Life Story Launch

On Friday 22nd May at Balsall Heath Church Centre, Balsall Heath Children’s Centre and Balsall Heath Extended Schools Cluster celebrated the life stories of parents and young people. The stories had been captured, recorded and finally published with the help of First People Consultants, and final designs done by Heathan Publications. The day was organised as a means of acknowledging and celebrating the life journeys of parents and young people, many of which have been traumatic, and as a thank you for taking part in the project.

A variety of organisations were invited along to offer young people/parents advice, guidance and support on a number of topics.

Saheli Gym, a local Community Hub offering health, fitness and healthy lifestyle sessions attended and provided a great session with dance mats. All those taking part were given a goody bag, which promoted healthy lifestyles. The young people/parents and their children laughed all the way through the activity as they did their best to coordinate the dance steps to up to date dance tracks.

Two health & beauty consultants from The Wright Way Salon in Acocks Green came along and gave advice on nail care. Parents and young people received a mini manicure, had their nails painted and were given a manicure set. This incentive also attracted a male from a neighbouring stall to participate, which encouraged other young males to take an interest and have their nails done too.

Jericho Project was on hand giving advice and guidance on how to access their community initiatives, which help young people gain skills and experience in order to return to work. A lot of interest was shown and several young people signed up for the initiative. Kingshurst Training offered advice on returning to study and offer programmes at the Kings Christian Centre, Ombersley Road.

Chris Sutton, from the Balsall Heath History Society showed us how to trace our ancestry and gave advice on how to find long lost relatives. This was the first time the Children’s Centre had this topic and again it proved of great interest to those taking part.

Penny Jane, a community artist delivered arts & craft session and using the theme of day the young people/parents produced denim collages, which they decorated with ribbons, sequins and fabric pens, which will later be hung as a wall display in the Centre. Other activities included making wooden spoon dolly puppets. Penny delivers a weekly session called Start Art at the Balsall Heath Initiative Centre and would welcome more members to join.

Balsall Heath Children’s Centre Early Years Team provided Crèche to support the launch, so that the young parents that brought their babies and children along could fully relax and experience the full benefits of the day.

Other organisations included: Brook, Including Women, HYPE (drug awareness), Breast Awareness which supported young people with more personal issues and were on hand through out the day to offer advice.

Some young parent’s comments were:
“Very good, I really enjoyed very much; you should do things like this more often.” and
“Really good, I enjoyed it, nail art, Penny art; my daughter enjoyed it as well.”

Claire, one of Balsall Heath Children’s Centre young parents, wrote and bravely read a poem, which reflected her life as a young single parent, bringing up her son T,J. at the launch, she has also had her story published. Another young parent had prepared a diary extract of her life to be told in The Heathan.

On the day, a professional photographer took free family portraits, which are in the process of being developed and everyone who had them taken will be invited into the centre to pick them up in due course.

If you would like to receive a copy of the stories or require further information about the services we provide for young people and parents please contact Angela McNicholas 0121 464 6349.

Click this link to see more photos from the Launch