Ormlie Community Association Limited. Enhancing the quality of local life.
CPP Update June 2010
This month marks an end and a beginning for the CPP inasmuch as I will be retiring in June and am delighted to say that Jacqueline Keith who has held the post of Young Peoples Worker for three years will be the new CPP Co-ordinator.
CPP groups had been in place for five years when I became Co-ordinator therefore I was in the fortunate position of carrying on the excellent example set by Save the Children who initially began the project.
I am very proud of the young people that I have got to know over the last five years and their achievements both big and small that have played such a large part in developing the Ormlie Estate into a community minded and vibrant place to live.
Looking back over this period and hi-lighting landmarks and events that have shaped the CPP initiative into what it is today also makes me feel very proud to have played a part in the continuation of a programme that encourages young people to be active citizens within their own community.
During my first year in post the CPP introduced a new session for 7–9 year olds and lengthened the original sessions from one to one and a half hours to enable activities to be planned in greater depth. Up to then the programme had been open to over nines but the demand from younger children on the estate was very high. This has worked very well, the younger children have been able to understand a simple explanation of what children’s rights are and how they relate to the CPP and take part in projects appropriate to their age group.
Community projects that the young people have undertaken have been varied. In 2006 the magic circle had just been completed with its drystone armchair and small flower beds. Each year since, a different CPP group have been responsible for weeding and planting this area which has been tackled enthusiastically by most of the young people involved!
The boys group (9-11yrs) in 2006 campaigned for residents to take more care to pick up their dogs mess with the end result of extra dog ‘poo’ bins installed on the estate.
In the same year our older group (12-14yrs) decided that a derelict play area on the estate needed an urgent make over, outlining their ideas to the community at Ormlie Community Associations AGM. Their actions instigated a project (Macaulay View Garden) that eventually involved all ages in the community participating in fundraising initiatives, one of which was where staff and volunteers climbed Ben Nevis!! (never again !) I have enormous pride when I now look at the Macaulay View Garden which is a wonderful space full of plants, artistic wood/stone structures and mosaic work - pride in the young people who had the original idea which was then turned into a reality with the help of others in the community.
There are many other visible examples of how the young people have made a difference to the Ormlie Estate. Over the course of two years the Wednesday girls group (9-11yrs) raised enough money to buy a Percy Penguin litter bin through holding a Bring & Buy Sale, making Christmas items to sell and writing letters to various sponsors.
Other organisations and local community groups who have also benefited from the young peoples fundraising activities include Pentland View Nursing Home, Thor House, Macmillan Nurses, Marie Curie Cancer Care and the British Heart Foundation.
The most bizarre project however must be the Xtreme Ironing when three of our older group took an ironing board and iron to Dunnet Head and then to Orkney with the resulting video now to be seen on Youtube! Trying to explain to a coach full of Swedish Tourists at the Standing Stones on Orkney that Xtreme Ironing was a cult phenomena where all sorts of people have ‘ironed’ on top of mountains, under water etc. still makes me smile!
When OCA initiated its Renewable Energy Project it was an excellent opportunity to focus some sessions on re-cycling and renewable energies. As well introducing these topics at regular sessions the CPP took part in Caithness Arts Week for two years running. The first year the young people created Viking long ships, windmills, solar panels and a model of the wave device (Pelamis) that was being tested in Orkney at that time, using recycled items where possible. The second year the young people all helped to create a life-size figure of ‘Oor Wullie’ from the Broon’s Annual. This was made from papier mache and was on exhibition at the Primary Schools and local Library.
On a recycling and also healthy living theme the CPP started in a small way to make compost and grow vegetables in the Centre. This was extended when a green house was installed outside the Ormlie office in 2008. In 2009 our facilities were greatly improved with the installation of five large planters and a proper compost bin! The young people have had great fun growing a wide variety of vegetables and flowers some of which have been shared with Key Support and Thor House, two local support services for adults and children with learning disabilities.
With Key Support especially the young people have built up friendships through bowling nights, craft activities and basketball competitions which has helped to develop an understanding and tolerance of others needs as well as being lots of fun.
Working with different generations and cultures has also been great fun, the CPP celebrates UK Older Persons Day every year as well as being host to the Global Xchange Programme with volunteers from Malawi and Bangladesh spending three months at a time with the groups.
During 2008 the teen room at the Community Centre saw a major development with the renovation of an unattractive computer room into a dedicated space for young people with laptops, plasma TV, pool table and comfy couches.
