February

The weather during February has been quite a bit milder than in the past few months. February has been a slip free month for us at Sidewalk! The better weather has meant that the skate park is back in use. It’s been good to head down there and chat to the young people that hang out there. The skate park has an amazing community feel to it, with everyone looking out for each other and everyone taking care of the skate park area. It’s really great to see the older and younger teenagers looking after each other down there and people from different areas of town just hanging out together. And watching what some of the skaters can do is definitely a highlight. 

One weekend through February in particular was amazing for me. In one weekend we saw 5 young people who recognised us from our work in St John’s Academy. It was really great because before this there hadn’t really been much overlap between the work on the streets and the work at the school. It was great when the young people that we’d met actively sought us out and spoke to us in the school because it felt like there was a much stronger link between the work that we do in the two different contexts.

Another February highlight would have to be the volunteers meeting at the end of the month. We had a good night chatting and praying together over situations that we’d encountered during the evening sessions and getting each other’s feedback on them. Also, as much as I dislike participating in role play, it was good to act out some situations to see how we react in them rather than chatting over what we would do in theory. It was also good to hear Malcolm’s views on situations and sessions he’d been in already as he’s one of the new volunteers going through training just now.