Young people from the YPFN project in Scarborough came to visit the young people of Portobello on Saturday.

Young people from both Portobello and Scarborough had lunch together before visiting Sandal Castle and having a look at the improvements that the young people from Portobello have been involved with.

We then went to The Hut in Airedale where the young people had the chance to take part in a roller disco and bowling.

Thank you to all the young people and their families who came to the Space to Create on Saturday morning to make a beautiful lanterns for the lantern parade.

Over 30 people attended the parade to The Hut where we all enjoyed delicious festive treats provided the The Place, a local social enterprise run by HEAL (Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Ltd).

The project has also been supported by the Castleford Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) whose representatives lent a hand at the creative workshops. Inspector David Bugg, said: “As a local Neighbourhood Policing Team we were delighted to have been invited by Groundwork to get involved in this project. Every meeting and forum we attend there is a desire by all to get involved in intergenerational activities. This event was a brilliant example of this in practice, and can only benefit our communities for the future.”

Once again, well done and thank you to all involved!

The Rivers Christmas Lantern project started to day with workshops at Redhill Junior school and Ings View supported housing complex.

Staff from TTC and Facelessworked with the residents from Ings view to make lanterns that can be carried in the community parade on Saturday.

16 pupils from Redhill Junior school then worked with Faceless and TTc to create beautiful pyramid lanterns for the parade.

The project aims to help strengthen relationships and improve communications between local young people and elderly residents.

A community workshop will be held on Saturday at the top of Stansfield Road from 11:30am - 2:30pm.

We will then meet at 3:30pm at Ings View where the lantern procession to The Hut for festive refreshments will start.

Daniel and Lauran, two of the youth champions for TTC Wakefield, attended the Groundwork Wakefield Board meeting last night to tell them all about the TTC projects that have been taking place where they live.

They told the 15 members about how young people had been involved in improving the estate where they live, how they became Youth Champions and the residentials that they had attended with the other Youth Champions from the other TTC localities.

They also had the opportunity to show the TTC video that they created.

Well done Daniel and Lauran!

Following a complaint from residents regarding the amount of litter that is being left by the students PC Newton contacted Groundwork’s’ Turning the Corner project to see how we could work together and tackle the problem in a positive and creative manner and in doing this show young people and the college in a positive light.

Through discussions with PC Newton, it is felt that this is an ideal opportunity for the PACT to lead a project and campaign.

The PACT have accepted the task of coming up with creative and innovative ways of addressing this issue within the school.

The PACT will:
Taking the project into school. Meet with the deputy head to presenting your ideas on how all year groups can get involved
Involve partners such as WDH and local shop keepers.
Involve and talk to the local community affected.

TTC has teamed up with the Young People Friendly Neighbourhood (YPFN) project and WDH to establish a young tenants and residents group in Portobello.

Over half term the group, made up of ten young people, caught the train to Scarborough.

They visited the Gallows Close Community Centre on the Barrowcliffe Estate where they met staff and young people involved with the YPFN project there.

While they were there they looked at the similarities and differenced between Portobello and Barrowcliffe and the facilities available for young people.

The group are looking forward to the staff and young people from Scarborough visiting Portobello in the New Year.

This morning year 10 students from Hemsworth Arts and Community College (HACC) delivered a lesson in life, at a session arranged by Turning the Corner.

Four year ten students from Hemsworth Arts and Community College performed for Year 7 students at their assembly this morning to educate them about the impact of anti-social behaviour.

The students, Rebecca Curtis, 15; Sam Wilkinson, 14; Lewis Watson, 14; and Nathan Bland, 14, developed their 15-minute performance with support from TTC Wakefield and local arts company Faceless, after taking part in two weekend workshops, to explore topics including social responsibility, appropriate behaviour around shops and promoting positive images of young people. Their performance explored the ways in which their behaviour - in particular how standing around outside local shops – can affect both businesses and local residents.

The performance also highlighted the freedom that comes with the transition from primary to secondary school, and the issues this presents to the students themselves, as well as schools, families and the wider community.

Cllr Pickin, who is also is also a governor at HACC, watched the performance and said: " An excellent performance, local issues were acted out really well. It sent out lots of points that hopefully the audience will take on board. Well done to all involved"

As a reward for their hard work and commitment to Turning the Corner projects in their community and their contribution to the 4 shops regeneration project 8 young people went on a 2 day residential to Peat Rigg.

