Tag: Writing

community

Learning Together in the Community:

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Recognising and celebrating young people’s achievements

Youth Awards play a significant part in the work of SCYAP, and this is aligned in the first  instance to one  of the Projects  key  outcomes:  Young People will improve their social skills, confidence to learn,  through undertaking national accredited awards and volunteering. Learning happens in many contexts and from the  perspective of professional youth work we recognise that young people develop and learn with each other within  the community. Attending school is one aspect to how young people learn but it is only one dimension to learning, and SCYAP recognises how the process of community learning and development compliments and enriches young people’s wider educational  experiences. The Summer Programme 2026 has facilitated a really wide array of learning  and development  opportunities for local young people, and  it has been a very rewarding experience for the staff team to have been part of those  young people’s learning journeys. In particular I  would want to highlight and celebrate  the 10-13’s Group who undertook the Survival and Bushcraft programme, including the overnight shelter building activity in the Rough Castle Woods. Our ongoing  partnership with the Well Wild Project has delivered really significant impacts for all of the ten young people who took part in this particular accredited award programme. I am very grateful to the professionalism and collaborative approach undertaken by John Wells at his Well Wild Woods site (Johns Woods)  and the way he utilises  the outdoors and bushcraft as facilitators of personal growth and encouraging the learning of skills and attributes which young people can take away  into other aspects  of their lives. In our recent evaluation discussions John Wells commented:

The Young people involved gained so much confidence & personal growth. By the end of the summer programme every young person who attended the Well Wild sessions left the woods a better version of themselves with life skills that they will surely take with them as they grow into individual citizens.

It was evident as the sessions went on that young people had started building more trusting relationships with one another, friendships were growing and you could see them having to rely on one another at times, depending on each other’s work, especially at the survival overnight camp.

This approach can best be  described  as experiential learning and it thrives in the natural  classroom that has no walls.  

We are now supporting young people to complete  their peer assessments and personal reflection sections of their Dynamic Youth Awards and a really  important aspect  to this is young people receiving positive encouragement and recognition from their peers, this really does build their confidence and self-esteem and strengthen their relationships with their peers. Through our recent development  day and the reviewing of our development plan for the next three years it was agreed that we need to confirm a good progression pathway  for young people who get regularly involved  with SCYAP. In summary this is about providing opportunities for individual young people to begin by participating with local youth action activities, then begin to help out and volunteer and eventually potentially taking on greater responsibilities and leadership roles, and perhaps even becoming a sessional paid member of staff. This really is about building community capacity and empowering local young people to have greater responsibility with an increased and significant  role with the development of their own local community. In this respect I would like to congratulate Leo Cierpikowski who has just completed his Gold Youth Achievement Award and who presented his peer mentoring work to an invited audience at the Hub on 4th August. Leo was also employed as a sessional youth worker  throughout  the Summer Programme,  and he provides an excellent role model for other young people, especially in terms of how you can progress your involvement  through undertaking youth awards and giving to the community through volunteering.

There is a second strand  to the SCYAP Youth action approach, where  in addition to  the personal development and attainment opportunities, young people are also able to make a positive contribution to their local community. We have seen this on a regular basis with our environmental improvement  and community arts projects throughout Camelon and Tamfourhill. Over the Summer programme 2026 the Group were  involved with two creative community development projects supported by our Community artist  and design worker Sarah Diver Lang. We had the wonderful active travel procession along the route of the Tamfourhill Totem Pole trail on the towpath of the top canal and also the creation of our community treasures  online  trail. Both of  these projects celebrate the  assets within our community and encouraged young people to improve and celebrate aspects of the local area. These projects are also well aligned to our first Key outcome: Young People will have better connections with the wider community. Sarah commented  in her evaluation feedback that : 

The Canal active travel  procession ensured there was lots of engagement with the outdoors, this was an essential part of the programme to enhance creativity through creative workshops and wellbeing and through walks and foraging materials. Participants were thanked and celebrated for their contributions aiming to increase pride and recognise the impact of their work for the wider community. 

Participants led on the direction and format of the Community Treasures project, designing the programme during the development – increasing confidence and seeing impact of their participation through active projects. Participants during the three-day workshop led on deciding which community treasure they wanted to highlight ensuring their voices were heard. The walk helped build relationships and engagement with spaces as well as health and wellbeing.

