FUNK in the BAY at the International Play Association Make a Noise Day in Cardiff
In early July a group of young people from FUNK in the BAY (Play Torbay’s Advisory Board) travelled all the way to Cardiff – very early in the morning – to support children’s right to play and join in the ‘Make a Noise for Play’ celebration. For weeks the Quest team including Joe, Riddle Master and Riddlers: Alice, Jo, Darren, Alma, Ayesha, Leah and Shawn have been meeting to put together the Quest for the Missing Dragon. A quest is a treasure hunt with a difference. In this quest each quester was given a ‘Quest Pass’ with the instruction that to find the dragon they would have to undertake a series of challenges, for which they would be given a special stamp in their Quest Pass. The challenges ranged from cracking codes, detecting visual clues, making a special dragon caller, and successfully finding the missing dragon.
Over 400 delegates from all over the world attended the International Play Conference, and a number joined the quest with children from all over Wales. And although it rained, and it can rain in Wales, everyone really enjoyed the challenge. One delegate said it was the best workshop all week!
Special thanks must go to:
Kate Green, local community artist for helping FUNK to devise the story and providing lots of props
Sarah Tranter, community artist, Bristol for designing and making the fantastic red dragon
Carmen and Marita, parents, who have been AMAZING. They have provided:
- food
- transport
- translation of the dragon story in French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Swedish and Welsh!
- Hundreds of photos!
- And most of all lots and lots of support and good vibes!
Ladies, we couldn’t have done it without you.
FUNK in the BAY
Mission:
The defined areas of focus for the board are:
- To explore how children and young people of different ages play and try and work out a way to grow mutral respect.
- Helping to design and build play spaces
- Developing their own ideas for adventures and play
FUNK in the BAY is chaired by Sam Gregory, aged 9 and vice chair Zanalee Jago, aged 14.
FUNK in the BAYs Chair Sam Gregory
The agreed plans and roles for forthcoming project work are:
FUNK in the BAY have been offered a mission to design and deliver a quest at the International Play Conference in Cardiff in July 2011. To learn more about their quest, please click here.
The challenge has been accepted by 9 members of FUNK aged 9-14 who have already begun with an ideas workshop and a visit to Cardiff to explore the setting for their quest.
FUNK in the BAY have also been asked to document and support delivery of GO ADVENTURES – and epic six day adventure being delivered by five of Torbay’s leading Outdoor Education providers at the beginning of the summer holidays 2011. 3 FUNK members are going to help deliver the offer and further 4 are going to document the adventure.
FUNK in the BAY is about 20 strong at present, made up of a diverse group of children and young people from across Torbay – currenlty 8 of the young people involved in the project are disabled, 5 of the young people involved are Looked After Children. Children and young people self refer or are supported in referral by partner agencies through being involved with Play Torbay projects; Adventure Play in the Bay and Creative Play Journeys.
FUNK in the BAY will be using this page to report on evolution of both Adventure Play in the Bay and Creative Journeys – contact us if you want to get your feedback and ideas for the projects to them.
FUNK in the BAY has recently completed a consulation with disabled children and young people producing and Aiming High, Torbay DVD which demonstrates that the need exists and how disabled young people would like to be involved.
Last summer 2010 their predecessor group FUNK (Film Us Now Krew) raised funds to submit a bid to TOFFY (Torbay Opportunity Fun for Young People). For more information on what happened to Film Us No Krew download the PDF here.