Team Work with the Altogether Now Project.

Early August, the Altogether Now team took a group of young people to Leicester Outdoor Pursuit Centre for an afternoon of Team challenges and raft building. These group sessions support young people with SEND to build their confidence and grow their social communication skills as they approach the world of work and actively start to seek employment.

The group faced challenges such as;

• The group Knot
• The Human crane
• Balancing the See-Saw
• Bomb retrieval
• Crack the Code
• Raft Building

All these challenges worked on flexing and developing vital skills around;

• Communication
• Socialising and meeting new people
• Team working
• Problem solving
• Leadership
• Active Listening
• Constructive feedback

Kirria Hearn from Nelsons Law firm was our business volunteer, she spent the afternoon working alongside our young people and supporting them though their challenges. This informal setting was great for building relationships and giving the group experience of communicating with new people, particularly those from the world of work. The conversations Kirria had with them around their hobbies, interests and aspirations are not only to aid their social skills but they are the building blocks of any formal job interview.

Raft Building required a lot of planning, problem solving and discussion, The group were taught a new skill in the form of knot tying and really persevered until they managed to get our raft constructed and ready to sail.

Unfortunately, our newly gained knot tying skills needed to be developed somewhat more! On entering the river our ropes became too loose, Amy from Leicestershire Care was able to claim aboard and our raft did stay afloat but it was deemed too unstable for the rest of the crew to join or set sail, and fell to pieces as we retrieved it from the water..... Phew lucky escape!

The group worked hard but we also played hard too! We had lots of fun and laughter and there were plenty of peer on peer support and encouragement to be had for all. Roll on the next adventure for the Altogether Now Group!

If you are interested in supporting the work of the Altogether Now project funded by Henry smith then Ross and Kym would love to hear from you Ross@Leciestershirecares.co.uk Kym@Leicestershirecares.co.uk