Please visit the totem pole trail : Great News for SCYAP – Safer Communities Youth Action Project

Please visit the Community Treasurers online trail: https://www.sarahdiverlang.com/localtreasures

For further information on the National Youth Awards and their process of progression please visit: https://www.youthscotland.org.uk/awards/ SCYAP successfully also utilises these awards in our work with local schools and they are an ideal way of linking the school curriculum, with the community and facilitating the positive outcomes of  experiential learning.  

And finally, I would like to sign off with the voice  of the young people who travelled along their different but complimentary routes through the SCYAP  Summer Programme Awards journey:

  • I feel more confident now and I was more assertive at the overnight survival camp.
  • I am much better able to speak up for myself, and I can confidently give instructions to other people when working on a team task.
  • I am able to say things I wouldn’t normally be comfortable saying and was able to speak about an individual  snoring at the overnight camp.
  • I got to meet  new  people throughout the programme and got to know them better.
  • I better understand the transitions, and I have got to know people that  I will be going to High school with,
  • Yeah the overnight survival has  changed me as I couldn’t  bring and use  my phone as much
  • The  overnight programme at Johns Woods have really  improved my resilience
  • Building the overnight den really showed good teamwork
community

Always the Summer Sun

bighosie

Summer 2026 has already left its mark on us with Scotland stumbling out of the world cup, but please don’t be too down about that unfortunate outcome, because it’s now  a case of NO SCYAP NO PARTY for the rest of the school summer holidays.

We began our summer activities with the SCYAP development day on Sunday 21st June which took place in the community centre that has no walls at the Well Wild Project  in the Rough Castle Woods. As SCYAP moves into its second tranche of three-year funding from the National Lottery Young Start Programme, this  then was an appropriate time to review  the Projects Development Plan and take stock of the areas of work we had supported over the previous three years. The approach to achieving this was facilitated  through bringing young people together in an empowering way to work in partnership with the staff, volunteers and members of the Tamfourhill Tenants and Residents Organisation. There were opportunities to work and learn together, along with some creative workshops looking at planning our summer community arts projects. The Well Wild Projects ethos afforded us the positivity of working together as a team and building trust amongst each other. The young people responded very positively to the role play activity we undertook which impactfully  highlighted the importance of working in an inclusive and empathetic way. We look to the future of SCYAP  with hopefully a sense of collective responsibility and ownership  of local youth action and future community development activities. A full report with proposed areas of  future activity is currently being collated and with the potential  availability of increased funding we can now move forward in a  more strategic and connected  way over the next three years. My personal thanks to all who participated and to my cofacilitators Sarah Diver Lang  and John Wells for their specific inputs  and support with the days programme.   

I was delighted last week to attend the P7 Leavers Assembly at Easter Carmuirs Primary  School and offer my support to the Class of 26. We had been working with  the class since last November on their Dynamic Youth Award Challenge: To experience nature and to help nature in their local community.  The class from Easter Carmuirs along with young people from Carmuirs Primary and the SCYAP Creative Climate Action Group were all distinct strands of our commitment to  deliver upon  young people’s priorities for local climate action and standing up for nature.  Young people have been involved with planting orchards and clearing up the local canal, experiencing nature in the local parks and at the Well Wild Project. The Carmuirs group have also  established a wild garden within the woods next to the Tamfourhill Community Hub. Creativity formed a significant part of the respective groups programmes and with all three groups being involved with the design and creation of  the Active Travel Totem Poles Trail. The Totem Poles are now installed along the active travel route on the Onion Canal through Tamfourhill so I am therefore overjoyed to be able to invite everyone along to  an Active travel Procession past all ten of the Totem poles, please meet  at 1pm on Wednesday 8th July, food and drink will be  provided, the starting and meeting point is at this link

https://maps.app.goo.gl/8C6hF2XAU7YbhRso8

Consistent with our Youth Action approach all of the young people successfully gained two- and three-star Dynamic Youth Awards through their involvement and contributions  to these Climate Action and nature based creative Programmes.    

I want to give a special mention to the work of the Carmuirs Community Safety Group who we worked with since the start of 2026. This was a collaboration between the school , SCYAP and the Well Wild Project and was focused upon responsibility, accountability and managing risks in the community. It was a challenging programme, very hard hitting and dealing with very sensitive issues. The six P7 boys excelled on this programme and watching their development over the 4 months was inspirational. I was delighted to present them all with their Dynamic Youth Awards and we look forward to their continued participation in their community. This project was an excellent example of the power of collaboration between the school and youth work sectors.

