It’s been a very busy term and as you’ll see there’s been little in the way of updates so here we go…

This term we have been visiting Warnham and Coldwaltham in the Horsham District and Northchapel and Wisborough Green in Chichester. We have had a great time with young people in each of these communities and been able to strike a good balance of education and recreation throughout the term.

In Warnham we have a really lively group of young people from 12 up to 19 who have all taken part in  activities. From an anti-bullying photo project to monopoly and uni-cycles we’ve not stopped!

In Coldwaltham we have an older group who have grown out of the junior club in their village but still need somewhere to go and something to do. They have organised their own film night and raised money for an end of term outing. We’ll be sad to say good bye.

Young people in Northchapel have also helped to arrange and end of term trip. For theirs they agreed to earn ‘points’ which reward and encourage positive behaviour. Those with enough points are able to attend the trip. Other highlights in Northchapel have been T-shirt printing, discussions and the winning of a youth arts award for their rap and animation DVD. Great stuff!

Finally Wisborough Green: Here we have seen as many as 20 young people crambed onto the Purple Bus taking part in one activity or another. Because of the popularity of the Bus we are working with the Parish Council who are proactive and positive about addressing the need in their village. For this reason we will stay in Wisborough green next term as with Warnham, working with the local community to meet the needs of their young people.

That leaves space for two new projects. These have been identified as Kirdford and Amberley. We can’t wait to get started!

There will be a new Purple Bus project manager from January as Jonny is moving to the Sylvia Beaufoy youth Centre in Petworth where he will still be involved in the managment of Purple Bus projects. He is sad to see his time working directly on the Bus come to an end but looks forward to the challenges ahead.

It’s been a very busy summer on the Purple Bus. We started the holidays with the Spring-Line residential week away which involved young people taking part in workshops in traditional conservation skills. Then there was the mobile Skate park in Petworth followed by Road Show events in Cowfold, Pulborough, Slinfold, Billingshurst and Storrington and evening sessions in Petworth as part of the Hope-Petworth week. It’s been great trundling around in the Bus meeting new young people as well as catching up with old ‘Purple Bus friends’ and meeting some parents and younger siblings too.

Mean while back at Purple Bus HQ Colleen is working away putting our Autumn term’s programme together, sending off Partnership agreements and posters to Parish Councils and setting up the projects on our computer system. And they call this the ’summer break’!

Today was our third and last day at the Sustainability Centre in East Meon. We have one more day to go which will be at the Weald and Downland museum in Singleton. The group have had a great time learning a whole host of skills during the workshops and enjoying each others company away from home.

I may have ventured out of the county to East Meon this week but Some of my colleagues have ventured further a field. Click here to visit their blog and keep up with the adventure

After day one of this years Spring-Line - week away we’re all still alive! The group have had a tour of the Sustainability Centre, taken part in fire lighting/survival skills workshop and cleared a section of woodland brash. Of course there was the obligatory game of footy and a Mario Kart tournament too! The week is all about giving a small group of young people a chance to try various conservation skills.

The hostel is named the Wetherdown hostel and the ‘weather’ has certainly come down at several points today. Spirits were not dampened though and all are looking forward to tomorrows activitie

We are nearly at the end of another busy term on the Purple Bus. Dan, Gemma Kirsty and Jonny have worked in five very different villages this term, working with communities and teenagers with all sorts of different needs.

A highlight of the term has been a project called ‘Animated Me’ which has seen young people in both Northchapel and Storrington participate in rap and computer animation workshops. The initiative is a partnership project with Poems & Puddings and aims to give young poems new skills and opportunities to express themselves. The photo above shows young people getting stuck in with Mark and Paul using computer software and simple pen and paper to get creative.

We have packed summer coming up to with Roadshows in Pulborough, Billingshurst, Slinfold and Storrington as well as a ‘Playday’ event in Camelsdale , five evenings in Petworth and a week away with five lads from Rogate. Our busiest summer for some time!

Next term is shaping up too. It’s looking like we’ll be visiting Warnham, Coldwaltham, Wisborough Green and Northchapel. Once our summer programme is over we’ll take a breath and gear up for a productive and enjoyable autumn term.

The Purple Bus has been visiting Amberley this term. There is a small but very lively group of young people there who have enjoyed visiting the Bus and taking part in a variety of activities. Being a small, isolated, rural community Amberley is not able to provide much for their teenagers and transport to larger towns is difficult. So to give them a unique opportunity to get out of their village and meet other teenagers and try new things, we took the group away camping to Lodge Hill on a weekend event organised by Sussex Clubs for Young People.

The weekend involved canoeing. high zip, climb tower, camp craft, mountain biking, midnight-manhunt, as well as all the usual fun of a few days under canvas. The group met new friends and were able to try new things, building self confidence and gaining life-skills. Well worth the effort!

The Purple Bus team welcome a new member Kirsty, who is working on a Wednesday night and already getting used to trundling around in the Bus looking for young people who need somewhere to go and something to do! We have had a great start to the term already with lots of new teenagers accessing the project in our new summer term locations.

For the Summer term 2009 we are visiting…

• Northchapel Monday 7-9pm, at the Village Hall
• Loxwood Tuesday 7-9pm, at North Hall
• Storrington Wednesday 7-9pm, at the Chanctonbury Leisure Centre
• Billingshurst Thursdays 3-5pm near the station
• Amberely Thursday 7-9pm at the Primary School
• We also run sessions with tutor groups Chichester College, Brinsbury Campus so if you’re at the college there then keep your ear to the group for more details!

We are currently making plans for the Autumn term so if your rural community needs the Purple then contact me with the details on the ‘contact’ page.

The Purple Bus stepped in at Pulborough when we heard that their youth club was out of action due to water damage from a burst pipe. The staff and young people made us feel really welcome and over the term we looked at a range off issues that were affecting the young people there.

Last night was our final session in Pulborough so we celebrated with party poppers, food and fun! We also had a think about what had gone well over the term and what had stuck in peoples’ minds. As well as the Baby Borrowers, Sex ed, drug & alcohol activities, one of the club members commented that he had ‘never had so much fund Learning!’ Gemma and I took this as the highest possible compliment because we are constantly striving to get the right balance of recreation and education. So here’s to next term and hopefully more of the same!

This term on the Purple Bus amongst other things young people have been taking part in activities based around the BBC televions series ‘The Baby Borrowers’. The BBC education department kindly supplied staff with a pack of resources including DVDs and photocopyable resources. Each session in the pack looks at a differenent aspect of relationships and parenthood. The TV series look at how different teenage couples coped with living together and looking after someone elses child 24/7!

The sessions have brought up lots off issues and provoked much healthy debate so we hope to repeat the activies in more communities next term.

To find out more about The Purple Bus click on the ‘pages’ links on the left hand side.