festival of wick
For one week in August at the height of the British summer, the Festival of Wick exploded onto the fields of Flora McDonald Juniors and Wickbourne Infants Schools. With a wide variety of events for all the family including Live Wires, X-treme, Family Party and Film Night, the Festival is a celebration of all that is great in the Wick community. With over 2,500 people attending events staffed by over 100 volunteers, the Festival brought together local businesses and voluntary organisation to provide long-term opportunities and a chance to meet new friends. Run by local community groups

hot off the WIRE
This was our regular magazine-style newsletter, which keeps everyone up-to-date with all the developments at the project. It’s crammed full of encouraging stories from our activities, great photos, a summary of what’s been going on and of course, news on any upcoming changes and events.

open day
The WIRE receives many visitors, and their interest and opinions often brought us great encouragement. The annual Open Day brought together all these interested parties in an informal, interactive environment to find out more about the project and how we creatively respond to the needs of the local community.

operation angel
This magical Christmas activity aimed to help support local parents during one of the most expensive times of year by delivering free presents to children. Gifts were donated to the project from churches, clubs and individuals then lovingly wrapped ready to hand out. Just before Christmas, ‘Rudolph the Minibus’ sets off with Father Christmas and his team of elves to deliver a small surprise to over 300 happy children!

schools work and assemblies
A regular part of The WIRE’s work was to support the local schools. We do this in a variety of ways from taking lessons on social themes such as Bullying, Poverty, Volunteering, Drugs, Alcohol Awareness and Citizenship, to assemblies promoting our activities and communicating important topics in creative and fun ways. In addition, we were involved in working with specific individuals within school to help them integrate socially into classes. To be continued by the new project LA-UK

skovbo efterskole, Denmark
Based approximately forty minutes away from Copenhagen airport in Denmark, we have been worked in partnership with the boarding school Skovbo Efterskole for 8 years . Once a year, a team from The WIRE visited the school for a week and take lessons and assemblies on various subjects and socialise with the students. In addition various teams from Denmark came and volunteered at The WIRE to learn all about our project and community action. To be continued by the new project LA-UK

volunteering
The WIRE had the incredible privileged to have the on-going support of a huge number of volunteers on a regular basis. Those amazing individuals give their time, energy and skills to make our activities the success that they were. We enjoyed hosting several volunteers from across the UK and as far a field as the USA, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Whether you wanted to help at an activity one hour a week, or work on a gap year for nine months, we could cater for your needs! To be continued by the new project LA-UK

gap scheme
In partnership with The Rank Foundation, The WIRE provided full-time voluntary placements for young people with a ‘gap’ period in their lives. To be continued by the new project LA-UK

overseas trips
During the last few years, The WIRE has had the privilege of visiting Spurgeon’s Child Care projects in other countries. By taking teams of local volunteers who fundraise their own airfare, we have run children’s playschemes in Romania, Kenya and Mexico providing life-changing opportunities for all involved!

training
To give the best possible support for our volunteers, we provided training on a number of key issues from Child Protection to First Aid. Whether in-house, on short courses or one-to-one, we aimed to invest in individuals to provide them with future opportunities. As standard, everyone who volunteers for the project received a CRB check (Criminal Records Bureau). To be continued by the new project LA-UK

work placements
In partnership with the local secondary school, The WIRE provided long-term work experience placements for young people in year 10 and 11. They are each assigned a mentor from within The WIRE team and enjoyed a timetable created around their interests to help raise their skill and confidence levels. To be continued by the new project LA-UK

children's work | youth work | family work | community work