SCYAP Summer programme begins  on Tuesday 30th June with our trip to  Falkirk Fire station, we have an amazing array of creativity, outdoor learning and good fun activities. As always our programmes are underpinned by a commitment to get young people  more involved  with their local community and provide quality social and personal learning opportunities. The programme is  open to 10-18 years olds and is entirely free, some activities however are only available for 10–13-year-olds and to book on please use the QR code detailed below.

There will be three Summer Fun in in the Parks events delivered by SCYAP this year which are being part funded by Greenspace Scotland Parks 4 Life Community Fund, this first is on Thursday 2nd July from 1pm-4pm in Easter Carmuirs Park, the flyer below provides all the details, these events are open to all the community , however under 10-year-olds will require responsible adult supervision in order to take part in some of the activities.    

And finally, I am really pleased to announce that we successfully secured a two-year package of funding through the KFC Youth Foundation which will be utilised to deliver our key youth action activities and to support developments around the  Twilight Sports Programme. To gain this support is a very real endorsement for the work of SCYAP and our ability to deliver quality activities which are having significant positive impacts upon young people and the wider community.    

camelon, coach, community, development, Our Place, resilience, tamfourhill, training, Writing

New course – Creative Writing Introduction

Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill

I’m giving my blog this week over to tell you about a new training course that I’m pleased to be able to bring to you.

Following comments from some local residents and a couple of opportunities that arose through unplanned means, we have put together a Creative Writing Introductory Course. This is completely free for local residents.

Through 6 sessions that will be delivered with a mix of live ‘online via zoom’ and ‘work offline at your own pace’ learning, we will give you an overview of how to get started in Creative Writing, with hints and tips along the way to help you get into writing in its various forms. 

Joining me to bring this course are 2 experts – Susan Marshall and Kev McPhee – local writers who want to inspire and help you on your own journey to writing. Additionally, our friends at Camelon Arts will be supporting in a variety of ways.  During the course there will be various practical tasks for you to do along the way that will take you through different styles of writing which might help you decide (if you haven’t already), what kind of writer you think you want to be, or what writing style you will have. At the end of it, we’ve got something special planned – but we’ll keep that under wraps for now! What we can say is that as well as the surprise, we will have other learning options that will focus on specific types of writing so that you can continue in your chosen field.

Right now, as the 10 second clip below shows, I’m busy editing videos and tidying up the sessions to make this the best it can be for you. This would have been so much easier to get you in a room together but that’s obviously not to be at the moment.


For now, if you’re interested in being a part of this course, simply click the link below to be taken to a survey monkey page where you can insert your contact details and we’ll be in touch with more information.  We aim to start the course in late February.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FLJL8C9

camelon, community, Our Place, Support, tamfourhill, training, Writing

Friday Feature – Connecting People

Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill

Welcome to the first of an occasional series where we will highlight something that we feel is of special interest to you, the lovely people of Camelon and Tamfourhill (and others too if you’re looking in!) We might feature an organisation, an activity, an individual, an opportunity or any number of things. If you feel you have something worth including here, then please get in touch with Dan, our Community Coach.

For today, we’re going to feature an opportunity that pretty much everyone could get involved in and benefit from. And it comes from the Compassionate Communities Team at Strathcarron Hospice.

Here’s a couple of quick questions:

Can you talk or write?
Would you like to be connected with someone with similar interests?
Would you like to offer friendship and a listening ear?

If the answer to any or all of those questions is “yes”, then this could be the opportunity for you. 2020 has been unexpected to say the least! And it has been tough for many especially in terms of keeping in touch with others. If you’re not great on a computer and stuck in your house, conversation for many has become a distant memory.

The Compassionate Communities Team at Strathcarron Hospice have seen and understood this, as have we here at OPCT. So they have have set up this opportunity that is open to all. It will enable you to connect with someone of like mind either by phone or through the good old art of writing letters – it’ll be like having a penpal as used to be a norm for lots of people many years ago.

As well as helping people remain connected, this could even bring out a creative spirit within you. Maybe you’ve always wanted to get into creative writing and didn’t have an outlet for it? Here at OPCT we’re looking at doing something with the writing skills of local people in 2021 so this scheme could be a good way to start warming those skills up in readiness. We’ve got a local author willing to help us, and a few ideas for putting your skills on show. All we can say is, watch this space!

For now though, to get more information on the Connecting People scheme in addition to the flyer below, you can email fv.compassionatecommunities@nhs.scot or call 07881 511961. Alternatively you can contact us and we’ll help you do the necessary.

***Please share especially with those you know who are not online.***