There are so many rewarding, proud and funny moments that spring to mind over the last five years. For example attending the Caithness Voluntary Awards ceremony at Ackergill Tower when one of our CPP members was presented with an award.
Going on a fishing trip when one of the boys caught a large cod and the raft building session at Fairburn Activity Centre!
Closer to home at a Christmas Party the young people celebrated ten years of Ormlie by singing an adaptation of the Twelve Days of Christmas with each line representing changes to the Ormlie estate. As well as entertaining us with songs CPP members as young as nine have given presentations of their projects to various meetings. Seeing how self confidence has grown with so many of the young people has been a heart-warming experience.
The Ormlie Drama Group have provided many heart-warming moments too from winning the Highland Youth festivals of one act plays in 1996 with The Tree Machine and again in 2010 with Romeo and Juliet - Kids in Tights and many good productions in between!
The ongoing projects – painting the flagpole in the Nursery Garden and improving an area of Ormlie called Ironside place with plants, hopscotch and a play feature have involved the young people in further fundraising. Community participation and the importance of the young peoples ideas and input is one of the mainstays of the CPP and the experience of being involved with the CPP and its young people over the last five years will always be something I hold dearly. I have been lucky in the fact that I have always had dedicated and talented support in running the groups which includes many volunteers.
The main challenge facing the CPP at present is finding new ways to engage with the High School age group which has been an ongoing issue for some time now. I wish Jacqueline every success in her new post, she has been a fantastic support as our Young Peoples Worker and I know that the CPP will be in safe hands.
Sue Rainbow
CPP Co-ordinator (retiring)
CPP UPDATE - APRIL/MAY 2010
Activities have been based on the theme of ‘A healthy you and a healthy environment’ recently with the young people planting a variety of vegetables and flowers. We also took part in the British Heart Foundations ‘Jump Rope For Life’ which is a skipping challenge to raise funds for the Foundation. £145 was raised which was a fantastic achievement as well as skipping over 12,400 skips between all participants!
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CPP UPDATE - EASTER WORKSHOPS - MARCH 2010
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During the last week of March, Ormlie Community Association held its annual Easter Workshops. These are for 5-13 year olds and are run over three days. We were delighted to have 39 children register which was an increase on last year. Many of the regular CPP members attend but we also have children coming from outwith Thurso. The young people enjoyed making a variety of Easter arts and crafts as well as having fun rolling eggs and hunting for treasure. For the past three years two of our older CPP members (13 year old girls) regularly help with the younger children at these workshops and are a huge asset. They arrive early to assist with setting up and working with the children as well as taking care of the refreshments. The girls also help regularly with the 7 -9 yrs CPP group and their high level of commitment to volunteering has been recognised through the Millennium Volunteering scheme run by Volunteer Highland and Caithness ‘Young Person of the Year’ awards.
More Pictures
CPP UPDATE - NOVEMBER 09 – FEBRUARY 2010
NOVEMBER
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Although making ‘guys’ to celebrate Guy Fawkes night is not strictly a Scottish custom two of the CPP groups had great fun at the beginning of November creating splendid guys from old clothes and straw. Under the guiding eye of one of our senior residents the 7-9 year olds, although not familiar with the concept thoroughly enjoyed the activity. The older boys (9-11yrs) were more aware of the association of making guys for bonfire night and constructed their one on a wooden frame work so it could stand up!
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Scottish culture came to the fore around St. Andrews Day with a short discussion on the history of the celebratory day, playing traditional Scottish games and making Saltire flags . This worked well with the young people with the addition of Scottish songs and poetry delivered in a X factor style format.
DECEMBER
At the beginning of December the 9-11year olds made a variety of Christmas crafts using re-cycled materials where possible. Other activities this month included making shortbread and truffles, Christmas parties and taking part in the annual Christmas lights ‘Switch On’ at Ormlie Community Centre. The younger members were happy to sing Christmas songs and dress up in festive costumes which added a colourful note to the occasion. For a very cold night the event attracted a good cross section of the community.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY
At this time of the year the young people are reminded of the ethos of the Community Partners Programme and its relation to Children Rights, in particular Article 12 ‘Children and young people have a right to express a view about things that affect them’. We ask longer standing members to explain this concept in their own words to newer members, using examples of what the young people have worked on over the last year. For example two of the young peoples projects centred on improving areas of the Ormlie estate and we re-iterated how the projects had been chosen using the voting process and everyone having a say in the decision making. This time the sessions were focused on activities that built on what the young people already know about Children’s Rights and the inherent responsibility to be a good citizen that this entails. Democracy was explained in simple terms using the CPP groups and how the young people make group decisions through voting and everyone having their ‘say’ as an example.
