A group of young people from Ysgol Greenhill have been working with youth workers in school on numerous projects this past year.
The groups have tackled hard hitting topics such as gender-based violence, substance misuse and the impact this can have on family and friends, gender equality and men’s mental health. The groups are continuing to drive these subjects through their project aims for the year, which has led to a once in a lifetime trip opportunity in October.
The group originally started as a girls group, which they named the You Should Know project. The group came together after a discussion around feeling safe and feeling vulnerable.
As part of this project, the group researched and carried out interviews with women from all occupations and ages. They wanted to know how women/girls feel when they are alone at night and they wanted to share this with everyone to raise awareness.
From their research, the girls created a video, this video launched on social media on White Ribbon Day 2023. This video was shared widely across numerous social media platforms throughout the UK.
Around this time, the youth workers had linked with Plan International and arranged for a very special guest to visit the school in November 2023, all the way from New Zealand.
Mataio Brown the co-founder of the global movement, She Is Not Your Rehab, delivered a hard hitting, inspirational talk to the whole of year 10, 11 and sixth form.
The talk was emotional; heart wrenching and a triumph with the young people, especially the boys.
The staff commented how ‘they have never seen a speaker engage the year groups in such a way,’ the silence whilst Mataio spoke was deafening. Messages of thanks and praise quickly followed to Mataio’s inboxes and from this, the school knew a change had started.
This successful and inspirational event led to the creation of the youth project His Path, His Journey. A group of boys had found their purpose and created a mission for the year.
It was from this that Ysgol Greenhill took on the white pledge for white ribbon. This again pushed a strong message through our social media that we stand together and support work being done to prevent gender-based violence.
The two groups; You Should Know and His Path His Journey, will be continuing their work as single projects each striving to promote, raise awareness and create safe spaces for their targeted topics.
The girl’s project will be pushing work on gender-based violence and keeping safe. They are hoping to collaborate with a group in the Vale of Glamorgan – Her Voice, for a joint initiative raising awareness of the issues faced by young women and educating everyone on appropriate behaviour.
The boys are championing men’s mental health and encouraging the message “let’s just talk” through their podcast. They are also hoping to set up a bi-monthly ‘coffee shop’ drop in which will encourage boys in school to pop along and chat. They want to break down the barriers to conversation and to normalise a boys group to chat about their day/feelings and emotions.
The groups have also collaborated to create the project We Know Our Journey. This project will launch a web page, social media platforms and a YouTube channel later in the year – where all the groups’ events, podcasts and projects will take centre stage.
So far this year the group have a collective of challenges and projects planned and we are very much looking forward to seeing where this group will go.
The group will take part in a Pen Y Fan challenge on Friday 3rd of May, where they plan to raise money for men’s mental health and domestic abuse charities. There will be 20 young people and 6 youth workers taking on this challenge together – even opting to carry a portable pizza oven to have pizza on the top of Pen Y Fan. A huge thank you to Tenby Round Table for the funding for our T-shirts, Drinks bottles and bags.
The group will be volunteering across the Long Course Weekend in Tenby raising funds for their chosen charities, on the Sunday running event a group will also complete the 10K run in a bid to further raise funds and promote the work the groups have been doing.
The huge success of the year will be the international trip to New Zealand – 4 young people (Kiaran Sine, Jayden Allen, Millie Howells-Ball and Eva-louise Bateman) and their two youth workers – Leah Walker, School Based Youth Worker and Hannah White, Substance Misuse Support Worker, have been chosen to join Plan International, Her Voice (Vale of Glamorgan) and VAWDSV South Wales police lead on the overseas trip.
The group of 16 will travel to Auckland in October this year for a 2 week stint exploring New Zealand and visiting projects seeing what they are doing to address and support victims of Gender-Based Violence.
The group are extremely excited about this opportunity and are looking forward to sharing ideas and experiences, with a hope of finding new ideas to bring back to Wales.