Funding for the residential was sucured by TTC Youth Champions Lauran and Daniel who wrote the community chest application and helped organise the the residential.

In recognition of the young peoples contribution to the 4 shops project WDH supported the residential by helping to staff it.

A wonderful but tiring time was had by all crate climbing, mountain biking and zip lining from the 33 ft platform.

The young people all said they enjoyed the residential and were now more confident about trying new things.

A big thank you to the young sports leaders who helped organise and deliver activities at the community funday!

This years Soul Portobello festival had an olympic theme and Turning the Corner had a variety of activities for the young people of Portobello to get involved with.

Each day we started with a range of fun sports competitions to get involved with and wake us all up.

On Monday afternoon we planted Olympic rings in the Cafe garden, on Tuesday we worked with the Portobello Photography and craft group and learnt how to make pinhole cameras made from drinks cans. We then took pictures and developed developed our immages.

On Wednesday we worked with the Young People Friendly Neighbourhoods project and took part in an estate walk to look at the improvements that had been made and the issues that affect young people in the community.

On Thursday, following the success of Bradley Wiggins at the Olympics, Rich Johnson from RJ ride guide came along and put on 2 mountain bike stunt shows for the community. Young people had the opportunity to show Rich their skills, learn new ones and even get bikes and scooters signed.

On Friday, as usual we wrapped things up with the Portobello football tournament before Olympic torch bearer Karen Townend helped bring the festival to a close on Friday evening.

A big thank you and well done to every one who took part and to the partners who supported our activities.

Since April Turning the Corner has teamed up with Wakefield Councils Sports and Active Lifestyle team, WDH and Barnsley Football club to provide positive activities every Friday afternoon on the rec from 4pm - 5pm.

Neil, a coach from Barnsley football club has worked with the group to develop and improve football skills. The group visited Barnsley football club where they got to train with academy staff and see the first team changing rooms.

Since attending the Friday sessions three young people have gone on to achieve a Day certificate in Sports Leadership which they will be putting to good use when they help deliver some activities at the Holmsley community fun day later this month.

Since April we have been working with Turning the Corner and NHS community food and health team to grow vegetables and learn to cook healthy meals.

Every Wednesday we meet in the Rainbow cafe. Half the group cook while have the group garden. Then we all sit down to have dinner together.

We visited Thornes Park nursery o collect some vegetable seedlings to plant in our garden.

We have also been preparing the garden for our Soul Portobello festival.

Last Friday shop keepers, partners, local and town councillors, members of the local police team, staff from WDH and MP Yvette Cooper joined us to officially open the mosaics that the young people from The Well project have made for each of the shop keepers on Queen Elizabeth Drive.

The young people have worked with local artist to design and create mosiacs for Sainsbury's, Browns Fish and Chips, Normanton newsagents, Style a Dog, Full Stop sandwich shop, Savers and Woodhouse Post Office. They also made one for IPL, corporate partner of The Well project. Each of the mosaics represented the service each buisness provided.

Each of the buisnesses also received a YES pledge as did Caesar Ceramics who provided all the tiles free of charge.

WDH also supported the project and installed the mosaics in the entrance to each shop.

Yvette Cooper MP said: “The mosaic artwork Woodhouse young people have done is amazing. It’s great to see young people and local shopkeepers working together alongside community projects. The mosaics they’ve created are really impressive pieces and reflect a real sense of pride in the area. All the young people I met were really enthusiastic about the work they’ve done and it helps everyone feel part of a strong community."

Lauren Barker aged 15 who has been involved with the project, met Ms Cooper on the day. She said: "I like coming to The Well project and taking part in the afterschool activities. I feel honoured that we have people interested in our mosaics and that want to come and see us and what we have made."

For more information visit: http://yorkshire.groundwork.org.uk/wakefield/news--events/news/2010/mp-has-designs-on-young-people.aspx

Work is now well under way with 15 year 10 BTec students from Hemsworth Arts and community college to develop a piece of drama about anti social behaviour in their community.

The group will be working with local Arts Company Faceless to devise the piece which will include the points of view from local shop keepers, community members and the local NPT team.

A team have been out interviewing local shop keepers to find out what they think the main issues in the area are.

The final piece will be performed to Year 6 pupils from local primary schools

Young people from the Portobello Grow to Share Gardening Club have awarded a local nursery a YES pledge in recognition of the support and encouragement the group receive from Thornes Park Nursery.

