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‘Getting Active After Lockdown’ Activities A Hit With Riverside Students

“Getting Active After Lockdown” activities have been a great hit with Riverside students. A consistent turn out of students attended weekly sessions on various activities that promoted their health and wellbeing. The Young Citizen Action Group (YCAG) had recently received funding from London Sport to have some youth activities delivered to young people over 7 weeks.

The Activities

YCAG decided on the following community activities, which took place at Riverside School:

BDYD (Barking & Dagenham Youth Dance) – Dance classes for Years 7 – 9
Creative Wellness – Cooking & Healthy Eating Workshops for Year 7 students
RDF – Basketball & Boxing Clubs for Years 7 – 9
Surya Wellbeing – Yoga and Mindfulness for all years

The Impact

It has been another successful achievement by the young people from YCAG to deliver these activities for their peers. Having designed an online survey to understand their peers experiences of lockdown, the YCAG narrowed down a list of activities that students wanted to get involved in. Community organisations then took part in interviews led by the YCAG to confirm the offers available. Community groups offered praise to the young people involved:

“It was great to be part of YCAG Dragon’s Den, and brilliant to see young people being put at the head of the table. Those involved were strong minded and came out with amazing and important questions.”
Kayden, Dance Instructor at BDYD, former Riverside School student

“I was very impressed with the young people’s resourcefulness. Not only did they survey the needs and preferences of the other students, but also asked pertinent questions to establish whether an activity would be beneficial to them. Very professional throughout the process!”
Nikhil, Surya Wellbeing

“It was very good to see young people on a board, working together to provide enrichment opportunities for their peers, schools and community. Everyone was very welcoming and polite and asked good questions. A great example that when young people come together they can design purposeful and impactful projects.”
Lamar, Right Development Foundation

Students have since taken part in all the activities with such enthusiasm and shown a willingness to learn new skills. Many of them having never undertaken boxing classes or had the opportunity to cook various cuisines voiced their appreciation that the activities were on offer, and asked how they could continue developing their new skills.

The last session with year 7 was all about what they like to cook: chicken strip burgers, pizza, pancakes, and milkshakes but introducing a healthier, economic way to make things at home rather than takeaways. We had fun delivering the sessions and glad our sessions have increased their confidence, knowledge, and interest in healthy cooking!

Khushnood Ahmed, Creative Wellness

London Sport fund £10K for YCAG – Getting active after lockdown

YCAG received funding from London Sport to have some youth activities delivered to young people, which would be decided by the young people themselves. The purpose of funding the activities is to get young people active after lockdown ends.

What have been the key successes of the project so far?

The young people from YCAG (Young Citizen Action Group) designed an online survey to understand their peers experiences of lockdown, their physical activity before/during/after lockdown and what kinds of activities they would like delivered. The feedback from the online survey was tremendous with 700+ students of Riverside School. This will provide a baseline of activity before lockdown and before commencing the project to be able to measure the level of benefit after its delivery.

Following this, YCAG used the results from the online survey to decide which kinds of activities they would like to offer based on what their peers would most like to get involved in. A short video appeal was then produced by them to local community groups asking them in turn to create their own videos to share their offer and raise awareness of the opportunities to get involved in. Great video submissions were received from local community groups summarising their organisations and the activities they offer and these were shown in form time at Riverside School and voted on by students.

Thereafter, YCAG took the results of the vote and invited the top 4 to a “Dragon’s Den” style interview with them where the young people asked questions to confirm the offer available. These were led by the young people and were received very positively by the community groups involved who offered high praise for the approach in general and for the young people involved.

“It was great to be part of YCAG Dragon’s Den, and brilliant to see young people being put at the head of the table. Those involved were strong minded and came out with amazing and important questions.”

Kayden, Dance Instructor at BDYD, former Riverside School student

"I was very impressed with the young people's resourcefulness. Not only did they survey the needs and preferences of the other students, but also asked pertinent questions to establish whether an activity would be beneficial to them. Very professional throughout the process!"

