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Skills Development CentreMCWG’s skills development centre has been running since 1995. The aim of the centre is to provide

activities that help the personal, social and educational development of young people. We aim to do this through informal education set in an environment that young people can feel comfortable in. We also try to pay attention to the cultural needs of our members and cater for each individual as best we can. Our centre caters for young people from ages 11 to 21 that are from over a dozen different ethnic backgrounds and so

its always buzzing with diversity.

Skills development centre

Group discussions are an important part of our programme as it gives the chance for people to express their views, share experiences and learn from each other.

Enjoying dinner they cookedFoosballTable tennis

PoolJust chilling

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Skills Development CentreGirl’s Club

MCWG girls club was set up for young female members of the community who wanted their own space and to do their own thing. The girl’s only club provides its members a relaxed, friendly atmosphere in which they can comfortably participate in positive activities. Having a girls only club was seen as extremely important in our catchment area as there is a large population of Muslims. Due to cultural sensitivities, many parents do not allow their daughters to attend gender mixed centres. The girls club is not only there to support young

girls in general, but is also there to cater for young girls that do not have access to mainstream youth centres.

Jewellery making Playing pool

Cooking session Art session

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Skills Development CentreGym

The MCWG gym was recently refurbished using the latest range of boxing equipment and is proving to be extremely popular amongst the club members. The gym sessions are used to teach the users a number of topics including nutrition, cardiovascular and weight training exercises. These sessions help to develop key

skills such as self discipline, motivation and developing youngsters overall confidence, but most importantly it is part of a health lifestyle. Gym members are also encouraged to gain accreditation through the Duke of Edinburgh’s award which is a great way of recognising the hard work and dedication our members put in.

We constantly strive to add diversity and new excitement at the gym and one of the ways we have done this is the recent introduction of boxercise sessions which is proving to be extremely popular with everyone!

Young people doing circuit training Young person on a heavy bag

Young person bench pressing with instructor supervising him

Young people doing circuit training

Young boxer on a floor to ceiling ball

Cardiovascular training Circuit training on resistance machinesYoung person being shown how

to improve his curl technique

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Skills Development CentreYouth Committee

MCWG youth committee was set up in January 2009. Our staff advertised the positions hoping to get between 6 and 10 volunteers, with 10 being the maximum we would accept to make the committee. To our surprise we had 16 young people eager to be part of our youth committee. Due to the high number of young people interested in the committee, we decided we would place a names chart on the wall and

have the club members vote for who they wanted to represent them. The 10 nominees that were elected, later set up the youth committee. The youth committee meet every fortnight, and have been doing a great job representing their club and bringing to the table ideas for projects, fundraising and

improvements for the centre. The committee have also taken up a huge responsibility by assisting the youth workers in the running of the centre by taking registers, supervising the TUC, clearing up and

collecting feedback from members.

Youth committee meeting Youth committee recruitment poster

Members of committee brainstorming at MCWG office Members of committee in meeting with youth worker

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Skills Development CentreClub refurbishment

During 2008-2009 our centre had conducted some major decorating and refurbishment work. Although the appearance of the centre didn’t stop young people from coming and participating, it wasn’t something they

were proud of. With exposed pipes above and grimy floor beneath, some of them would describe the centre as ‘like the sewers’ and felt it was unwelcoming. Thanks to the Youth Opportunity Funds we were able to change all that. The entire centre had a make over including our recreational area, gym, IT room,

toilets and lounge area.

Recreational area: New flooring has been laid, all leaks were treated, waste pipes covered and all the walls painted.

IT Room: New flooring has been laid, waste pipes covered and all the walls painted and new flat screen computers installed

Before After

Before After 6

Skills Development CentreClub refurbishment continued

Girls/Boys toilets: New toilets/sinks/taps/mirrors/new worktops/made good of walls/paint/box pipes

Lounge/TV room: Walls painted, floor laid, new seating, out dated TV replaced with new LCD TV

Gym: New flooring laid, all walls painted and piped boxed

Before After

Before After

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‘My Style’ Fashion Show Project

My Style was a project through which members of our girl’s group wanted to counter stereotypes about young Muslim women and fashion. They wanted to show that Muslim girls could be

fashionable while adhering to their own culture. They also wanted to use the opportunity to learn more about fashion and textiles and develop new skills such as designing and sewing amongst others. All the participants gained Arts Awards, an exciting new scheme which accredits young

peoples artistic achievements.

