An invitation to attend and awards evening at TamYouth left me wondering what was in store for the evening, all I knew was the venue and that some of the people will be between 16 & 25 years old.
So off I went from a meeting at marmion house over to TamYouth, I was greeted on the way in by Paul Berrisford the manager and offered a coffee and told the buffet was open. I later learnt that the young people from the youth forum had put the buffet together and i have to say did a great job of it.
now seated I awaited the start, a young lad walked on stage as compare and opened the evening by introducing some young people from Glascote youth centre who had attended each week and learnt to play some electric guitars and drums, creating a great sounding band. the rest of the evening kicked of with awards for the young people whole use the youth centres in Tamworth and are able to achieve various qualifications. some of these were volunteering awards some were organisational and team building skills. There was a real sense of worth from going to the youth centres aside from just something to do. some of the youngsters looked very nervous receiving their awards on stage in front of a room full of strangers, especially when they had a microphone thrust in front of them and being asked if they would like to say anything.
As the night rolled out we celebrated an number of awards, some where to members of the spin group who deal with disabilities whilst others went to youth forum members. then we got to Duke of Edinburgh awards where young people received bronze silver and gold awards under the DofE scheme, this was accompanied by a great video made by the gold award group which was filmed on their expedition and contained the pros and cons of motivational singing whilst walking, great entertainment.
The next part of the evening was a little of a surprise for me as the youth service then went on to award various members of staff and volunteers certificates for their achievements or qualifications earnt in the year. I though this was fantastic, this was intergenerational sharing of achievement. Some of the staff are able to join others leading expeditions etc and all received their awards that night.
One thing that really came across throughout the whole evening was the value and opportunity within the youth service in Tamworth as well a the community feel between staff and attendees, it was great to be a witness to this and I would recommend to anyone they should check out the services their local youth centre has to offer.
