Staff from the SMASH Youth Project along with volunteer mentor Ros Tompkins spent the last weekend in January at Legge House with 15 vulnerable young people. The young people are referred to the project for all manner of reasons but all of them have made a positive choice to turn their lives around by becoming more confident, learning new skills or just trying new things. They took part in a circus skills workshop; team building exercises and a treasure hunt around Clouts Wood. They also learned about forthcoming projects including liking up with SMASH’s sister project in Rio De Janeiro.

Young people who attended said things like, “I wish we could have stayed for a week.”

“I get bullied at school so I was really nervous about coming but it’s been great, no one judges you here.”

And “I’ve made so many new friends and learned loads of cool stuff and I got to lead the group and I never thought I could do that.”

 SMASH volunteer mentors offer one-to-one support to young people over a one-year period. The Project currently supports more than 50 mentoring relationships but the waiting list is always growing so if you’d like to help a young person make a positive change in their life, then the staff at SMASH would love to hear from you. Please call 01793 879297 today or visit the website at www.smash-youth-project.co.uk.