First Reaching Communities programme is a success!
15/11/2010
We have now completed the first intensive 12 session programme of our 4 year Reaching Communities project entitled: CONNECTING – Developing Better Lives & Skills for NEET young people in Suffolk.
Our main project partner is WEST SUFFOLK COLLEGE and the 12 young people who volunteered to join the sessions are part of the Synergy Group which is run in conjunction with the Connexions/Suffolk Youth Service.
James Stack our Leader for the project writes: "The aim of this course was to enlighten the young people into practical conservation and woodland skills. This was done through coppicing a hedgerow and the material was used to create a dead hedge against hungry animals who will be keen to nibble the new shoots in the spring. The group also assisted with selecting pre felled timber to be processed into benches in an area that they had cleared. This was done most successfully and after cleaning the hewed timber it was installed by the group, at a campfire circle which the group had also cleared and backed with a fence of woven hazel." Their practical learning thus included:
· Safe tool use
· Coppicing techniques and hurdle making
· From tree to bench complete green wood working!
We offer our enormous thanks to THE BIG LOTTERY FUND for making this project possible.
