Small acorns to mighty oaks Abersychan school group

Empowering positive images Abersychan school group consists of young people who are at risk from exclusion from school. Project involved creating a wooden community sign The young people made the sign using old working techniques. This is one of many projects the group have worked on but we are using this one as an illustration.

The making of the community sign

Project rules!- and outcomes The young people signed a behavioural contract prior to engagement. This contract was designed to improve specific areas of difficulty in school. i.e behaviour attendance If the contract is broken then the young people are not allowed to participate in the group activities and have to earn back the necessary points We have evidence that this is promoting good behaviour of young people, raising self-esteem and developing community awareness. School feed back is extremely positive and has raised the profile of these challenging young people

Mid term reward positive story Due to the continual hard work of this group we thought it be good to reward them with a climbing afternoon.

Project promotion by the young people Due to the outstanding success of this project the young people have asked to have a unveiling ceremony of the sign. The young people have organised the event from start to finish and also plan to host and present the evening, explaining the project to local councillors, press and public. The growth in these young people as been phenomenal over a short period of time. From small acorns come mighty oaks !