Our Newcastle University Intern, Aimee Wager, shares and reflects on all of the incredible opportunities she has got involved with since beginning her placement in September, and what a busy few weeks it has been!
Wellbeing and Employability Programmes
Firstly, a huge highlight has been visiting three schools identified as being in areas of high socio-economic deprivation across the North East. Every week we deliver wellbeing/employability sessions with a group of year 9 or 10 students in these schools. We include sessions on fight or flight, relationships, unhelpful thinking and goal setting. It has been an extremely eye-opening experience so far, hearing about the various challenges our young people are facing both inside and outside of school, and I look forward to continuing these programmes into the next half term, culminating in end of programme trips.
Annual General Meeting
Another highlight was the Building Self-Belief AGM in September. This was a fabulous event where our trustees, funders, young people, parents and other charities came together to celebrate the success of the charity over the past year. This gave me an incredible insight into the work of the charity, and made me even more excited to get stuck in over the next year and continue to make some positive impacts in the community.
Leadgate Youth Club
One of my favourite events of the week is our youth clubs on a Friday, which is a fun, safe space for children in the local area to do arts and crafts and play games. The joy on the young people’s faces when they are given these creative opportunities, that are often missing in school, is amazing to see every week!
Benfieldside Community Garden
The Benfieldside Community Garden has been another unique opportunity which I have thoroughly enjoyed getting involved in. It is great to see how positive this garden impacts the local community, especially when we host community fun days, such as for Halloween. We had over 30 children at the garden for an afternoon of pumpkin carving, face painting, games and of course a sweet hunt! It’s a fabulous space to host these community events at, and I can’t wait to see the development of the garden over the next year as we continue to renovate it from a wasteland to a beautiful green space.
Additional Events and Training
Over the past few weeks, we have also attended the Derwent Valley AAP environmental conference, the DBN networking event and the North East Youth Alliance Youth x Culture event. I have also completed a first aid course and various other online workshops and courses in gambling awareness and support, and digital leadership (the list is endless!).
All of these experiences have been invaluable, particularly as a university student at the beginning of my career. This placement enables me to put the psychological theory I have learnt over the past two years of my degree into practice, and use this knowledge to positively impact the community. Everyday I am learning more and more about how the charity sector works and how Psychology relates to the work of a young people's charity. I feel privileged to be given these opportunities, and look forward to developing my skills and knowledge further over the academic year.
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