Written by Selvi, Young Voice Volunteer
At the end of February 2024, the Young Voices group embarked on our first residential of the year in South Yorkshire. It was three days of fun, friendships, and fearlessness! It provided the opportunity for members of the group to travel from the four corners of the country to come together and develop key skills such as teamwork, communication and problem solving, as well as work on our projects for the year to improve the lives of blind and partially sighted people.
The residential was filled with diverse activities and many productive and riveting group sessions. Some of the most memorable physical activities we did include the high-speed zip-line which some of us managed an impressive 12 times! Another stand-out activity was the incredible 3G swing but the ultimate reason we were there was to organise our two main projects the group will focus on this year.
Amidst all the enthralling activities, the Young Voices also held many group discussions regarding our next large project. We began by examining the issues we encountered as blind and partially sighted young people and tried to think of tangible solutions for each one. This led to us discovering patterns and we were able to categorise these into areas such as transport, sports and retail. During the last meeting of the weekend, we decided one of our projects would focus on sports and the rules surrounding classification of VI athletes being able to compete internationally. Our second project would focus on retail and the accessibility within shopping centres, especially around signage and finding assistance.
The Sport project’s main goal is to convince large sporting governing bodies to allow people who have a classification of B4 and B5 to compete internationally in all sports as currently only those with a classification of B1-B3 are typically allowed. We decided to tackle this issue as the Paralympics and other large-scale international competitions, are supposed to be a place where all disabled athletes are allowed to compete. Therefore, leaving out a minority of this community does not fulfil what the Paralympics and sport more broadly represent.
Retail was decided as a focus because as a group of young people, our local shopping centres and retail spaces are where many of us go to socialise and hang out with friends in our spare time. Listening to each other’s experiences in retail spaces, we decided there were many issues regarding accessibility such as inaccessible signage and maps, not being able to find assistance and a lack of braille/tactile materials to support navigation.
We ended the weekend with two great project ideas to move forward with and the decision that the larger group of 10 Young Voices would split into two sub-teams to tackle the two project focuses over the coming months. We have two Young Voices Young Leaders who are the sub-team leaders for each group, driving the projects forward with the support of TPT staff.
The weekend was not all work and no play, we got the opportunity to take part in some really exciting activities throughout the weekend which included a mix of team building skills and enthralling rides. The 3G Swing was an example of both teamwork and fun. We took it in turns, two at a time to be harnessed and strapped into the structures. Then, the Young Voices group had to pull the ropes to lift the pair in the harness off the ground to the top. Once this was accomplished, everyone enjoyed a well-deserved break from hoisting people up to the top and got to witness the swing in its full form with the two being hoisted releasing themselves and enjoying a thrilling drop and swing forward and back. The problem-solving tasks also helped to develop our teamwork, communication, and creativity with us being tasked with constructing bridges to get the team from one side to the other, as well as carrying people through a spider web-like structure without touching the rope.
All in all, we had a fantastic weekend with the mixture of fun activities and group planning sessions. We all left the weekend excited to move our projects forward and can’t wait for our next Young Voices residential in the summer!
Find out more about our Young Voices project to make retail more accessible for blind and partially sighted people, in this blog written by Samih one of our volunteers!
Find out more about 'Make Retail Accessible: A Young Voices Project'Learn all about our Young Voices Breaking Barriers in Sport campaign and how you can get involved to make a difference for blind and partially sighted people in sport.
Find out more about 'Breaking Barriers in Sport: A Young Voices Project'Find out more about our Student Voices and Young Voices volunteer groups.
Find out more about 'Student Voices and Young Voices'Discover what our Student Voices and Young Voices volunteers have been up to and what great work they have been doing.
Find out more about 'What the Student Voices and Young Voices Have Been Doing'
