Over the year we have developed a Bronze, Silver and Gold Award for young people who wish to develop their skills and abilities as well as contributing to the Gathering and the wider community.
The Bronze award: The aim of the award is to enable young people to develop important life and practical skills. These include the ability to work in a team, communication, customer service skills, operating a till and handling money, making and serving drinks, preparing food, using a commercial dishwasher etc.
The Silver award: The aim of this award is to enable young people to build on the skills they have learnt above. These include team working, leadership, motivation, communication, problem solving and goal setting.
The Gold award: The aim of this award is to build on the two previous programmes with extra training that includes Fire, Health and Safety, Safe-Guarding, Risk Assessment etc.
Leadership weekend: As part of the silver award we took 5 young leaders away for a weekend in March to the inner city area of Leeds. They helped decorate a community hall, do a litter pick and also clean all the toys for a local creche, as well as having lots of fun. The charity was able to pay for the transport and accommodation costs.
Awards evening: In April of last year we invited Peter McCall, Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner, to present awards to 31 young people. The evening was a great celebration with family members enjoying being with the young people. During the evening Peter talked about his time in the army and his current role as a commissioner. He also said: "So often young people get drawn into antisocial behaviour and worse because they have not had constructive activities and an environment where they learn to share good values and standards and learn to be responsible community members. I am really pleased to visit a superb group such as the Gathering to meet with the young folk there and see the things they get up to and the opportunities this gives them, learning valuable life skills."
You can read more about each award below:
