Game Changers enjoy summer residential

OnSide’s Game Changers enjoyed a week-long residential, touring some of the charity’s Youth Zones across the network.

The group, which was formed through the network of Youth Zones as well as members of development groups from areas where Youth Zones will be built, serve as the figureheads of our future Youth Zones. They represent their Youth Zone in actioning any need for change and also talk at OnSide events to spread the word of Youth Zones nationally.

The Ambassadors for London kicked off the trip when they travelled up to Wolverhampton on Monday before visiting Blackburn on Tuesday and then Wigan on Wednesday where they linked up with some of the group from across the existing Youth Zone network for a day of workshops and activities.

The first half of the day was all about story telling and how the power of language can help promote or appeal to audiences. This was held by Richard Woods who works for OnSide in Private Sector Development.

He spoke to the young people about his job, which is to attract Founder Patrons and revenue funders for Barnet’s Unitas Youth Zone in London which opens next year before setting them about on a task come up with a way of selling certain products.

In the afternoon, OnSide’s Marketing and Communications manager Jamie Allen and Communications Co-Ordinator Greg Farrimond spoke to the young people about their roles and how important they are in spreading the word about OnSide’s work.

They were then set the task of producing an inspirational video news report about how the Youth Zone network has a positive effect on young people.

Following this, the group then travelled to Manchester to present to Car Finance 24/7 whose generosity funds the Game Changers group, before they moved onto the Hive, OnSide’s newest Youth Zone in Wirral.