Overall during the last two months the young people have responded well to finding out more about their Rights and what it means to be a good citizen living in a democracy. Some of them really thought about the opportunities and freedom they have in comparison to children in other parts of the world and were able to relate this to a particular Children’s Right. However during any discussion we also explain to the young people that it is their responsibility to use any ‘Right’ in a positive and caring way as the right to say what you think does not mean you can be hurtful to others. The effect on the social skills of the young people are also enhanced by these activities, they become familiar with concepts such as equality, democracy, identity, inclusion and legislation to name a few while having fun and working as a team.
CPP UPDATE AUGUST -OCTOBER 2009
The numbers of young people attending the first week back to CPP after the school holidays was very encouraging with several new members. This time of the year groups are ‘re-shuffled’ to keep pace with the increasing age of the young people. We have a new session for young people aged between 7-14 years to use our Internet facility on a Thursday evening. This has been very successful from the outset with up to twelve attendees some weeks.
We continue to have two of our older CPP members help with the youngest group on a weekly basis. They have both accumulated enough voluntary hours to be awarded certificates under the Young Highlander award scheme run by Volunteering Highland. Arlene Sutherland received certificates totalling one hundred hours and Kimberley Farquhar was awarded a certificate for fifty hours. The OCA is very proud of their achievement and commend both of them for giving up their free time and for their continued commitment to CPP and Ormlie Community Association.
Over the summer months it has been very obvious that this year’s new venture of growing vegetables and healthy eating has been a resounding success with many of our young people. This has been made possible with the help of the Criminal Justice team in Wick who had constructed and installed five wooden planters and a compost bin beside Ormlie’s community greenhouse in the spring.
To expand on this theme, the CPP applied in June for funding assistance from Community Food & Health in Scotland in order to purchase a garden hose and water butt for the gardening project and a Baby Belling cooker, cooking utensils and a gas barbecue to complement our initiative on healthy eating. We have been successful in our bid and plan to purchase these items shortly.
The boys group now has several new members so it was a different squad of boys who continued their project of helping to renovate the wooden play structures in the nursery garden at the Ormlie Community Centre. Their part in the renovations so far has been sanding the flag pole which they began before the school holidays. The boys tackled the sanding with lots of enthusiasm and plan to paint some of the structure with adult help.
The girls continued their project of brightening up Ironside Place in Ormlie by painting some of the flower tubs they had planted earlier in the summer.
Both groups participated in a sponsored walk during August. The young people walked five miles to Thurso beach and back and raised £186 between them which was a fantastic achievement.
Although the money raised is to go towards their respective projects on the Ormlie estate the groups have not made a final decision on exactly what the money will be spent on as yet.
In Caithness there was a local project over the summer to raise funds for an historical croft called Mary Ann’s Cottage. The money was raised through an auction of paper boats which were made by all kinds of people and communities worldwide. The CPP sent in their boats which were displayed locally preceding the September auction which raised over £1000.
The younger children have been using their imagination making hats and dragon puppets as well as being active with Kenny Russell our local Out of Schools Active Co-ordinator.
Kenny has a good rapport with the group starting with warm up games and progressing to ‘animal yoga’ where the children learnt simple yoga poses that were fun to do as well as stretching their minds and bodies.
The boys had fun making ‘wiggly snakes’ demonstrating good teamwork and co-operation during what was quite a ‘fiddly’ activity at times.
The girl’s creative flair was challenged by using plastic bin bags and various trimmings with which to make their outfits from. They enjoyed this activity, experimenting with different ideas and styles whether making their own clothes or dressing up each other.
Our older girls have enjoyed going out for walks, having hair and beauty nights and cooking. For the second time we were able to borrow Mannequin Heads from The Youth Club in Thurso for the girls to style. The girls really appreciate the opportunity to use the heads and OCA is very appreciative of the Youth Club’s assistance.
Our older mixed group have been able to enjoy the new pool table that OCA has purchased recently and test their nerve and skills on the climbing wall in Wick. The wall belongs to the Scouts and we were very appreciative of their assistance and expert tuition of the two instructors who gave up their time to lead the session.