Nikhil, Surya Wellbeing

"It was very good to see young people on a board, working together to provide enrichment opportunities for their peers, schools and community. Everyone was very welcoming and polite and asked good questions. A great example that when young people come together they can design purposeful and impactful projects."

Lamar, Right Development Foundation

What activities are being funded?

YCAG decided on the following community activities, which will take place at Riverside School:

BDYD (Barking & Dagenham Youth Dance) – Dance classes (to take place at Riverside School, 3-4pm once per week Thursdays for Years 7-9).
Creative Wellness – Cooking & Healthy Eating Workshops (to take place at Riverside School, 3-5pm once per week day TBC, for Year 7s ONLY, Max 20 students.
RDF – Basketball (Thursdays) & Boxing Clubs (Wednesdays) (to take place at Riverside School, 3-4pm once per week, for Years 7-9).
Surya Wellbeing – Yoga and Mindfulness (Online, 5-6pm once per week Thursdays for all Years but focused on older year groups with exams and stress from school).

When will the activities start?

Activities will start on the week commencing 10th May, and end on the week commencing 21st June.

YCAG regular Anna excels as part of Inclusive Leadership Programme

TWCP has recently supported young people it works with as part of the Unified Action Programme, which aims to promote shared values among people of all backgrounds through sustainable social integration and meaningful civic participation. The programme has been designed to promote understanding and shared values between and within faith and ethnic communities, and other communities, which form a part of civil society.

The focus is on supporting young people aged 14-25 years old to become Unified Action Ambassadors, inclusive leaders who focus on empowering future generations; connecting communities by promoting understanding and shared values; achieving greater diversity in the governance of sport and broader civil society; standing united against all forms of hate and most importantly giving young people a platform to have their views heard by decision makers. It is delivered jointly by Youth Sport Trust, Sporting Equals and 2-3 Degrees and funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Unified Action Ambassadors believe in a society where no one feels excluded, left behind or that they are just standing on the side lines.

Jamie from TWCP has been running the Young Citizen Action Group (YCAG) at Riverside School since TWCP first began back in late 2017 and Anna, one of the Unified Action programme participants, has been one of the most committed members, attending almost every session since she first joined Riverside School in Year 7. He commented:

“It’s been great to have Anna involved as part of this programme. She attended all of the online training sessions in the evening and was confident enough to speak in front of all of the programme attendees at the final celebration event. I’ve seen Anna’s confidence and leadership skills skyrocket during her time on the programme. She has recorded video messages to local community groups, to the entire student body of her school and taken proactive steps in meeting with Riverside Primary School parents to help promote involvement in the new Barking Food Forest site next to Riverside Campus”.

Jamie Kesten, Senior Community Organiser (Thames Ward Community Project)

As one of the youngest participants in the programme Anna was particularly impressive in the strides she took as an inclusive leader and the confidence and passion she has shown, which has been noted by her athlete mentor, Vernon Samuels, a former Olympic Triple Jumper:

It’s been an absolute pleasure to connect with Anna as her Athlete Mentor and as the youngest young leader involved in the Unified Action programme. Anna wasn’t intimidated by the fact that the age spread of participants went all the way to 25 year olds! Nor was she daunted by a lack of peer support when the two other young people involved in the programme as part of the Thames Ward Community Project were unable to continue.

Anna has shown week after week of the programme a steely resilience and determination that shows she is a young leader on a mission to improve the quality of life for her community – and especially for the pupils of her local primary school where Anna’s hard work and influence as a leader will facilitate access and engagement with the new Barking Food Forest, ensuring it is an inclusive and accessible space for members of the primary school and their families to enjoy along with the wider community.

Despite tight deadlines and a big to do list, Anna refuses to be intimidated by the size of the task at hand. With her humble and articulate approach, Anna draws on available support and expertise to help carry forward her dream of the community garden space into reality.

Vernon Samuels, Athlete Mentor & Ambassador for the Unified Action Programme

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