Having decided to start The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at Portishead Youth Centre, we designed an invitation that we handed out to all young people who were at least 14 years old.

 

During a recent volunteers training evening I discussed how the bronze award could be obtained by all the young people attending the youth centre and particularly those who volunteered at the club.

 

There are four sections to the Bronze and Silver Award and Five sections at the Gold Award. These are:

 

Service

Be a local hero - help the community, the environment or even train to save a life...

Skill

Do something different; whether you fancy yourself as a fine artist or a trapeze artist, we’ve got something that will suit you...

Physical Recreation:

Could you be the next Beckham? Or Anna Kournikova? Virtually any sport, dance or fitness activity can count...

Expedition:

Go on an expedition and find yourself. Train, plan and complete an adventurous journey in the countryside on foot, horseback, boat or cycle...

Residential Project:

Work as a team on a conservation, service or activity-based project for five days (this is for Gold Award Participants only).

 

We had a positive response and about 8 said they maybe interested. Of those eight we have had 5 forms returned for the bronze award with a further two forms returned for the Gold.

 

The first expedition training session started on 7 November on basic map reading which will be continued in the weeks to come with Navigation and compass work.  I hope that each session will be both fun and informative so that they will successfully undertake a practise expedition in April/May next year and their Assessed expedition later on. We are also helping the participants through the other sections of the Award.

 

We have received good feed back from the participants who enjoyed their first session. It is hoped that we can combine next years expeditions with the Award at Gordano School and perhaps other youth organisations (Army Cadets) within the Portishead area over the next few years and as the participants talk to their friends, new young people will be attracted to the Award at Portishead Youth Centre.

 

 

Ben Hudnott 

Award Leader