By Isle of Wight Observer
South Wight Area Youth Partnership (SWAY) decided to set up a challenge to encourage young people to leave their homes and explore the countryside after hearing that a number of them were struggling with a lack of motivation or not getting out to exercise.
Following the success of the ‘Hike at Home’ fundraiser and the change of Government regulations to allow people to leave home whilst socially distancing, SWAY set a geocache course across the South Wight that led teams to find 18 keyrings using grid references and clues. Approximately 40 people took part in the challenge from across the island with 18 young people competing in the challenge; mainly in family bubbles.
The competition was fierce with over 80 people following on SWAY’s and Isle of Wight Radio’s web pages and there was lots of positive encouragement during the week. Amazon vouchers were awarded to the winning team who completed the challenge first, and each competing family were given a box of chocolates.
Some of the young people said that they had enjoyed seeing places and wildlife that they had never seen before. Andy Dorning, Lead Youth Worker for SWAY said, ‘Our recent challenges have encouraged lively activity which then feeds back into zoom sessions and increased opportunities for conversations with young people and their families.’ A short video of the geocache teams was shown in Niton and Brighstone last Sunday.
SWAY are currently preparing their programme of action for the coming months, and in light of the recent experience, these sessions will include a range of online topics requested by the young people until such time as more familiar activities are allowed again.
Information about the up-coming programme and SWAY can be found on southwightyouth.org or by contacting Andy on andy.swaymail@gmail.com.
