Acitvity Sheffield (the first visit)

Activity Sheffield came about to keep children active in play. Two / three youth workers armed with a van equipped with outdoor toys and games: cricket, hula hoops, a jenga set, a massive connect four, footballs and space hoppers. It's a weekly event and seems to be popular with its target group, the 8-11 year olds.

I say seems popular because, unfortunately when we (Josh, Tom and Yogesh) went the weather was pretty bad. So only three kids turned up, and they were far too energetic to question them about the estate, so we just played cricket instead. YAY! But the youth workers were open to be asked about their own experiences about Lansdowne and spoke about how in the beginning the older-teens were a little hostile towards them (verbally abusive). This was down to them (Active Sheffield) being an unknown outsider, working in their area. But once they got to know each other they now have good relationship with each other.

The younger-teens that we played cricket with, well I suppose you could call them a little rough and ready, but essentially good kids, in need of something like this (sports) to keep them occupied and out of trouble. Seeing their enthusiasm practically bursting out of them, being prepared to come out in the poorly rain for a game of cricket (which incidentally lead to some questionable bounces and frankly bias refereeing). Is this the only opportunity for these children to engage in physical activity in a safe environment after school? What happens after Active Sheffield leave. Looking around the estate there's plenty of green spaces, but it's a shame that they're not really designed for play. A piece of land so can play badminton, or throw a fisbee, or lay on the grass in the summer. True when we've visited the estate, the weather hasn't been all that great, but it's striking just how uninhabited the gardens are, even on a Saturday. I wonder, if they were habited would the estate feel safer?

Anyway the plan's to go in a weeks time and meet up with Activity Sheffield, so we become a familiar face and use this to build a relationship between the children and us.