YOUTH PROGRAMS

FRIDAY NIGHT OUTING

On Friday 13^th December 2019, we held our last Friday Night Term outing to Penrith Ice Place where our Youth Team took 32 young people from our 5 different Youth Spaces on a huge, fun joint outing. There was lots of first timers on the ice, trips and falls but above all heaps of laughs and playing tips on the ice.  It has been so awesome to see the friendships young people have built throughout 2019 continue to grow through our joint outings and we can’t wait to have more fun on Friday nights throughout 2020!

WERRINGTON YOUTH SPACE

This year at Werrington Youth Space the centre has seen many new faces. There have been friendships created and many laughs shared. The group have had a good time sharing jokes, competing in games and just hanging out. Handball has been a centre favourite for many months and has encouraged healthy competition with our young people. Prizes were won, rules were disputed, moves were created and laughs were never lacking. Werrington Youth Centre has loved bringing in more kids and is looking forward to continuing this in 2020. What a great year 2019 has been. Thank you to all our young people for making this a reality.

FRIDAY NIGHT YOUTH OUTINGS

Our combined Youth Outings have been incredibly popular amongst our young people throughout 2019. Once a term on a Friday we have been bringing all of our Youth Spaces together for a joint night out. Our Term 2 outing was a trip into the city to see the annual Vivid Light Festival. All 21 young people  had a wonderful time in the city and it was great to see them mixing and mingling with young people from our other Youth Spaces.  We had a lots of fun and are super excited to commence planning for our remaining outings for the year.  

For more information on our youth services  please contact Monique on 9834 2708.

YOUTH WEEK 2019

This year our Youth Team and young people attended various Youth Week Events around Penrith, including our very own Skate Clair Event at St Clair Skate Park. Skate Clair provided young people an opportunity to celebrate youth culture and engage in a day that  recognises young people and their voice within the community.  Skate Clair is renowned for their annual skateboard, scooter, bike and street skating competition, where young people compete and additional young people judge the contest on the day. Skate Clair also included live musical performances conducted by local young people, free food and interactive activities and free stalls held by local Youth Services for young people to engage with.

EASTER SHOW OUTING

On Tuesday 23^rd April, the Youth Team took 20 young people to the Sydney Royal Easter Show. We spent all day at the show and had so much fun together. Young people enjoyed going on rides, playing games, winning prizes, eating ice-cream, chips on a stick and lots more. We stayed until the very end for the show and fire-works which was an awesome sight. All the young  people had a  great  day and were very well behaved. We can’t wait to go again next year for even more fun.

YOUTH SPACE AT NORTH ST MARYS

Term 3 has focused on creating a space for young people at North St Marys, and we wanted to add some colour and meaning to the space. The winter holidays allowed for an installation of a flat screen TV, but the young people added a personal touch to the space by creating some string art designs to hang on the wall. They looked at some designs, had discussions about what the youth space meant to them and then drew up their design on a sheet of paper.

The project involved cutting up and sanding back the wood, tracing their designs onto the wood, mapping out where the nails would be put, hammering the nails in, and then winding the string around the nails. It took a few weeks, but the final product will be on the wall and for all to see before our end of term celebrations.

Being a student at Community Junction Inc.

My name is Naomi, and I am a student worker for Community Junction. I have been working with the Youth Team and found this a really rewarding experience. I have been working at Erskine Park, St Clair and North St Mary’s Youth Spaces. I have learnt a lot from the other youth workers and the young people, around my self-development as a student worker and I have found it to be a really fun experience. 

The whole team have been helpful and very welcoming, from the minute I started. I

absolutely love working with Community Junction and I find that their values and practices are admirable and very much a pleasure to work within. I cannot thank the Community Junction team enough, for their support and the wonderful environment they provide.

Girls Space - Self Defense Class

Our Term 3 self-defence program ran from Erskine Park Youth Space on a Friday afternoon .😊 Thank you so much to our awesome facilitator Ann Stirton from Akyu Martial Arts facilitating yet another AWESOME self-defense program for young women.

The girls were also graded on our final afternoon by Ann, and received a grading belt and certificate as well. Safe to say all the young women really enjoyed the program, made new friends and finished the term learning something new and feeling more confident within themselves. 

We will be continuing to work with Ann running another FREE “self-defense/ boot camp program come Term 4. 

REOPENING OF WERRINGTON YOUTH SPACE

While Werrington Youth Space was closed during Term 2, Pop-Up spaces within Werrington and Cambridge Park were developed for our Youth Workers to continue engagement with young people, while behind the scenes Werrington Youth Space went through an uplift to create a new look when it reopened. 

Werrington Youth Space reopened with a bang during the winter holidays for young people to enjoy new lounges, new stools, new colours and artworks, new beanbags and a new PS4. Young people have continued to enjoy the new look and new equipment during Term 3. Young people we met during the Pop-Up Spaces started appearing at Werrington Youth Space and started bringing friends.

The reopening of the Youth Space has been very beneficial for the young people within the Werrington and Cambridge Park Community, where young people can come in and relax on the couches, enjoy the sound of music playing throughout the centre, challenge each other on the new PS4, and enjoy various activities with the new equipment as well as meeting new people while hanging out at the space.