Young Carers Festive Fayre Fundraiser Success!

Y Sort It Young Carers Groups came together recently to hold a ‘Festive Fayre’ to raise money for respite trips next year.  Both Dumbarton and Clydebank groups received the exciting news that they have been awarded a second round of funding from the Short Breaks Fund.  The funds will help provide young carers in West Dunbartonshire to access free respite in the form of a Young Carer Camp and the ultimate trip to Disneyland Paris.  The Scottish Government established a Short Breaks Fund to help support and sustain carers – including young carers - through enabling better access to short breaks or respite care.
The first event, to raise the remaining amount of money for the exciting trips, took place on the 10th of December at the Concord CE Centre in Dumbarton. The ‘Young Carers Festive Fayre’ was a fun filled day with stalls selling items the young carers made, including a range of handmade festive gifts and decorations, homebaking, homemade soup and non-alcoholic mulled wine.
There were also the usual Fayre favourites such as a second hand stall, tombola and a raffle where many local businesses and others donated generously, including Celtic FC, Rangers FC, Braehead Shopping Centre, Tullochan Trust, Benvenuti Café, Stonefield Carvery and many more. Santa also stopped by to give out treats to the kids as well as a professional photo of their time in the grotto from A+ Plus Photography. (www.aplus-photography.co.uk).
Holly Bartlett, Senior Youth Worker at Y Sort it explains “The Young Carers Festive Fayre was a great event and very successful raising a total fund of £1280.50. In order to fully fund the respite trips planned for our young carers groups next year, we need to raise some money through a few fundraising events. The money raised at the Fayre is a great donation to our target. Not only did it help our fundraising efforts, it was a great opportunity to give the young carers a fun-filled day at a very tough time of year for them.”
She adds, “We are very thankful for all the help and contributions we received.  Many local business organisations and individual people donated gifts, time and energy helping to make this fayre a success.  We are very grateful for everyones help and support”.

Y sort-it Youth Information & Support Network engages with 12–25 year olds through the provision of innovative & responsive youth information services targeted at West Dunbartonshire’s most vulnerable and at risk young people.  The Y sort it Young Carers Groups meets weekly, Clydebank group every Tuesday  between 6.30-8.30pm at Y sort it Base Clydebank, and the Dumbarton group every Wednesday 6-8pm at the Concord CE Centre, Dumbarton.
Anyone interested or looking for further information about the Young Carer camps or groups please contact Y sort it Youth Information & Support Network as follows;  (Telephone) 0141 941 3308 (Web) www.ysortit.com (Email)  info@ysortit.com

The Y Sort-It Green House Challenge

Spring Break Green House Challenge
Monday 9th May 2011
Everyone knows how the story of the three little pigs goes, a house of straw, then sticks and eventually brick but what if there was one that wanted to cover their environment footprint by building a house made of plastic bottles….or in this case a greenhouse!!


During the recent spring break young people that attend Y sort it to help with the Y grow it garden project to build a green house made of two litres plastic soft drink bottles.  Over twelve volunteers, aged 12-18 years help collect, clean, cut and assemble over 750 bottles to create a sustainable greenhouse for the Y Grow it Youth Urban Garden.

May Craig, Y sort it Coordinator “The plastic bottle green house is a great addition to the Y grow it garden, which means we can grow even more produce this year.  The young people involved worked very hard over the spring break and had lots of fun creating and building the green house with support from the Environment Trust team.” 

With support and funding from the Environment Trust, Clydebank Housing Association and West Dunbartonshire Community Service Team young people from Y sort it Youth Information & Support Network and Blue Triangle created the Y Grow it Youth Urban Garden over last years summer period.    

May continued “Last year over 30 young people volunteered their time and effort to created a wonderful space where they can learn about gardening and the environment but also how to grow their own vegetables and eat more healthily – the garden has been an incredibly success with young people working together regardless of ability to produce a safe, relaxing and fun area.  We are keen to continue the support this year and the Green House challenge was part of this”

Wrecked and Wasted Battle of the Bands

Five local bands battled it out to become crowned the first ever Wrecked & Wasted Battle of the Bands Champions 2011. The event was organised as part of the local Wrecked & Wasted Campaign to raise awareness about the risks of drinking alcohol and substance misuse amongst young people.

The finalists were selected by local young people, who listened to music tracks uploaded to the Wrecked & Wasted website by local up and coming bands.  Over a 1,000 votes were cast to select the finalists to perform at the finalists Battle of the Bands event held at Cheers Night Club, Dumbarton on Friday 2nd Sep 2011.

Over 200 young people aged 16 years and older, attended the event to enjoy music by the finalists including Playdead, Mellifluous, E for Exile, Hot Rails and Picnic Basket Nosedive. With plenty of fist pumping, dancing and head banging going on, the crowd enjoyed performances from each band and were keen to show their support to the best of West Dunbartonshire’s fast growing music scene.

