Youth week is a time to celebrate the contribution of young people in the community as well as a chance for young people to share their ideas, showcase their talents and for them to have their voices heard.
Last year, Nepean Community & Neighbourhood Services (NCNS) held a colour run in celebration of youth week and due to the huge success of this event, the NCNS Youth team are hoping to turn this into an annual event.
The 2nd annual colour run, held on Monday 15th April, was an opportunity for our young people to shine, with NCNS Youth Workers, Sami Thoms & Joe Benchoam ensuring that young people were involved in all aspects of planning, development and management of the event. In February, the NCNS Youth Planning Crew was formed comprising of 12-14 young people, guided by our Youth Workers, who came together to share ideas, their vision and feedback to make this year’s colour run better than ever. Our planning crew helped to organise the obstacle course, came up with the activities for the event and 2 of our talented young people, Harrison & Jess created the artwork that was used for promotion on our Colour Run flyers.
NCNS Youth Worker, Joe Benchoam shared his thoughts on the Youth Week celebration, “For me it’s about empowering our young people and giving them the opportunity to show the community what they can achieve. Working with the NCNS Youth Planning Crew was definitely a highlight for me. We had over 250 community members come along on the day and they gave us such positive feedback. It just shows how capable our young people really are. This is what Youth Week is all about.”
The community had so much fun during the colour run as the powder exploded into the air and their white shirts became covered in beautiful colours.
They faced a colour fight, were challenged by the obstacle course but the fun did not stop there. Kids and young people couldn’t wait for the next activities to begin.
The 4 way tug a war was hilarious to watch, you could see the competitiveness of the young people trying to pull each other in opposite directions. There was Oz Tag, 3 legged races, ring toss, thong throwing, and community could also participate in our Skate Park Mural Workshop, creating artwork that will be included in the mural at the Cranebrook Skate Park.
We would like to acknowledge the following organisations who provided support, stalls and activities on the day: Platform Youth Services, BreakThru, Headspace, Uniting, Family Planning, Ability Options, Penrith City Council, Neighbourhood Jobs – Wentworth Community Housing and Yourtown.
A massive shout out to Tyrepower Penrith who supplied tyres for our obstacle course, Airy Fairy’s Fairy Floss, Popcorn & Sno-cones who provided fairy floss, DJ Matt for the awesome music, Braddock Public school for donating squeezy bottles and Woolworths Cranebrook who donated the sausages and bread for the BBQ.
Lastly, we would like to say a huge thank you to the young people from the planning crew who had a hand in all parts of this event, the community & young people who came along, participated and supported our event, NCNS staff for their hard work on the day and our partner in this event, Penrith City Council.
Fantastic event. Well done to Joe and all the organisers.
Thank you Billy 🙂