Since starting in February 2011 , 10 young people aged between 10 and 15 years old, have worked with the Turning the Corner Project, delivered by Groundwork Wakefield, to grow crops that they can eat or share with the community. During this time the group have who visited Thornes Park Nursery on a number of occasions to take part in a number of activities such as planting and propagating their own crops, contributing to nursery tasks or to take part in fun activities such as pumpkin carving or cooking.

Thornes Park Nursery staff have been instrumental in showing the group how produce is grown on a larger scale, developed the groups horticultural knowledge and supported the group with their own growing project based at The Rainbow Café garden on Duke of York Avenue, Portobello.

As a result six of the young people have achieved one challenge towards a Youth Achievement Award and are now teaming up with the NHS community food and health team to run a grow it, cook it, eat it project where they will use the produce they grow to cook delicious and nutritious meals.


Kyle Wilson aged 10 said " I love coming to the nursery and working withRob and Kathy, I wish we could do it every week!"

On Friday 30th of March we went to Peat Rigg again. We did lots of educational and maybe lifesaving activities. We also got to see the first edit of our DVD and it looks good!
We all enjoyed our weekend at Peat Rigg again some of us think it was the best weekend ever!

The leaf sculptures that some of you worked on with artist Dan Jones back in the summer of 2010 are being installed in Portobello this Friday.

For those of you who had a sneaky peek that the sculptures at various stages of completion in February at Dans' workshop, the waiting is over.

The leafs will be delivered by crane and installed by Dan that day.

Come along to the cafe between 3pm and 4:30pm to see the leaves in place and have some cake and a drink.

On Saturday young people from Portobello worked with professional aerosol artist Cageone to give the local youth shelter on Manygates park a facelift.

Designs created by local young people were used to transform the shelter.

Local resident and mum Dawn Sinar told us on Saturday "I can see the shelter from my house and it looks so much better with the art work on it. It’s now more attractive to look at and is more welcoming for the younger kids that use the park."

The project was funded by Sunlight and supported by Wakefield Councils Street Scene team who are responsible for the shelter.

At long last the designs have been approved and a date set for spraying the shelter on Manygates Park.

Young people, Street scene (responsible for the shelter) and Sunlight (funding the project) all agreed on the same 2 designs.

The Bella 4 Life will be sprayed inside the shelter and the scooter / sport design will be sprayed on the outside.

Please come along and help spray the shelter with the designs you came up with on Saturday 10 March from 11am to 4pm.

This half term young people from Normanton started bringing their mosaic designs alive.

Young people have worked with artist Claire Walker to design mosaics for the each of the shops on Queen Elizabeth Drive. Mosaics for the Post Office and Style-a-dog are now well under way.

Before half term young people visited the shop keepers to show them the designs. All of the shop keepers loved the designs the group had come up with and can't wait to see them installed outside their shops.

Thank you to Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) who have given us the permission to install the mosaics outside the shops. This means the whole community will be able to enjoy the pieces of art that young people have created.

Thanks also to Adele at Full Stop sandwich shop on Queen Elizabeth Drive for providing us with lunch during our marathon mosaic session.

This half term the 9 Turning the Corner Youth Champions from the Yorkshire and Humber regions got together and braved the Skyride aerial assault course at Xscape.

After getting the adrenaline pumping by completing the 15 metre high course, the young people got together to discuss plans for the Turning the Corner DVD that will be filmed over the next few months.

The DVD will show how young people have made positive contributions to the communities where they live and how they have worked with businesses and shop keepers to make this happen.

On Wednesday 14th February a group of young people from Portobello went to Dans' workshop in Doncaster. Dan has been working on some leaf seats for outside the 4 shops.

Whe we got to Dans' workshop we helped him start a new stone leaf. After that we carved leaf shapes in to stone tiles. These tiles will go in paving near the big leafs.

The young people that went said that they enjoyed it, it was brilliant and that they would love to go again.

In the lead up to Christmas young people from Portobello attended Turning the Corner sessions at the Rainbow Cafe. During these sessions they made a variety of Christmas cards and decorations.

In the final session the young people hand delivered the cards they had made for the shop keepers on Duke of York Avenue.

Merry Christmas everyone see you in the New Year!

3 young people from Portobello came along to the Turning the Corner residential at Peat Rigg Outdoor Activity Centre in Pickering.

