SOLANGE: BANGIN’ YOUTH CLUB

EASTER 2024

During my internship at BANG, I had the incredible opportunity to lead the BANGIN’ Youth Club.  

Initially, I felt a bit anxious, as I had never led a youth club or overseen children before.  

However, the experience turned out to be extremely positive and rewarding. 

One of the highlights of my internship was leading a workshop on emotional resilience. During this workshop, we focused on teaching the youths about the 3 C’s:  

Communication, cooperation, and compromise.  

We discussed how they can implement these principles in their daily lives to better cope with challenges and setbacks. 

In addition to teaching emotional resilience, we also conducted sessions on anger management. We discussed different ways to express frustration positively and asked the youths about their coping mechanisms when they were angry.  

Together, we explored healthier alternatives to promote positive behaviours. 

In addition to leading workshops, my responsibilities included organizing the youths’ daily lunch. It was important to ensure that their meals were not only nutritious but also enjoyable. This involved careful planning and coordination to meet their dietary needs and preferences. 

Beyond the workshops and daily activities, we also organized trips to the cinema and bowling alley. While overseeing the youths, these outings presented their challenges; however, I enjoyed the experience.  

It helped me gain valuable skills and confidence in working with children and young adults. 

Before my internship, I had no interest in teaching or leading youth activities. 

However, this experience taught me the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone.  

I realized that even though I may not have been initially interested in it, the experience was exciting and something I would do again.  

It showed me the value of exploring new opportunities and embracing challenges. 

This year at BANG, we delivered our BANGIN’ Youth Club during the Easter break and it was a huge success! 

The youth club aimed to not only bring young people together but also provide them with the opportunity to develop new skills and undergo activities they may not have done before.  

Over the course of the two weeks, we ensured that the young people were able to undergo a large variety of activities.  

The youth club started off with icebreakers and ‘Emotional Resilience’ workshops, led by our interns.  

These sessions helped ease the young people, particularly those who were shy and struggled to make friends. It was a great start to the week, as the young people explored identifying and managing emotions and engaged in teamwork with activities such as role play and arts & crafts (e.g. constructing bridges out of everyday household materials).  

Furthermore, we had the wonderful opportunity to work with Princess Booker, Journey to Justice, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and CVS Brent.  

Words: Askahana