Report from Jonathon Marlow

The latest Princes Trust team can look back with pride on their achievements!

Patrick Woods, Ben Hyman, Billy Tedford and James McGowan - pictured here with Mayor Neil Furey at their recent presentation night - completed a three night team building residential at Opendoor Adventure in St. Asaph, N Wales where they became a real team by completing a series of activities that put their skills to the test.

They undertook fundraising to complete three projects in the community - helping the Park Rangers build an educational zone at Coronation Park, renovating areas of the Derby Centre's garden and also repairing an outside area of The Civic.

Each student had an individual placement including West End Primary School, the Queens Head Pub (!), Waterstones and Matalan's head office, which allowed them to gain valuable experience and a reference they can use for future employment.

And events they organised involved taking the elderly out from different care homes on trips out that included Hope View Sensory Farm and Southport Pier. They also arranged activities at the care homes that included baking, arts and crafts and games.

And young people aged 16-25 are being invited to join one of Skelmersdale and Ormskirk's next Prince’s Trust teams.

Prince’s Trust programmes offer young people aged 16-25 a unique opportunity to get into employment, education or training. During the programme learners are able to try new things and learn how to work with others, take part in community and residential projects, gain valuable work experience and plan their future.

The programme is 12 weeks long and begins on Monday the 25th of September. The course is an amazing confidence boost for young people who may have struggled with social interaction or simply want to learn new skills for future jobs. Enjoying things like exciting activity days, adventure residentials - free of charge, trips out, CV building, fantastic interview experience, fundraising activities and much more. The project gives young people something interesting to talk about at future interviews and looks great on a CV.

Over the last 40 years, 800,000 people have benefited directly from the charity and Skelmersdale and Ormskirk are proud to have been host to 60 Prince’s Trust teams which have seen over 600 learners successfully complete the programme with many learners progressing into further education, training or employment. The free course is appropriate for a range of people and additional support is offered to those who require it; taking part in the programme will not affect any benefits.

There are still places available on the next 12 week development courses, with Skelmersdale and Ormskirk Teams starting on Monday 25th September - call Jonathon on 07870 168529 for Ormskirk and Ben on 07500 606740 for Skelmersdale to find out how you can join our award winning team with fantastic opportunities.