Girls designing their outfits Group work investigating fashion

Early stages of sewing patterns together

Girls posing in front of banner Flyer for Fashion Show

Travelling in styleA fabulous dinner after the

Fashion Show

One of the participants in her catwalk

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Wales ResidentialIn January 2009 MCWG took a group of young people on a four day residential to Llangollen Wales. The purpose of the trip was to help young people develop their personalities by presenting them with new

challenges, pushing them physically and mentally and putting them in scenarios in which they must work as a team and support each other to succeed. The four days in Llangollen did just that. Whilst activities such as

archery and canoeing gave them new experiences and allowed them to learn new skills, nightline, night walk, rock climbing and abseiling pushed the young people, required team work and determination.

Most participants had never experienced archery before

Night walk proved to be extremely challenging for some and required those finding it easy to support those struggling

Kayaking – a lot more difficult than they had anticipated

Many participants had the challenge of overcoming their fear of height before the activity itself

The safety of the climber was in the hands of his partner in rock

climbing

Nightline – promoting team work

Gorge walking in the freezing cold water

Who said you couldn’t have some fun as well

Off road mountain biking was probably the most adrenaline

pumping activity

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‘Protest with paint’Art Project

The assault on Gaza in December 2008 stirred up many emotions amongst Muslims around the world, particularly young Muslims. This caused some young Muslims to express themselves in negative ways. Whilst this was a topic too sensitive for mainstream youth centres to tackle, MCWG did just that. We

opened up a discussion and debate about the events of Gaza and united on positive ways of channelling the energy and making change. The young people wanted to help the situation and avoid making it worse, so they decided they would fundraise for the children of Gaza and protest the assault using art. Our staff saw

this not only as a great opportunity to do a positive project, but also build bridges between the young people and Police, as there was an immense sense of distrust towards the police. Local police and PCSO’s

were asked to support the project and judge the completed pieces of art work at the end of the project. We feel that the involvement of the PCSO’s had a positive impact on the young peoples attitudes towards them.

Participant spray painting Police and PCSO’s judging the completed pieces

The winner and runners up The judges with the winner

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Gaza Fundraising EventAs part of our positive solution to the suffering of the people of Gaza our girl’s group decided to put

together a fundraising event to help the children of Gaza. The girls had organised the event pretty much by themselves under the guidance of their youth worker. The event was held in January 2009 and the girls

managed to raise just over £2000.00. this was proof that they weren’t restricted by their ages. The girls felt that they had achieved something they can be proud of and that this was a much more productive way to

help the suffering women and children of Gaza.

Face painting

Bouncy castle

Henna

Jewellery and clothes for sale

Arts and crafts

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PCSO ChallengeIn February 2009 MCWG hosted a pool tournament between young people and PCSO’s. The event was

organised by the Golborne youth forum . The event was great fun and helped build bridges between young people and PCSO’s. There was £100 worth of vouchers to be won between the winner and runners up.

PCSO about to break! Challenge flyer

Young person on a roll The final 12

Day TripsIndoor rock climbing sessions – Young people getting a feel of rock climbing, a first for most of them.

Paintball – Young people are must work as a team, with a team leader. The key to winning is good communication, team work, coordination and strategic thinking.

Victoria Albert Museum – The young people explore Middle Eastern fashion

Day trips are a great way for young people to experience new activities, enjoy themselves and develop valuable skills.

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Past, Present & FutureAlthough 2007-2008 was relatively quiet for MCWG’s youth project, 2008/9 proved to be a year ofdevelopment for the project and as a result a year of development for our young people. Although ourproject faced a number of obstacles including insufficient funding and lack of capacity, our team of trustees,staff and volunteers worked hard to ensure the youth get as much out of the project as it could possiblyoffer. No progress could have been made without the continued support of our young people and partners,particularly the Henry Smith’s Charity, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Youth Service, JohnLyon’s Charitable trust the Hilden Charitable trust and Golborne Youth Centre.

MCWG is very excited about 2009/10 as our project has grown and become more popular amongst youngpeople which has created a much more vibrant atmosphere to work in. We have also been working closelywith our youth committee on developing great new project ideas which we hope to deliver in 2009/10.

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