During the weekend they got to meet young people involved with the other Turning the Corner project and find out what they had been up to and have a say in things that matter in the final year of the project.

While they were at Peat Rigg they also had a go at abseiling, mountain biking, zip wire and night line.

A great time was had by all and hopefully we will be able to meet up again next year.

Young people from The Well project teamed up with staff from their local Sainsbury’s store to learn how to play Blind Football and Sit Down Volley Ball.

Sainsbury’s, who are the official sponsors of the 2012 Paralympics, provided the equipment for these challenges as part of their “You Can” challenge.

Store manager Julie McKenna said “Taking part in sports like this given us an opportunity to engage with young people away from the shop. Learning together like this has broken down barriers and given us the chance to show young people that we are human beings too”

Young people from the Portobello Grow to Share Gardening Club returned to the Growing for the Future (G4F) Nursery to carve pumpkins and cook lunch using vegetables grown on site.

The group designed and carved their individual pumpkins before using tomatoes, chillis and onions grown on the site to make tasty pizzas before working with nursery staff to create beautiful planters containing spring bulbs which will be sold at the nursery shop.

Bethany Carr aged 10 said “I’ve really enjoyed today, I hope we can come back and do more stuff like this”

Young people doing their BTec in Theatre Studies at Airedale Academy in Wakefield have taken part in the Turning the Corner (TTC) led Theatre in Education (TIE) initiative, which involved taking part in workshops alongside local arts company Faceless to explore topics including social responsibility, appropriate behaviour around shops and promoting positive images of young people.

The young people carried out research among local shop owners, young people and the wider community to gauge their views on appropriate behaviour around shops and attitudes towards young people. From this they came up with a storyline for the performance looking at behaviours, perceptions and consequences of young people’s behaviour around shops.
They then performed their piece to over 100 Year 7 students from Airedale Academy and Year 6 pupils from Three Lane Ends Primary School and Smawthorne Henry Moore Primary School, both in Castleford who also took part in workshops with the cast to explore issues addressed in the piece.

Emelia Lee aged 17 is one of the young people who took to the stage during the project. She said: “It has been an eye opening experience learning about social problems in the area. It’s been good developing a piece that will get the message across to younger people about ASB and its consequences.”

Dylan Ryder, store manager from Tesco, said: “Turning the Corner is a fantastically positive project for the young people of Airedale. The performances were excellent and really captured some of the issues that local shops face. We were keen to help the group with their research as this project can only have a positive effect on the whole community.”

Castleford Neighbourhood Police Team have contributed towards creating a DVD of the piece which can be used in schools

The Turning The Corner (TTC) Evaluation Team would like to know how you have been involved in the programme.

It'd be great if you can take a few minutes and please help us by filling in this short survey.

Click here to take survey

Thank you!

As part of the Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) Grow Your Own initiative, young people from Portobello earned a Youth Achievement Challenge Award by learning how to sow and grow crops.

The Portobello Grow Your Own initiative was launched in February 2011 when local young people sowed their first seeds and entered a competition to design a logo and name the project. The competition was won by 11 year old Lauron Groves with her entry “Grow to Share”.

Young people attended weekly sessions which were held at the Rainbow Cafe garden. The group grew a variety of flowers and vegetables including sunflowers and salad crops. During summer sessions the group used their crops to make a variety of healthy snacks including wraps and Greek salad with the crops they had grown.

At the Soul Portobello Community Festival the group sold the chilli plants and carrots that they had grown to the community. The proceeds of this plant sale will be used to repeat the growing process next spring.

The group also visited the Growing for the Future (G4F) nursery where they had the opportunity to see how plants and vegetables are grown on a larger scale and how a nursery is managed and maintained. During their visits they also planted pumpkin seeds. The group will return to the nursery in the autumn to harvest their pumpkins.

An eye - catching wall designed by the young people of Portobello to enhance the local Community Centre has had the thumbs up from local businesses and the neighbouring community.

The Community Centre in Portobello provided a blank canvas for young people to create striking art work which they felt reflected the interests of the local community.
Over 30 young people were given the opportunity to test their artistic skills after developing design ideas alongside professional Street Artist Cageone.

The Art Wall formed part of the activities on offer during the 2011 Soul Portobello Festival and has made a positive impact on neighbouring businesses and the wider community.

Sarah Reid, General Manager at Sunlight, a textiles business which is located close to the community centre said “The Art Wall is great, it’s been professionally done and the young people have put a lot of thought into the design. I think it is a good reminder to us here at Sunlight that our business is in the middle of a living community.”