The each band put on an explosive performance making the judges decision as difficult as possible.  Member of the judging panel which included Peter Clyde, “The quality of the performances were very good making it a very tough decision to decide on a winner, but overall Hot Rails put in an awesome set, which the crowd responded to and were well deserved winners”.   Overall winners Hot Rails received a cheque for £500 worth of studio recording time with close runners up PlayDead, receiving £150 worth of studio recording time.

Laura Ward, Senior Youth Information Support Worker with Y Sort-It, said: “The Battle of the Bands has been a huge success, with bringing together young people from across West Dunbartonshire, to enjoy music and interact with each other in a safe environment.  The event has been fantastic opportunity to promote the messages of the Wrecked & Wasted campaign and demonstrate to young people that there is no need to get wrecked or wasted, with alcohol or drugs to have a good night.” 

Through out the evening, Y sort it Youth workers trained in delivering alcohol brief interventions were also on hand to offer information and advice about alcohol and substance misuse.

For more information about the Wrecked & Wasted Campaign or future events please visit www.wreckedwd.co.uk or contact Y sort it on 0141 941 3308.

Wrecked and Wasted Gig

Four local bands kicked off the annual Wrecked Campaign to promote safe drinking messages amongst young people with the ‘Un-plugged’ gig at Cheers Nightclub in Dumbarton last Friday (December 10).

The bands also launched the new Wasted Campaign designed to highlight the dangers of substance misuse and encourage young people to think about the risks they are taking.

Gillian Kirkwood, Depute Coordinator with Y Sort-It who organised the gig for West Dunbartonshire Council, said: “It was great to have young people from these bands promoting the messages about drugs & alcohol.

Over 160 young people aged 16+ enjoyed the gig at the Dumbarton nightspot which featured up-and-coming bands Playdead, Waiting for Go, Mellifluous and Someones Sons.

“It allowed the young people who came along see that there is no need to get wrecked or wasted to have a good night. The under-18s had the opportunity to go into a nightclub and see what it is all about and it was a cheap night out for the 18+ age group

“There aren’t enough places for young people to go without facing peer pressure to experiment with drugs or alcohol so it was great to be able to offer a line-up of local acts in a safe environment.”

Y sort-it Youth workers trained in delivering brief interventions were also on hand to offer information and advice about alcohol and substance misuse.

At the end of the evening everyone was given a bag packed with information about safe drinking.

For more information about the Wrecked Campaign visit www.wreckedwd.co.uk.

Y Sort-It Young Carers – Short Breaks Fund Success!

Y Sort It Young Carers Group have received the news that they have been awarded £13,275 from the Short Breaks Fund which will allow young carers in West Dunbartonshire to access free respite in the form of Young Carer Camps.  The Scottish Government, established a Short Breaks Fund to help support and sustain carers – including young carers - through enabling better access to short breaks or respite care.

The funding will be spent to provide over twenty young carers the opportunity to participate in spring and summer residential camps.  During the camps a number of outdoor sports, art and music activities will be on offer over fun-filled weekend camps.  The first camp will be held on 27th-29th May and will be supported by both staff from Y sort it and West Dunbartonshire Council Social Work Department with another planned for June/ July.

Gillian Kirkwood, Depute coordinator explains “The award from Short Break Fund has allowed us to provide an opportunity that at present is not normally obtainable for young people that have the additional responsibility of helping to care for someone on a regular basis.  Away from their typical surroundings the young carer camps will provide respite for young people to recharge and alleviate the worries and stresses of their daily caring role. ”

Recently, Y sort it started a young carers group held every fortnight to support any young carers aged between 12-18 years within the local area. Y sort-it Youth Information & Support Network engages with 12–25 year olds through the provision of innovative & responsive youth information services targeted at West Dunbartonshire’s most vulnerable and at risk young people.

Kirsty Wilson, a member of Y sort it Young Carers group, explains that members were consulted and involved in coming up with idea of short break camps for Young Carers.  “We came up with the idea of camps as this would give us and other young carers the chance to meet and socialise together but most importantly relax, unwind for a few days away from our caring roles”  

The Y sort it Young Carers Group meets alternative Tuesday evenings between 6.30-8.30pm at Y sort it Base, Clydebank and Concord CE Centre, Dumbarton.

Anyone interested or looking for further information about the Young Carer camps or groups please contact Y sort it Youth Information & Support Network as follows;  (Telephone) 0141 941 3308 (Web) www.ysortit.com (Email)  info@ysortit.com

Winner of National Youth Health Worker of the Year

Another fantastic success was the recognition Y sort it received during and after the Scottish Annual Youth Work Conference for their contribution to youth health issues. Gillian Kirkwood, Y sort it Depute Coordinator was awarded the National Youth Worker of the Year Award 2010 sponsored by Youth Link Scotland and Health Scotland at the Crown Plaza, Glasgow. The award was presented and celebrated in front of 400 delegates from all over Scotland including representatives from WDC and WDC Community Planning Partnership. Click here for more information