The first weekend of September 2017 saw 50 ReachOut Project Leaders from Manchester, Oldham and London visit Queen Mary University of London for two jam-packed days of training and preparation ahead of an exciting year of ReachOut projects!
Events kicked off Friday night with ice-breaker games for everyone to meet each other and become inspired on engaging the young people they will be working with. ReachOut’s CEO, Peter Blackwell, welcomed everyone and gave insight into the history of ReachOut. Peter spoke of inspirational stories and memorable ReachOut moments to demonstrate the huge impact the Project Leaders will be having in the year to come.
“Amazing journey. Can’t wait to get started with ReachOut.”
Thirteen engaging sessions covering everything from the ReachOut character strengths, to behaviour management, and how to run sports activities, kept Project Leaders busy Saturday and Sunday morning! Some of the key areas covered in training included:
- How to design and run activities to engage young people.
- Managing and effectively dealing with challenging behaviour.
- How to run a successful sports session, even if you don’t consider yourself ‘sporty’!
- Why ReachOut focus on character and how you can help young people to develop theirs.
- How to manage volunteers to make impact in your sessions.
“The weekend has made me feel much more prepared for being a Project Leader and I now feel comfortable asking the ReachOut staff for advice”
Saturday night saw a fantastic quiz take place as well as Project Leaders chatting and exchanging ideas.
Project Leaders really valued the opportunity to meet each other, understand more about the ReachOut ethos, and learn how to run effective projects for young people. We said goodbye on Sunday afternoon and everyone left with a lot of incredible ideas and enthusiasm, excited for their projects to begin!
“Had a great weekend, lovely to become part of the ReachOut family.”
We’re now recruiting Project Leaders for our 2018/19 projects – if you’d like to join the team and join us at this year’s Residential, sign up here!