News

On the 30th September 2009 a meeting was held of all the youth leaders in town at the Platform forum office. Also attending the meeting were some young people from the Oasis Youth club.

With a large age range of children being represented (3 years old to 19) it was quite hard to imagine how we could all come together on a project. However the children from the Oasis club had a wonderful idea that they would like to have a large Christmas tree centrally placed in the town. We then realised that this could then be a joint affair with Playgroup, Brownies, Young Farmers etc. creating weather-proof decorations to be hung at different heights on the tree, and Oasis would be in charge of obtaining a tree and raising money for lights.

After some discussions with Highways at County Hall we quickly discovered that the Church grounds was our only hope with armoured boxes for electrics and insurance. The Duchy of Cornwall Nursery kindly donated the tree and the Vicar was happy to have the tree, and so on Dickensian night our tree was decorated, lit and the song "O Christmas Tree" was sung around it.

On Wednesday 24th February 2010 at 6pm our first meeting of the Youth Forum will be held with representatives from all the Youth Groups and some children who do not belong to any particular group. They will come for a wish for their group or organisation and a wish for the Youth of the town. The aim is that they will eventually run their own meetings and that the adults will be there only for advice and support. We hope that all projects will encompass all age groups and that the meetings will last no longer than an hour! From these meetings we hope to have many exciting events for the young people of the town which hopefully will encourage a sense of ownership and pride in their surroundings.

Words by Helen Taylor