Hiya we are Ericka, Jacob, Flynn and Annie.

We have been involved in different Turning The Corner projects.

On the 21st of march we were visited by a lady called Carolyn from the evaluation team who came in to do a workshop with us. She was with two girls, they were called
Beth and Naomi and they were YETIS which is the youth evaluation team investigating stuff.

They started by doing an activity with us where we had to make the shape of the letters TTC with our bodies working in a group.

Then we worked in groups and we had to do a presentation poster about Turning the Corner.

Beth and Naomi and Carolyn helped us write down what we liked about TTC and why we think it was important and also about the yes pledge and how it helps the community.

Beth and Naomi pretended to be judges on a panel and we had to show them our presentations.

Ericka and Bethany did a dance as part of theirs, using what they learnt as part of their project.

At the end of the presentations we all got sweets, we enjoyed drawing the posters and it was to meet them and talk about TTC in our area.

We were invited to take part in a residential so that we could share our ideas for our projects to help make a video for Turning the corner. As part of the residential we took part in video workshops and some outdoor activities.

This is the start of our blog that we will be keeping for our projects:

Peat Rigg Residential 3rd of February

On Friday the 3rd of February night we left Hebburn to go to Peat Rigg Centre in North Yorkshire. We left at roughly 6 o clock and arrived at about 8pm. When we got there it was very cold.

We then we met AJ who was the centre manager and he showed us all the places we were and weren’t allowed to go and told us about health and safety within the centre. He also told us facts about the building and showed us a powerpoint presentation. Then we had some dinner but we ate very little because we had ate lots of sweets on the way there.

After dinner we got shown our rooms and unpacked our stuff.

When we were sorted in our rooms we went over to the main building where we played foosball and interacted with the other people there. Then we had a game of connect four which Flynn thought was hard but he managed to beat Jacob by cheating.

We were all really tired so we went to our rooms to get a good nights sleep for the day ahead. It took us a while to settle in our rooms but eventually we fell asleep.

On Saturday we woke up got dressed and went over to the main building and had some breaky. Because the weather was very bad we were told we might have to leave Peat Rigg early incase the snow got too bad and we got snowed in.

After this the group was split into to and our group got our outdoor stuff on and went over to the barnhouse and looked at a fire which heated the whole building. Then we got our helmets and safety gear on for the low ropes activities.

We worked together to help each other along and complete the course. We then did a timed challenge against each other. Then we used 2 crates and a bucket and had to get across the course as fast as we could. During the activity we got to meet and work with other people from different areas.

We really liked the challenges and think that it was good that everyone got along and took part. Steve took the pictures and helped incase anyone fell off.

After the low ropes challenge we swapped over with the other group and went inside to work with Corinne and do the video workshops.

Corinne showed us a video of her most recent work and then showed us some cameras and different ways of using them.

We then discussed our project and the different ideas we had for filming.

e.g.who what where when why

We talked about the different camera angles and music choices we could use and then explained it to the rest of the group and to Corinne.

After the video workshops we had some free time before lunch so played pool and had a few games of foosball.

We then had some lunch and we had been told that we were leaving early due to weather cautions.

We then packed all of our stuff and got ready to leave as they snow was expected to arrive shortly and we needed to be ready to go incase it got to bad.

We really enjoyed the residential and the activities and cant wait to go back but hopefully for longer and to do more activities and work with Corinne again.

By Jacob Elgar and Flynn Wilkinson (with help from our volunteer Jonny :)

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Fourteen South Tyneside youngsters have been getting Footloose after Turning the Corner gave them the chance to get involved in street dance workshops.

The young performers had previously been regularly congregating in their local community when TTC invited them to try out the new activity.

The 11 and 12 year-old girls have learnt a range of routines which have tested their creativity and team-working skills, culminating in the opportunity to perform at Youth Arts Weeks at Customs House.

The dancers have also developed a relationship with local business Decorum Total Branding, who supported the project by designing a logo for their dancewear.
Steven Miller commented: “We created the street dance workshops to give young people congregating in the area the chance to try something fun and engaging that would not only teach them a new skill, but would improve team working and communications skills.”

We will be adding news from the Turning the Corner project in South Tyneside very soon!!