Throughout the month of August, Southend YMCA hosted a free Summer
Programme at Leigh Community Centre for children aged 8-12 years old.
The programme was funded through the Department for Education’s Holiday
Activity Fund in Partnership with Southend Borough Council included many
fun activities such as sports, music, games, art and historical walks around
the town of Leigh-on-sea.
One of these activities has made a permanent impression in the heart of
Leigh-on-sea with a colourful mural painted by the young participants
alongside the guidance of local artist Darren Jones. The painting was
completed during 5 sessions over the 4 weeks of the Summer Programme
and was set in place during the last days of the month.
Aptly named “A View of Leigh-On-Sea” this huge piece of art is made up of
136 20cmx20cm squares of painted paper using only the primary colours as
the young artists learnt how to mix the paints the make the secondary colours
and shades that appear off the painting.
You can visit this spectacular art installation in full view by visiting Leigh
Community Centre’s ‘Lorna & Lottie’s Cafe’ in which it takes full pride on
public display outside their window.
Each week a different Southend YMCA Youth Commissioner joined in to help
with the activities. They were Eugene Vlas, Marion Simakungwe, Emily Harris
and Rachel Roach.
Another firm favourite of the weekly activities was the “Historical Walks of
Leigh” supplied by Paul Carver and Zoe Nolan of Carver Tours. Exploring
Leigh’s rich historical past of local seafarers, witches and royal visits to name
just a few highlights form these fantastic and informative tours.
Paul Carver (Carver Tours) - “We are so pleased and proud that Southend
YMCA asked us to take the children on a tour. They amazed us with their
own facts and remembered so much for the quiz finale."
Southend YMCA would like say a very special thank you to Leigh Town
Council and their amazing team of caretakers Richard, Micheal, David and
Lewis who were with Southend YMCA every step of the way. And extra
appreciate to all the staff at Lorna & Lottie’s Cafe who provided the delicious
hot meals for all the children.
We've had some wonderful feedback from our staff and partners in the project:
Davey Hal (SYMCA Music Tutor/Creative Arts Youth Worker) - “They are so
proud of their collaborative work and so are we! It’s the cherry on top to such
a great month of positive activities with all this awesome kids.”
Darren Jones (Resident Artist) - “I’m so happy to have had the opportunity to
create this piece with the Southend YMCA, it was an honour and pleasure to
be a part of.”
Paul Carver (Carver Tours) - “We are so pleased and proud that Southend
YMCA asked us to take the children on a tour. They amazed us with their
own facts and remembered so much for the quiz finale!” (Facebook -
@CarverTours)
And, most importantly, from our young people (make sure you scroll through and read them all):
Our volunteer Youth Commissioners were also involved in the project:
Emily Harris
"During the holidays I took part in the summer programme at the Leigh
Community Centre. We offered lots of different activities ranging from arts
and craft, pool and darts, and at the end of the week a history tour of Leigh. I
really enjoyed working with the young people and helping them with their own
projects whether that be as a mug stand while someone developed their
artistic masterpiece or as Colonel Mustard in Cluedo. Most of all I enjoyed the
walking tour of Leigh and learning more about our rich local history. One
aspect I will always be grateful for is the opportunity to have learnt from the
kids who attended in both practical aspects such table tennis and more
abstract lessons of the importance of play."
Marion Simakungwe
"I had a great experience working at the YMCA’s Summer Club
Programme, I set up games for the young people to enjoy and worked
on various art projects, including mug painting and a big art piece for the
Leigh Community Centre cafe. It was great to be able to do activities in
person this year and it was lovely to see the young people having fun
and making new friends.
My favourite part of the programme would definitely have to be the art
projects. To my surprise I loved the mug painting, as Davey had set up a
‘Mystery Mug’ activity where we given a random theme and had to paint
anything relating to the theme. I had even spent a full day just painting
mugs, having become fully qualified in painting bees! Some of the young
people even got involved in setting up and directing interviews, during
which they spoke with Darren and some of their friends about their time
at the Youth Club and what they enjoyed most about it. I thoroughly
enjoyed my time at the Youth Club and would 100% recommend it for
anyone interested in joining in the future."
Eugene Vlas
"The summer programme brought to me the pleasure of being able to spend the day playing games, doing activities and talking with the lovely attendees throughout the week! It was a great way to spend the day with a highlight definitely being the collaborative painting and some intense games of ‘Uno’.
I am grateful to be a part of the summer programme this year and hope everyone else enjoyed their time there."
Rachel Roach
"I really enjoyed getting to meet all the young people through various activities like
pool, table tennis, badminton, art, cards and board games. This was insightful and
would spark conversations involving how they didn’t feel confident to do something or
how the young person learnt how to play that activity and sharing their fond memories.
The young people would teach me different card games and some I haven’t played
since I was a young person myself! It was nice to see some of the young people were
excited and enjoyed meeting new people and making new friends. I liked how all the
young people participated and enjoyed the Art project of the Leigh mural and engaged in the Historical walks around Leigh on sea.
The best part about the historical walks was seeing how much historical knowledge
the young people had about Leigh on sea, that they were not shy to ask questions and
how much fun they had seeing all the different places."
Well done everyone!! What a fantastic achievement.