Twinning Youth Exchange 2018

Tonight we made a super choir with our friends from #Rheinfelden #Fecamp #Mouscron

Such a fun rehearsal, hope our visitors enjoyed.

Big thanks to @vysvale @VOGCouncil @Leightonrowland pic.twitter.com/vlYMttq95m

— BarryMaleVoiceChoir (@BarryMaleVoice) July 30, 2018

As well as being a exhausting, it has been up to now a very successful week! Despite the initial rain and the German's flight being delayed, we all arrived safely and started introductions.  We play many games to learn everyone's name and nationalities, and before long we were speaking as well established friends.

The first day kicked off with lots of language activities and team building games, and the afternoon was dedicated to Welsh culture.  We went to Cardiff Bay and had a tour of the Senedd before arriving at the Civic Offices in Barry to have the official welcome by the Vale Mayor, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Learning & Culture.  We went to Barry Island for chippy and then visited the Barry Male Voice Choir - "Delilah" has now become the anthem of the trip!

On Tuesday we started preparing for our big art mural and collecting ideas for the project.  We settled on a design that included landmarks from the Vale, Fecamp, Mouscron & Rheinfelden and wanted to include the colours of the flags.  Young people and the graffiti artists from The Hold Up will now start working on this project.  In the afternoon we went on a small DofE walk to show of the countryside in the Vale of Glamorgan and it's natural beauty!

Wednesday followed with some graffiti work, DJ-ing, beat boxing and street dancing.  It gave us the opportunity to try new things and improve our skills. In the afternoon we visited St Fagans Museum and went on the high ropes at Coed Lan.  We were able to show off our Welsh heritage and after the museum we went for a very British carvery.  Nobody had heard of a carvery before but they all enjoyed it!

Even though we are only half way through the Twinning Youth Exchange, we foresee this week being a tremendous success!! There are no issues with language and everyone is getting along and making friends!  We have put a lot of effort into welcoming our Twinning friends and can't wait for the rest of the week!

On we go!
Continuons!
Los Gehts!

Vale AGM

Last night we attended the Vale of Glamorgan Annual General Meeting.  At the meeting the newly elected councillors elected a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor for 2017-2018.

The Vale councillors also elected a new Leader of the Council who then announced the new Cabinet and their responsibilities which are set out in portfolios.

After the meeting we spoke to some of the newly elected Councillors.  It was great to promote the Youth Cabinet to the new Youth Champion who is also Deputy Vale Mayor, the new Leader of the Council and the new Cabinet Member for Education and Culture.

We are looking forward to our first joint meeting with the new Cabinet this term.

HM Lord Lieutenant

Tonight we attended a reception for the HM Lord Lieutenant of South Glamorgan at the Mayor's Parlour.  We would like to thank the Mayor of the Vale, Cllr Stuart Egan, for inviting us to the reception where HM Lord Lieutenant, Mrs Morfudd Ann Meredith was officially welcomed to the role.

We met representatives and ambassadors of residents living in the Vale such as the Deputy Mayor of the Vale, Mayor of Llantwit and HM Deputy Lord Lieutenant.  It was great to represent young people at the event and promote the work of the Youth Cabinet and Vale Youth Forum.

Did you know? - HM Lord Lieutenant is appointed by the Queen and is a representative of the Queen.  It is the Lord Lieutenant's responsibility to organise all Royal visits to the local area and escort any member of the Royal Family on the day of the visit.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lord-lieutenant-of-south-glamorgan-morfudd-meredith.

Congratulations Emojis!

I was honoured to attend the Emoji's presentation evening on behalf of the Vale Mayor on Thursday 15th December at the YMCA Hub, Barry.  It was amazing to meet the young people who have been involved in the project and have completed a 10-week course focusing on improving their confidence and self-esteem.

The Director of Learning and Skills and the Head of the Youth Service were also at the event and we all got to present young people with their certificates and watched a video showcasing the work they've been involved in.  We then enjoyed a lovely buffet and I got to play some pool and table tennis with the young people and their families.

Congratulations everyone!

Civic Celebrations!

We would like to thank the Mayor of the Vale of Glamorgan, Councillor Stuart Egan for inviting the Youth Cabinet to attend his Civic Celebration on Saturday 10th September 2016 at Barry Memorial Hall.  It was a fantastic event where the new Mayor pledged his commitment to supporting residents of the Vale of Glamorgan.

There were special performances from young musicians from the Vale including High Street Primary School Choir, Sophie Egerstorm, Monika Stadler, Verity Belle Atkinson and the Youth Theatre Company Stage Door One.  Speeches were given by HM Deputy Lieutenant Mr Colin Jones QPM, CFtJ, DL and the Mayor himself.

It was a great celebration and we learnt more about the Mayor, his life and what he plans to do in his role.  The Mayor will be supporting two charities during his term of office: The Penarth and District Lesotho Trust and The Llandough Orchard Charity Project and we hope to support them in any way we can.

Celebrations!

Today was our last full day in Mouscron. We began the day with the official opening ceremony of La Grange by the Mayor.  We celebrated the work we had done throughout the week and the relationships we have built with the young people from our twin towns.  The opening ceremony began with the Mayor giving a speech congratulating us on our work and expressing his admiration for how we, from different cultures, and countries have come together and worked effectively as a group to complete our youth project.

#















At lunch we had a barbecue to celebrate our work. A lot of the young people helped to prepare the food for the barbecue. There was a variety of fresh foods and drinks, which gave us an opportunity to socialise with the new friends that we have made, in addition to decision makers in Mouscron.

We then walked from La Grange, to a bowling alley 10 minutes away where we played an enjoyable game of 10 pin bowling.  After this we celebrated our night with an extremely enjoyable party, as a farewell to our new found friends. We're sad to be leaving and will miss all of our new friends from Rheinfelden, Mouscron & Fécamp. It's been an amazing week!

http://www.notele.be/list70-les-reportages-de-notele-sur-I-entite-de-mouscron-media44240-les-ados-des-villes-jumelles-sont-dans-la-place.html.

Bienvenue a Mouscron!

Today was our first day of the youth camp in Mouscron, Belgium, one of the Vale's twin towns, along with young people from Mouscron, Rheinfelden and Fécamp. We all met with the mayor of Mouscron and cabinet member Kathy who welcomed us to Belgium. We visited the old Mouscron town hall and we were given a tour of the new  civic offices.

We then went to work at La Grange, the garden dedicated to the Twinning Project. We have really enjoyed the different aspects of woodwork that we have learnt in order to build benches for the garden. The young people from Mouscron also hosted an evening of fun games and as a result we were able to get to know the other young people at the camp. Bon nuit from us all!

A new Mayor for the Vale!

Last night, we attended the Vale of Glamorgan Council's annual meeting where a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor for the Vale was announced.  The new Mayor is Cllr Stuart Egan and the Deputy is Cllr Edward Williams.  Congratulations to both and we look forward to working with you!