December 18, 2017
|By aissagallie
|
Once again, our Activities workers in North Yorkshire are getting young people outdoors, facing challenges of many different kinds, with meaningful results for their personal development. Even braving the recent bitter cold weather, young people visited Howe Stean Gorge and then on a truly bitter day another group visited the Yorkshire Dales to take part in a community and environment project. Activity Worker Graeme reports…
Howe Stean Gorge
“Just do it how James Bond does it”, shouts the instructor from the top of the bridge, I don’t ever remember seeing James Bond dangling 45ft off a bridge on a cold November afternoon in Yorkshire, if he had done though it could have possibly been the greatest bond film of all time.
One by one the team abseiled in, it was like a scene from an action movie, the last person down and we were ready to go. Kitted out on the latest hardware from the world of Gorge walking, we looked awesome and everyone was determined to get the job done.
Five young people from Harrogate and Skipton attended the Gorge walking activity. Three hours of walking up stream, jumping into pools and climbing up water falls, this was going to be a very physical activity and a challenge for even the fittest members of the team.
After an hour of walking up stream we were treated to a deep pool that we were all invited to jump into, the instructor challenged people to jump in and try and get a rock from the bottom of the pool, this was more of a challenge as the wetsuit was very buoyant. Everyone jumped in and gave it a go.
On the way back down we entered into a cave system, this was more challenging as we had no natural light to guide us, customers worked together to navigate a route through the cave, given verbal instruction’s and making everyone else aware of any hidden hazards.
The customers learnt some very valuable skills, communication, team work, listening skills, leadership skills, motivation, pushing their limits and encouraging those around them.
A couple of the young people really shined as natural leaders and showed a different side of themselves that is not always seen. Away from the chaos and mobile phones, these young people that attended showed great team work, and were focused on helping each other and having a really good day. Customers that attended have asked if they can do more activities outdoors that involve team work and are physically challenging.
It was amazing to get out and do the Gorge walking, my feet are cold though
Rebecca Skipton
I never thought I would get the chance to do something like this
Emma Skipton
It was really good to meet new people from other areas
Jordan Harrogate
I’m so glad I went, I’m not used to people saying positive things about me.
Azim Skipton
Yorkshire Dales
On the coldest day of the year so far, customers woke up to a heavy snow fall and frost, this did not deter a group of motivated young people to venture out into the Yorkshire Dales. We left Skipton at in the morning and drove to Clapham, here we met Sarah from the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. The day had been planned to get involved in a community and environmental project to plant trees in a Gill in the Yorkshire Dales. This project will help with the flood prevention and soil erosion in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
We drove to a local farm where we were kitted out with boots, waterproofs and tools to carry out the task in hand. The job involved selection of saplings, digging holes, placement of the saplings and securing the sapling with a stake. Despite the temperature hovering above 0c and the ground covered in a fresh layer of snow, no one was deterred by the elements or complained about the cold.
The customers worked tremendously well as a team and planted over 100 saplings.
Both the farmer and Sarah from Millennium Trust were really impressed with how hard everyone worked. We will be going back to plant more trees in the New Year and would like to invite someone from the Senior Management Team to attend.