Connor Boyle, one of the young people involved in creating the art work commented: “It has been great to be involved in the art wall process, from attending design sessions to actually getting my hands dirty and painting the wall. I think it looks great and I’m really pleased the locals like what they see”
Sally Martin, Chair of the Portobello Community Forum, commented: “Again, Groundwork Wakefield’s Turning the Corner has made it possible for young people to get involved in positive community activities which really make a difference within their community and showcase the contribution young people can make within their community.”

Young people from Normanton have been working with International Produce Ltd (IPL) and create art work that will make an impact country wide.

IPL, corporate partner of The Well project, invited young people to get creative and design art work to adorn their new 60 foot lorry. The lorry, which will be based at their Normanton Depot, will travel the length and breadth of the country making deliveries to Asda stores throughout the UK.

Asda owned IPL are responsible for importing and distributing fresh fruit and vegetables to Asda stores in the UK.

The young people gained inspiration for the project by visiting the depot where they met the teams who source and select products and work with suppliers; find out where the different types of fruit and vegetables are imported from; taste a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, and see the lorry which will carry their design.

Through the Turning the Corner Project the young people worked alongside local Artist Jo Knowles and IPL staff to develop design ideas.

The final piece, which has been approved by Asda and IPL, incorporates the theme of “fruit heroes” and features flags depicting the countries where the fruit comes from to highlight the international element if IPL’s work.

Jenny Farrall-Bird, community project officer at The Well Project said “This has been a fantastic project for young people in the area to be involved in. To have the chance to work alongside a major organisation like IPL and to see their work adorning a vehicle that will be viewed by people all over the country has generated a real sense of pride among those involved.”

IPL has been awarded a YES Pledge - Young People's Exceptional Services – certificate to display and promote that they are young people friendly business as a result of the scheme and support they have shown by volunteering at The Well projects youth sessions.

Young people from Castleford’s Oyster Park Primary School rewarded five local businesses for their positive attitude to young customers

Year 6 pupils from Oyster Park Primary explored their experiences as young customers in local shops.

The group looked at what makes young people feel uncomfortable in shops and were asked to think about which local shops made them feel welcome and delivered exceptional customer service.

Five Airedale Shops were praised for how they welcome and speak to young people in their shop, how they go the extra mile to help young people and the fact that young people felt staff trusted them in their shop.

As a result, Phelans, Rushdens, Jill and Andy’s, Airedale Post Office and Tesco Express were awarded personalised YES pledges by way of thanks from the group.

Staff from Phelans (pictured above) were thrilled with the YES pledge which is now on display in the shop. “We are really pleased the children feel comfortable with us and know that we can trust them - we are over the moon at receiving this award! This really makes us feel part of the community”

Dylan Ryder, Manager at Tesco Express added “We are flattered to receive our YES pledge. It is on display in store and we are really proud of it”

Claire Wright, youth project officer for Groundwork Wakefield, which delivers the TTC project, said: “The workshops have provided a useful platform to explore anti-social behaviour and to help build an understanding of how certain actions may be perceived by businesses in the local community. By awarding the YES Pledges to shop owners who have been welcoming towards young people, we’re helping to build relationships and generate mutual respect between businesses and young people in communities.”

These sessions followed on from a pilot project which was delivered earlier in the year with Faceless, a Wakefield based Arts Organisation which encouraged young people to explore and understand anti social behaviour and its consequences through role play.

The project was part funded by the Airedale Neighbourhood Management Events Group and the Cooperative Bank.

Young people in Wakefield have been learning the skill of graffiti art after lending their support to a project that will brighten up a community space in Normanton.

Around 10 13 to 17 year-olds, all members of The Well Project’s after school club, have been putting their artistic talents to the test after teaming up with professional street artist, Cageone, to create an art wall that will brighten up an area at the back of The Well Building on Sunny Bank, Woodhouse.

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The installation of a stone mural designed and created by young people in Portobello marks the first phase of an exciting scheme to transform a shopping area on Duke of York Avenue.

The mural’s unveiling is the culmination of a project funded by the Turning the Corner (TTC) initiative, where a group of 37 young people got to put their artistic talents to the test after teaming up with a local artist to create the ‘youth stone’ element of the artwork.

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The lastest news and happenings from the Turning the Corner project in Wakefield will be added soon!