Winter Camp at Zia Ul Ummah Centre: December 2019

Following a hugely popular and successful summer camp, the demand and interest for holiday camps throughout the year was super high. Parents and young people were getting in touch to ask when the next camp is and how they could reserve their space as early as possible. However unlike the summer and october camps in 2019, we didn’t have funding to be able to subsidise the costs for running the project therefore we worked in partnership with a local faith centre to support more young people getting active and away from anti social behaviour and criminal activity. That organisation goes by the name of Zia Ul Ummah in Bordesley Green, who allowed us to use the venue at no cost, promoted the camp to its own service users and helped us in the running of the actual camp.

Prior to the start date, we used a questionnaire which we shared with locals and young peopled already attending the centre on what they would like to do and get out of the camp. To further strengthen community cohesion and partnership working, we informed and worked closely with other local faith centres too and made sure young people and parents knew that this camp was not open to young people of a specific faith, rather it was open to all young people in the community.

We still had quite a few challenges in the running of the project as we intended on providing the young people with a hot meal every day they attending and our relationships with local businesses allowed us to get the lunch sponsored. The remaining costs to run the winter camp were covered by a small contribution each child had to make to attend the camp. This contribution was also to ensure young people appreciate and commit to the camp, as too often we have found when services are for free they are not taken seriously enough.

The delivery of our winter camp ensured we tackled anti social behaviour, providing young people with a safe space to come to, strengthening community ties, greater community togetherness whilst also working against inactivity and a lack of productivity in young people from areas such as Alum Rock, Small Heath and Bordesley Green to be specific. Activities during the week included arts and crafts, indoor football, dodgeball, archery, team bonding games, inflatable fun as well as educational workshops. In total we engaged with more than 50 young people, including both boys and girls of the age ranges 5-14 years old. The young people we engaged were 100% BAME.

We would like to on record thank the following partners for their support on this project. Zia-Ul-Ummah Centre for hosting us and providing us with the venue as well as volunteers, Balal’s Kebab House, Dixy Chicken and Manjaros, all local businesses who supported in ensuring everyt young person that attended our camp, had a delicious hot meal, each day. Lastly, Provident Housing, another local business who supported with the overall running of the camp as well as linking us into other partners.