Kiama Council's Youth Week 2024 activities have been voted a resounding success by the young people taking part as well as their parents and caregivers.
Council's SENTRAL Youth Services team hosts a range of Youth Week activities each Youth Week, for local young people aged 12 to 24 years.
This year the SENTRAL team was able to offer a diverse range of opportunities for our local youngsters to celebrate and enjoy just being themselves.
These included simple offerings such a 'Zone Bowling' day with ten pin bowling, laser tag, arcade games and bumper car rides, as well as outdoor movie and gaming nights at the SENTRAL cottages.
While simple these events were designed to foster a sense of community and camaraderie as well as friendly competition and teamwork.
SENTRAL was also able to provide opportunities for the young people to express their creative side with a 3D printing and painting workshop as well as a youth music gig 'SENTRAL Sounds'.
The team was also able to challenge our young people to explore their environment.
These included a fishing day out, allowing participants to connect with nature and each other, while learning about local marine life, fishing techniques, and the importance of conservation.
An overnight camp was ideal for those wanting to 'step it up' via an adventure-filled experience, developing survival skills and building resilience.
This meant setting up tents, cooking meals over a campfire and other life skills while enjoying kayaking, swimming, bouldering, fishing, bushwalks and wildlife spotting.
While Youth Week presents a considerable investment from our SENTRAL team members, it's easily considered time and effort well spent.
Parents and carers agree, providing our SENTRAL staff a 100 per cent rating for creating a safe and welcoming space for their child.
All of them also said they'd happily have their child attend future SENTRAL programs.
For our SENTRAL members, the best reviews were from the young people themselves, again providing a 100 per cent rating for the Youth Week programs.
One challenge to overcome for our SENTRAL crew is the wish list provided by participants for next year's Youth Week.
These include deep sea fishing, surfing, rock climbing and biking.
That's a challenge our SENTRAL team is more than happy to accept.
Kiama Council thanks the NSW Government for its funding support our Youth Week 2024, as well as the Kangaroo Adventure Company for their support with the overnight camping.
