We have just taken a group of girls to Stubbers Adventure Centre (Wednesday this week) and it was an adventure! This trip was a continutation of our targeted girls work that Fiona wrote about a little while ago. We did lots of activities of which jet skiing was the favourite, but they also built rafts, [...]
‘Young people need to be encouraged in order to proceed in life, I know people that haven’t been encouraged which led to bad stuff happening’ Last night I spent a few moments talking to the young person in the photo – he is 16. He wants to be a Doctor. This intrigued me. Why a doctor? Were [...]
Firstly, thanks to James G (the Northern One) for the blog last week, if you have not read it – do! He is an amazing volunteer and a good friend and encourager! Wow – the summer holidays are drawing to a close. We have run several projects this summer, some residential trips as well as [...]
Hey everyone it’s James here, not the usual James you’re used to hearing from, but the Northern James. I’m 27 from Sheffield and have been married for nearly two years to a crazy young lady from Swansea in South Wales. I first came into contact with Canaan Project (CP) in summer 2004 when I was [...]
This week we took ten girls from my Year 7 Girls Club on a 3-day trip to a residential centre in the middle of the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. This was a very different experience to taking away 15-17 year old boys as we did in May – buying teddies in the service station, [...]
As in a previous post, I am committed to working with volunteers. The second reason I am convinced in working with volunteers is young people can see themselves as more valuable. How I hear you ask? Often conversations in youth clubs in my experience go like this: Young Person: How much are you paid to be [...]
Last night at youth club 2 examples of the digital age or the ‘post digital age’ whatever you may call it unraveled before me. As I was leaning on the Cafe counter chatting to one of the volunteers we overheard one young person say to another ‘ when I have no BB messenger I feel empty‘ [...]
As the culmination of a Spoken Word project we’ve been doing (see previous blogs…), we had a day shooting a short film last Saturday. The idea was to give the young people an opportunity to perform and record their work and also to give them space to voice their experiences of being a young person [...]
I love our volunteers and I love working with volunteers, I passionately believe that volunteering is essential to not only the Canaan Project but to Youth Work in general. Why? you might ask. Surely it is better to pay ‘professional’ workers to only work with young people, and surely it is easier. The trouble is [...]
Fiona here. I wanted to tell you about the girls work I’ve been doing in the local secondary school, Langdon Park. I originally approached the school about doing some girls work there in response to the very low numbers of girls that were attending our Thursday night youth club sessions. This situation is replicated in [...]
Last night the Teviot Centre in Poplar was full to the brim if not overflowing with creativity (that is the link with the misplaced photo!). We had 4 visiting poets performing to the young people instead of the normal club. We also invited other youth centres to come and visit, Salmon youth centre attended and they bought [...]
I wanted to introduce you to another young person, he is 17 lives in Poplar and comes to Canaan Project to our weekly session, as you can see from the photo he enjoys football! We sat down for a 10 minute conversation, I would say this is longest I have talked to him and this is [...]
This week fresh from the residential, we walked straight back into life on the Teviot. On Wednesday night a young person had their face slashed because he is from a different area. Thursday night our normal club was a really fun night and we seemed to continue to develop some more strong relationships with young [...]
So the blog this week is a day late, this is because this week we were on a residential trip. We went for 3 days and 2 nights to Calshot an activities centre on the south coast with a bunch of boys aged 13 – 19. It was a challenging and tiring time, we did [...]
We are going on a Residential Trip next week for 3 days. It is very exciting for us as workers as well as for the young people. It is often a golden time to build relationship with young people. Sharing experiences, fears and tribulations together connects people in special ways. In preparation for this trip, we invited a [...]
The Grand Finale to our the first installment of Cooking Club, was a trip to a Restaurant. We took all five boys, aged 11 – 13 it was a brilliant experience on a number levels. One to get out of the East End, some having never been to a Restaurant let alone going to West London. The meal was enjoyed [...]
On Monday we took a group of young people to a Spoken Word event at the Salmon Centre. It was a really inspiring time for both the workers and the young people. There were 3 artists performing, each inspiring in their own way as they performed in their individual styles. One of the artists, a 15 year [...]
Here is an interesting article dangerous-dogs-as-weapons it has to be said that i think the Guardian is a little slow on the up take this has been a concern for a number of years but was recently brought to my attention again. We have seen a few young people with dogs in the last couple of [...]
This week I wanted put some work on the Blog from a young person. This was written by a 14 year old boy that lives in Poplar. Below are some excerpts from his work: I belong to God but the streets are pulling me away, everyday I find a way for the haters to pay, right now i got [...]
Fiona and I were on outreach this week and we bumped in to Garry. He has been coming to Canaan Project for the last couple of years and also attended last years residential to Calshot. This is what he said: ‘Canaan Project is brilliant because it gives young people something to do. The trouble is [...]
Sometimes when working with young people we can jump to the wrong conclusions especially in the cloud of negative media that surrounds them. Potentially it is easier and arguably safer to have lower expectations of the young people we see, but at Canaan Project we try to approach young people with the opposite attitude, that [...]
Hi people. I’m Fiona and work for the Canaan Project. You can read a bit about me below. James and I have been reflecting this week on the violence between local young people, which seems to be becoming more and more frequent or at least we’re more aware of it. The use of weapons such [...]
The Canaan Project has been recently been successful in getting money for trips including:
2 x Residential Trips (one male, one female)
3 x Cooking Club Trips – a meal at a nice restaurant for our Cooking Groups
2 x Activity Day Trips
We have started a Cooking Club in which we work with a small group of young people each term on a Monday afternoon.
Through cooking a series of dishes from around the world the young people are learning about new foods, developing a range of food preparation skills and gaining knowledge about the nutritional content of different foods and what makes a balanced diet. It has been great to see the current group of 5 boys, gain new skills and knowledge whilst having a great time and a good dinner. One of the boys even said he might be interested in becoming a chef!
Through a partnership between Langdon Park School, Poplar HARCA and Poplar Boys and Girls Club a bid was put in to a government initiative called Myplace who fund ‘world-class’ youth centres. The bid was successful and a £6 million youth centre is now scheduled to built on the Teviot Estate.
James has been at the Canaan Project since January 2008. Before this he had experience working with young people in various contexts, including the Drugs and Alcohol field, working with NEET young people (Not in Education Employment and Training) and working with young people in a Church. He also has a degree in Informal and Community Education.
Fiona joined the Canaan Project in October 2009. She has also had experience working with young people in a variety of contexts in Cambridge, Tower Hamlets and Islington. She has a degree in Music and a second degree in Youth and Community Work with Applied Theology.
“I love my job! It’s a real privilege to be a little part of young peoples journeys and to hopefully help them recognize and fulfill their massive potential.”
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