2013Issue 7 - Winter 2013

Welcome to the winter wonderland issue of the

YoUFA news. The festive season swiftly passed us by and

we are now ready to see all the wonderful things the new year

will bring us.

UFA and YoUFA have been getting stuck into plenty of activities and

events over the past few months including the Arts council ‘How do we

know its propa belta’ and the NCVYS annual joint conference.

This issue will tell you all about the NCS programme, which lots of young people

from around the country, were involved in over the autumn term. Also, one of the

YoUFA board members will tell you about their UFA journey. Why not try out the UFA

energiser we have thrown in the next time you need to get a group together.

The YoUFA news team always want to hear from you! So if you would like to share some of your

amazing work, tell us about a fundraising event or an activity club you are running then contact us

and we will find a nice spot in the newsletter for you.

YoUFA is about young people so pass on the word about the network and help it grow and get bigger.

Together we can empower other young people with skills to lead activity and take ownership of their

learning.

Happy reading, Leadh (your UFA Youth Ambassador)

This starter is ideal for the whole group to work together and helps young people develop their levels of concentration.

* Write names of destinations on pieces of cards

* Everyone sits in a circle and is given a destination

* Someone is selected as a the ‘station master’ who stands in the middle and calls out 2 or more destination names

* The people holding those destination cards have to get up and exchange seats while the station master tries to jump into one these seats.

* You could also make the destinations, countries, colours, food or animals.

NEWS

Something to get you started

Happy new

year!

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The YoUFA Board members want to tell you about their own UFA journey… This week Aatif will tell you about his;I first came into contact with the UFA in 2011, with my Peer Tutoring Award under the legendary Jan Polack and Lula Garner, which I put into practice in Birmingham’s ‘Summertastic’ Events, helping kids moving up to secondary school, and assisting at a drama workshop. I’d enjoyed my experience with the UFA so much, helping my own confidence and others’, that I literally jumped for the chance when I heard that the YoUFA Board was after a couple of new recruits. Ecstatic upon hearing the success of my application, I whizzed off to my first meeting. The first YoUFA project that I had real involvement with on the YoUFA board was the ‘Grow It!’ project, with I quickly sank my teeth into. My vision for YoUFA is a national network of young people, all able to have the same opportunities that I did, and put them into practice. And I won’t stop until it happens!

YoUFA Board: 13 young people from across England representing your views

Aatif: My UFA journey

YoUFA board focuses on young people’s influence, leadership and voice in the continuing development of YoUFA. There is always a jam packed agenda with the Board members working together to make decisions about the direction of the UFA and the work they do. They also develop publications, plan fundraising strategies and advise on young people’s resources. Important topics and ideas for developing and enhancing the YoUFA network were

discussed in our November meeting. We also had plenty of activities for them to get their teeth stuck into, including practising writing a bid for funding and ways to improve the YoUFA newsletter. And of course we had plenty of brain food, including pizza, to help us get through the day. With the departure of some young people from the Board, the current members were eager to recruit some new members. There were a large amount of applicants, but the Board members whittled it down and selected young people who they felt would represent the YoUFA Board at a national level.

If you are interested in the work the YoUFA board do then please check out the ‘Shout About it’ section and contact us.

You can also visit the website to see the agenda from the November meeting.

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“I’m very lucky to have been given this opportunity and I strongly recommend giving it a go!’”

Northampton Graduate

“This experience has changed my perspective, I used to judge people based on how they look, mock them and think

it was okay. I used to be proud to say ‘I will

never change’ I am now ashamed of this. This

has changed me for the better.”

Northampton Graduate

“It has been an unforgettable experience

that has helped me to get to know some brilliant

people and to understand myself and why we do the things we do. An opportunity I will never forget.”

Northampton Graduate

“My experience so far with NCS has been magical, refreshing and amazing”

Aiden- Wakefield

“ NCS has been one of my best experience ever! Met lots of new friends and learnt loads of new skills!”

Chloe- Wakefield

NC

S experiences: During the summer UFA ran NCS in 3 areas around the country and after the great success of the programme UFA had the pleasure of running the NCS programme again this autumn. Many 16 year olds from Northampton, Bedfordshire, Wakefield and Kirklees took part in the programme which ran from October half term until the end of December. NCS is a government based programme designed for young people to learn about themselves, build on skills to help with their future careers and become positive role models in their community. As part of autumn NCS young people took part in a 4 night residential in an outward bound activity centre during the October half term. Here they had busy days doing plenty of

activities such as raft building, orienteering and a few high rope activities. This week aimed to

push young people out of their comfort zones to try something new and challenging.

They then returned to their local areas and spent 3 individual Saturdays working as a team

and planning their Social Action Project. Young people spent 2 days doing some volunteering

by raising awareness or fundraising for an organisation or charity in their local area as

part of their Social Action Project. All NCS participants took a leadership role to organise their Social Action Project, from

developing an idea to booking a venue to promoting their event and all the little bits in-between. To round off everyone’s NCS experience Mission Days in Kirklees and Northampton were organised. The day was filled with lots of challenging and exciting activities designed for young people to put all their great new skills into use.

NC

S:

The

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0121 212 9838 info@ufa.org.uk www.ufa.org.uk

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UFA - YoUFA @YoUFAorg@ufaLeadh

Art’s Council Quality event- ‘How do

we know its propa belta’

As you can probably tell from the name UFA headed up

to Newcastle for an Arts Council event hosted by Sage

Gateshead. The event was exploring what ‘Quality’ within the

arts meant for young people. 50 young people from all over

the country travelled to Newcastle to take part in the event

which was hosted by 9 young ‘Peer Facilitators’. The day was

spent reflecting on their own experience of the arts developing

ideas and practical solutions to improve the ‘Quality’ of the

arts. The peer facilitators did a great job at leading the day,

were wonderful positive role models and a pure pleasure to

work with.

NCVYS Annual joint conference

Every year our good friends NCVYS host the annual joint

conference and this year was no different. NCVYS along with

Leap Confronting Conflict and UKYouth all came together to

host the event which focused on partnership and collaborating

with other voluntary youth organisations. The day was filled with

lots of speakers including Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE,

Edward Timpson MP and RT Hon Don Foster MP. One speaker

that really sparked my attention was Karyn McClusky, founder

of community initiative to reduce violence. As well as giving

an interactive talk about her passions for her organisation, she

introduced a young person from the organisation to give a hard

hitting, yet inspirational talk. Although some of his background

was tough for some of our ears, he really made people sit

up and listen to how McClusky’s organisation turned his life

around… especially as he is now an Actor!

Grow it:

Giving young

people a voice

We will be looking for

YoUFA co-ordinators and

regional ambassadors to

fundraise, be the voice for

young people and increase

young people’s leadership

in your community.

But hold your horses,

Grow it is under

construction. The new

updated version will be

released in 2013.

Have something to say then we want to hear it! There are many ways you can get in touch!

Facebook - Search UFA- YoUFA Twitter - @YoUFAorg OR @ufaLeadhEmail - youfa@ufa.org.ukText/Phone - 07980673574YouTube - Search ‘Super YoUFA’Postal Address -See below

SHOUT about it!: Share YoUFA and UFA with someone new each week!

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