We know…. Our Journey Youth Project
A group of young people from Ysgol Greenhill have been working with youth workers in school on numerous projects this past year.
The groups have tackled hard hitting topics such as gender-based violence, substance misuse and the impact this can have on family and friends, gender equality and men’s mental health. The groups are continuing to drive these subjects through their project aims for the year, which has led to a once in a lifetime trip opportunity in October.
The group originally started as a girls group, which they named the You Should Know project. The group came together after a discussion around feeling safe and feeling vulnerable.
As part of this project, the group researched and carried out interviews with women from all occupations and ages. They wanted to know how women/girls feel when they are alone at night and they wanted to share this with everyone to raise awareness.
From their research, the girls created a video, this video launched on social media on White Ribbon Day 2023. This video was shared widely across numerous social media platforms throughout the UK.
Around this time, the youth workers had linked with Plan International and arranged for a very special guest to visit the school in November 2023, all the way from New Zealand.
Mataio Brown the co-founder of the global movement, She Is Not Your Rehab, delivered a hard hitting, inspirational talk to the whole of year 10, 11 and sixth form.
The talk was emotional; heart wrenching and a triumph with the young people, especially the boys.
The staff commented how ‘they have never seen a speaker engage the year groups in such a way,’ the silence whilst Mataio spoke was deafening. Messages of thanks and praise quickly followed to Mataio’s inboxes and from this, the school knew a change had started.
This successful and inspirational event led to the creation of the youth project His Path, His Journey. A group of boys had found their purpose and created a mission for the year.
It was from this that Ysgol Greenhill took on the white pledge for white ribbon. This again pushed a strong message through our social media that we stand together and support work being done to prevent gender-based violence.
The two groups; You Should Know and His Path His Journey, will be continuing their work as single projects each striving to promote, raise awareness and create safe spaces for their targeted topics.
The girl’s project will be pushing work on gender-based violence and keeping safe. They are hoping to collaborate with a group in the Vale of Glamorgan – Her Voice, for a joint initiative raising awareness of the issues faced by young women and educating everyone on appropriate behaviour.
The boys are championing men’s mental health and encouraging the message “let’s just talk” through their podcast. They are also hoping to set up a bi-monthly ‘coffee shop’ drop in which will encourage boys in school to pop along and chat. They want to break down the barriers to conversation and to normalise a boys group to chat about their day/feelings and emotions.
The groups have also collaborated to create the project We Know Our Journey. This project will launch a web page, social media platforms and a YouTube channel later in the year – where all the groups’ events, podcasts and projects will take centre stage.
So far this year the group have a collective of challenges and projects planned and we are very much looking forward to seeing where this group will go.
The group will take part in a Pen Y Fan challenge on Friday 3rd of May, where they plan to raise money for men’s mental health and domestic abuse charities. There will be 20 young people and 6 youth workers taking on this challenge together – even opting to carry a portable pizza oven to have pizza on the top of Pen Y Fan. A huge thank you to Tenby Round Table for the funding for our T-shirts, Drinks bottles and bags.
The group will be volunteering across the Long Course Weekend in Tenby raising funds for their chosen charities, on the Sunday running event a group will also complete the 10K run in a bid to further raise funds and promote the work the groups have been doing.
The huge success of the year will be the international trip to New Zealand – 4 young people (Kiaran Sine, Jayden Allen, Millie Howells-Ball and Eva-louise Bateman) and their two youth workers – Leah Walker, School Based Youth Worker and Hannah White, Substance Misuse Support Worker, have been chosen to join Plan International, Her Voice (Vale of Glamorgan) and VAWDSV South Wales police lead on the overseas trip.
The group of 16 will travel to Auckland in October this year for a 2 week stint exploring New Zealand and visiting projects seeing what they are doing to address and support victims of Gender-Based Violence.
The group are extremely excited about this opportunity and are looking forward to sharing ideas and experiences, with a hope of finding new ideas to bring back to Wales.