We took 21 young carers from across the county to Thorpe Woodlands adventure centre for 2 days of fun and activities. We were joined by 40 other young carers from across Norfolk.
Our young carers quickly bonded as they were allocated to their 5 person pods and it wasn’t long until they were sent off on their first activities or kayaking and low ropes, these were excellent activities and saw the young carers test their strength by paddling up the river and back again playing games along the way and then jumping into the freezing cold river at the end, we saw some impressive flips into the water. The low ropes course saw a test in team work, and our young carers did take a while to the hang of it, (but they had only just met each other) and team work prevailed in the end.
The evening brought more entertainment from a campfire story teller to an acoustic singer and fire breather. The singer was great and a big hit with the young carers, one of our young carers even got the chance to take to the mic herself, well done Phoebe.
The second day brought with it more lovely warm sunshine and activities. Our group took on Zip/wire and power fan. The zip lining was great and saw the young carers test their fear of heights as they launched themselves off down the zip wire, it was great fun and they all loved it. Although hesitant to begin with, they were flying through the skies by the end. Powerfan was another fun activity, instead of going along a zip line, you just drop down to the floor, attached to a rope. We saw some pretty funny landings, but again they had all mastered the dismount by the end of the session.
The festival was wrapped up by Siya, a motivational speaker. He spent time talking about his experience of Apartheid and how he was in prison with Nelson Mandela, he told us that despite all he went through he was not a victim he was a victor. He told our young carers to change the narrative and think positively about themselves. A few young carers were really moved by this talk.
The young Carers then had the opportunity to explore some information tables of different companies that had some to share with them, we had the UEA, Terrence Higgins Trust and a Police car came too.
Overall the young carers told us they had had a great time, they had formed new friendships and all hoped to do something similar again soon.
We would like to say a massive thank you to Howard Tidman and his team at NSFT and Tim and his team at Thorpe Woodlands for organising a really lovely 2 days.