The CPP celebrated UK Older Peoples Day on October 1st by holding a Tea Party. The Wednesday Girls group (9-11yrs) invited eight of our local senior residents to their session where they served tea and learnt how to dance the Valeta and St. Bernard’s Waltz before demonstrating their own dances. This was a very successful night with everyone participating and sharing their knowledge. We had one man amongst our guests and although he did not dance he entertained the group with card and magic tricks!
Following the two week school holidays in October when the CPP is also closed we held Halloween Parties for each group. These were lots of fun, and although new games were introduced it appears that ducking for apples and other traditional Halloween activities are still very popular with all ages.
CPP ACTIVITIES
Some of the CPP Activities during 2008/2009
This was a busy period with positive relationships formed with our local support networks for adults and children with a learning disability. (Key Support and Thor House). We organised combined activities which included basketball, bowling and craft sessions as well as growing flowers from seeds to give to both groups.
One of the rooms we use at the Ormlie Community Centre was renovated with teenagers in mind to encourage this age group to come to the CPP sessions. It had a complete make over, furnished with comfy couches, soft lighting and a plasma TV and is used by many other groups besides our young people.
We took part in the Global Exchange Programme in 2008 with volunteers from Bangladesh this time as well as holding some sessions where we invited senior residents to participate and share their knowledge with the groups. This included making home made christmas decorations, playground games and learning about Caithness during the war years.
The CPP were involved in further fundraising by participating in the Marie Cure Cancer Care project raising over £140. This involved the young people collecting sponsorship money for planting and looking after a daffodil each.
As many of the young people had enjoyed growing flowers and vegetables in the community green house we decided to expand by installing five planters and a compost bin in the garden outside the Ormlie Office. They were built and installed for Ormlie by the Criminal Justice team from Wick who did a superb job. Recently the groups have grown and harvested, tatties, radish, beetroot, cabbage, peas, carrots and onions as well as growing tomatoes in the green house.
The CPP also participate in caring for their environment and work on aspects of Ormlie that could still be improved. At present some of the boys are helping to renovate wooden play features in the Nursery Garden and the girls have planted tubs with shrubs and flowers to brighten up an area at Ironside Place which used to have play equipment on it. The area now has a brightly coloured Hopscotch marked on the ground which had been one of the groups ideas.
Recently the drama group along with members of Thurso Junior Players staged a very professional show at The Mill Theatre in Thurso entitled ‘Ormlie’s Got Talent’. This included elements of comedy, dance, singing and storytelling with the young people involved in the production also. Donna Swanson has been working with the Ormlie Drama Group for some time now and has built up an excellent rapport with the young people encouraging them to use their imagination and creativity in ways that has increased their self confidence and performing skills.
For details of all groups and contact information please see timetable on CPP main page. We have just started a new session on a Thursday between 4.00pm – 5.30pm for young people aged between 7-14years. This is a free, open session for young people to access the internet.
Some of the CPP activities during 2006/2007
This year we had two volunteers from the Global Xchange Volunteer Programme working with the groups for 10 weeks. This proved to be extremely positive as the children and young people gained a greater understanding of another culture ie Malawi and were able to associate what they had learnt about children’s rights with Malawi’s young people.
Over the summer several of our girls undertook a sponsored walk in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support which was their original idea and raised £90.
Our older members took part in a programme called Step It Up which we have been piloting along with the High School in conjunction with Community Learning and Leisure. The programme was designed to improve young people’s confidence, self esteem and communication skills which involved answering questionnaires in a CD format and working in a group on a mutually agreed project. They wanted to make a short video and chose Xtreme ironing as their subject. This included a daytrip to Orkney which was a lot of fun and the results of which can be viewed on Youtube.
In general we do lots of arts and crafts, sports and games outside weather permitting, role play, cooking and much more!! As much as possible we plan the sessions around what the young people would like to do.
Drama plays an important part within the CPP initiative as it helps with communication skills, confidence building, self esteem and working as a team. The group took part in the Scottish Community Drama Association’s Highland Youth festival and performed a short play written by local writer George Gunn entitled The Last Tree in Dunnet.
ORMLIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
108 Marr Terrace, Thurso, KW14 7SW
Tel: 01847 891789
E-mail: info@ormlie.org
Chairperson - Brian Leonard
Vice Chairperson - Diane Holmes
Treasurer - Iain MacGregor
Secretary - Helen Allen
Manager - Sheenagh Christie
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Company Registered in Scotland at 108 Marr Terrace, Thurso, Caithness, KW14 7SW - Registered No: 221915 - Scottish Charity No: SCO2893