After supplying young people with sports packs during previous half terms, we decided to try asking them what specific sports equipment they may like to take away with them. 
We bought footballs, velcro catch, frisbees, badminton sets, ping pong sets, rounders sets, blow up balls and chalks to give out to young people we saw on the parks as we walked around. This way the young people were able to play with the sports equipment that they wanted on the park immediately. 

We're very grateful to be able to offer in-person sessions again to all of our young people and community! Sticking to bubble groups, masks and distancing, we're hoping that the sessions will be just as fun as last time we were able to re-open. 

Youth and community workers have been hard at work for the last week or so getting the science packs ready to give out. We have made over 60 food based experiment boxes for the young people, over 20 garden packs for the community - 8 of which were for the young parents group and had extra experiments included for the babies and toddlers. 

Staff managed to raise £80 during February for the Charlie Waller Memorial trust. We hoped to inspire those from our community to get out once a day and try to have a walk around their area to try and help their physical and mental health. 

Although we weren't able to provide any sessions on the park this half term, we still made 30 Play Rangers packs perfect for families staying indoors during the lockdown. Jam packed with over 20 activities and challenges great for teams, pairs and young people playing on their own. 

We included Fair Trade activities and board games because we knew that the half term would lead into Fairtrade Fortnight and we'd be unable to celebrate Hull being a Fairtrade City with the young people in the building. We also added Black History Month fact sorting cards that the youth workers made, as well as bird watching sheets and everything they'd need to complete the challenges.  

The youth workers also filmed themselves doing the challenges and posted them during the half term so that the young people could feel like they were doing them at Network still. 

For Children's Mental Health Week the young people have been working extremely hard for the last few weeks practicing their singing, dancing and other talents in order to show how they express themselves!

The theme this year was Express Yourself and we think they've done a fantastic job! We've loved watching them have fun and grow in confidence as they showed off their rhythm and artistic talents. From clay cats to self portraits to powerful duets, we're super proud to share the video of all their hard work.   

We've had a great few weeks back and the young people and Community have settled back into their sessions immediately. They've been loving the crafts, quizzes, and competitions we've had planned for them and can't wait to hear their plans and ideas for the next few weeks too! 

We've put together four different types of Christmas hampers for those that access Network; seven 1-2-1 treat hampers that have a range of Christmassy delights; eleven Meet&Eat hampers full of delicious buffet snacks; seven hampers made especially for our wonderful volunteers; and thirty-five family hampers that includes everything you need for a Christmas dinner! 

We spent all day yesterday delivering them to our community and got some great feedback with residents so relieved to have a Christmas dinner to enjoy at a time when many are feeling under a great deal of financial pressure. 

The young people loved their final session before we closed for Christmas, and got to plan the party themselves! From a mini gingerbread house competition to music bingo, the session was jam packed full of fun and exciting activities that the young people had asked to do. It was a great way for the young people to see their friends from different schools and have a catch up before Christmas. 

Although not all of the young people could attend the zoom session, we still dropped off a selection box and our Christmas news letter to the others so that they could keep updated with us and still have a chocolatey treat! 

Over the past six weeks, we have been doing a lot of work around a new role we have for young people at the project as a Peer Leader. A Peer Leader’s role is to support and represent the other young people at Hessle Road Network. The candidates running for this role put in a lot of work last month preparing presentations around what they would do in this role, why it is important to them, and why they feel they would be good at it. The young people also addressed subjects that mattered to them and issues they would like to campaign for within the project. Last week, we held a vote in which all of the presentations were anonymised so the young people were voting for their Peer Leaders based on matters that were important to them and changes that they would like to see at the project. We are proud of all the young people who took part in this as they worked really hard during the process and thought a lot about local and national issues that matter to them. Well done to the winners who would like to address issues around bullying, LGBTQ+ groups, racism, child abuse, and much more within the project. We can’t wait to see what they all get up to!