the boat in the right direction towards the litter! All the young people will also attend a fire station in the local area to take part in The Heart Start accreditation, where they will train in basic life support (CPR) and how to use a defibrillator. This also gave fire-fighters the opportunity to talk to our group around Anti-Social Behaviour and how this is affecting Public Services. Going forward we will be looking for positive exit routes for our young people and a 6 week Summer Cohort will run with Students from Cansfield High School. Venue This May we kicked off the Venue in the way we do best – with live music performed by young people from the borough. Our first act of the month was Roto, a rock cover band who played to one of our largest audiences yet on out Friday Night Live events. Moving onto the weekend DJ sets we saw the breakthrough of Greyboi, a new young DJ from wigan who performs his own work and remixes Drum & Bass music, bringing with him a new crowd of attendees who keep on coming back to see what Saturday nights in The Venue have in store. Other successes include our college drop ins which sees students from Wigan come over for an hour or two on their lunch breaks in droves to chill out in The Venue and enjoy the atmosphere.

Enterprise Been really busy in May with a profit of £139.26! We started the month off by selling popcorn, with the introduction of ice cream as the weather improved. We’ve recently started a baking club every Saturday night to encourage the young people to bake and learn new skills. Introducing the baking element of enterprise has really improved the numbers of Saturday and Sunday night sessions as young people that are interested in both areas are mixing.RecDuring May in the Rec area we based all of our challengesaround Food. We celebrated how good (and bad) foodcan be. We had the slimiest of bowls for our members tounknowingly dip their hands into to recover tastier foodslike sweets and lollies. We had many a game of roulette(food roulette) with rewards and punishments ranging fromchocolate spread to pickled onions.We created structures with the minimal use of anythingfood-related, to see who could create the biggest orstrongest structure. We also rocked it ‘Old School’ with anold fashioned game of spin the bottle, with not so muchkissing but eye watering chilli sauce or tangy tomato juice.To counteract the chocolate spread we had somechallenges to work for, we had apple bobbing, high jump (forchocolate bars of course) and many a pool tournament withsomething sweet up for grabs. At the Rec we’re excited forsurvival month next month!

Community and Schools We have always had a good link with the schools, plenty of activities scheduled and open days where we are able to showcase and advertise some of the awesome activities that we do in Wigan Youth Zone. We have a number of school visits to the Youth Zone planned and will be building on these relationships. We are going to be attending fetes, working in partnership with Inspiring healthy lifestyles, Wigan council, wigan Rotary, Leigh Town Council, armed forces day, Wellfest and so much more. Ashton St Peters are booked in to come visit the Youth Zone along with Deanery High School, St Marys, St Johns, St Patricks, Sacred Heart and Westfield. So much more to come with loads and loads of fun! Watch this space.EmployabilityCohort 18: Integrating the old with the new!Cohort 18 has been another exciting cohort as we continue to develop the new elementsinto the programme. As part of the B-Tec Level 1 6 Credit Award in Work Skills students havecompleted new modules according to the new Pearson specification:• Achieving Success at Interview• Using a CV and Cover Letter to Apply for a Job• Applying for a Job• Career Progression• Working in a TeamStudents have a done a great job working through the practical elements and completing therequired academic work as well. We have also been able to integrate the Skills to Succeedonline learning programme into our course.The Skills to Succeed online learning has a focus on career development. We have thereforebeen able to link Skills to Succeed to the Career Progression module. Students have been ableto develop their IT skills through the online learning as well as completing the activity workbooklinked to the online learning. The activity workbook is then kept within their portfolio and used asevidence for the career progression module for B-Tec. Using a CV and cover letter to apply fora job has also been an innovative module. All students have applied for their work experienceplacement direct to the prospective employers via CV and cover letter.

‘Tether’ Digital Education Project: Enterprise 18 Cohort 18 has also been involved with a new digital enterprise project that we have never done before. The project is part of a regional competition including ten organisations altogether.The group were tasked with creating a digital business or service with a prize fund of £2,000.00 forthe best idea. Our students have come up with a great idea to create a ‘quick friend finder’ app thatcan be used at busy festivals, clubbing in town centres and large multi venue events such as theOlympics. It’s an app that allows friends to keep each other safe.You and your friends are able to sign in and set the parameters for where you are. In the eventa friend leaves the designated parameters the GPS linked system raises an alert allowing yourgroup of friends to be able to track the ‘missing person’ and see where they are.The group have put together all the technical side of the app in terms of how it operates, how tonavigate the site, add-on’s to make it profitable, its presentation, feel and personality. The groupdecided to call the app ‘Tether’ with the strapline “friends that tether together stay together”! Theconcept creation is excellent and they have put together an excellent presentation ready for theawards ceremony in July.Money for Life – UK Youth:Cohort 18 has also completed the UK Youth money skillsshort course involving the modules such as ‘You andYour Money’, where students read bank statements andlearn about tax, ‘Surving till Payday’, ‘Independence Day’,all about moving out of home and paying bills and ‘YourMoney Talks’, about credit scores.Sarah Wilkinson our Talent Match Coach has deliveredthe programme to our current students and will also bedelivering to the girls she is mentoring on her TalentMatch programme as well as future Get a Job students. World Goth Day 2017 We decided to celebrate World Goth Day to raise awareness around Hate Crime and encourage young people to respect each other and support creative expression. Both the staff team and our young people came in their Gothic/alternative clothing. Gothic make up was available for the young people to have done in the Girls Room and we also ran a Hate Crime activity in which the young people had to list the various types of hate crime and then an open discussion regarding each sub category took place in an informal setting.