Young Minds

Young Minds in partnership with Makkah Mosque, organises outdoor activities for the youth, in particular an annual trip to either theme parks or Adventures. In August 2009, the students of Makkah Masjid and Madina Masjid made a trip to Blackwell Adventure.

It is believed that such trip provide young people with great learning opportunities. Outdoor experiences stimulate, inspire and prove learning is FUN. They help increase the youth’s confidence, encourage team work and build trust, develop leadership skills and responsibility. It is also a great way to overcome fears and have FUN!

Young Minds is committed to provide such programmes that will encourage the youth and children achieve their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials as individuals and as responsible members of their local, national and international communities.

With these aims in mind, this year Young Minds organized an adventure to  Blackwell Adventure. Below are some of the images from the trip.

The Woodsley Road Community Centre was the venue for a session on weapons awareness delivered by the Local Neighbourhood Police Team. The media spotlight on knife crime and the sharp rise in fatal attacks involving knives and guns made this a timely event.

Attented by over 20 local youth, the event brought home the very serious consequences of carrying and using weapons, particulalry knives. Through a series of graphic pictures and descriptions of incidents the police are frequently called up on to deal with, PC Guy was able to relate the horrific injuries and deaths casued by knives, guns and other improvised weapons.

The youngsters also had a chance to ask questions and raise their concerns. This gave an opportunity to clear up misconceptions around carrying weapons for self defence. No one was left in any doubt that this is a bad idea both beacuse it could lead to the weapon being used against you and also on account of the 2 year prison sentence that could follow an arrest for being in possession of a knife.

The livley and informative nature of the event also allowed the police to build a positive relationship with local youngsters and opened the way for future sessions to highlight problems of drugs abuse and anti-socail behviour, particulalry involving fireworks around Guy Fawkes night.

A free golf session was held on 16th August 2008 at Leeds Golf Centre for the young children. It was a wonderful experience for the children and they thoroughly enjoyed playing golf at the golf centre. For most of the children it was their first time of playing golf and we hope it would have raised their interest in the game.

We would also like to express our gratitude to the Leeds Golf Centre for accommodating a group of 20 youth.