Challenge 2000 are back at Newlands Community Centre every Tuesday 3pm-5pm.
We had a few champion planes in our plane building competition today and we have a lot of exciting activities planned every Tuesday afternoon for the rest of 2016!!
If you and your friends are interested in checking it out – come along on a Tuesday after school!! It’s free!
Challenge 2000 will be holding holiday activity days these April school holidays. Spaces will be limited so please make sure you book in fast.
Wednesday 23rd April – ANZAC Commemoration Activity Day. This day will start off at Newlands Community Centre where we will bake some ANZAC biscuits to share with people, learn more about ANZAC and the significance it has to us today and then we will visit the War Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown solider. The day will begin at 9am and finish at 4pm. Spaces are limited to 25 young people aged from 10 – 18 years old.
Wednesday 30th April – Team Challenge Day. In teams we will have to face different challenges to see which team comes out on top! The day will begin here at Challenge 2000 at 9am and ends at 5pm. Spaces are limited to 30 young people aged from 10 – 18 years old.
If you would like more information or would like to register your young person, please contact Bridget Masoe on 477 0045.
The youth at Newlands Community Centre celebrated ANZAC Day by cooking up a storm! On Friday the 27th of April a group of guys and a group of girls each set out to bake a batch of ANZAC biscuits. Both groups showed great teamwork and problem solving skills. Each came across a different obstacle and managed to come up with a solution which resulted in yumminess! The four trays of golden biscuits smelt amazing and patience was tested all round whilst waiting for them to cool down. They were worth the wait! Looking forward to see what the young people can conjure up next.
On Friday 15th of April Challenge 2000 held the Newlands Community Centre Easter Egg Hunt. It was the last day of the school term and pouring down with rain but plenty of young people turned up to join in the festivities. We had 9 teams tied together by the legs, stumbling and crawling around the Newlands Community Centre as they raced to collect tokens to be redeemed for eggs. Everyone enjoyed themselves and a sweet chocolate egg or two.
It was a great way to end the terms after school activity programme that had seen 527 youth visits! A big thanks to Donna and Hinetai, the Newlands Community Centre staff and all those Youth Workers and Trainee Youth Workers involved that helped make it an outstanding term.
Tuesday, September 14th was a very exciting day for everyone involved in Challenge College: the stage at Newlands Community Centre turned into Verona Mall and the students and some staff members into Montagues and Capulets.
This term, Tuesday afternoons were — literally — all about drama!
Our project started in late July when the staff decided to stage a 15 minute version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Since it is quite hard to identify with the original characters and the ancient language, the students gave the play a modern touch by changing the lines using their own words. Rehearsals turned out to be more difficult than expected because we had to make several cast changes during the term.
Newlands Community Centre was the site of our last rehearsal and the performance. Everyone felt a little bit nervous and unsure about performing in front of the audience. At 1.30 the last guests – students’ families, Challenge 2000 staff members, a representative of the City Council and one from the Vodafone Foundation – arrived. We were pleased and relieved that our performance was so good, and so well received by the audience.
After that, our student Tyler, also known as Ty-1, impressed the audience by performing a few rap songs.
This term’s community work has been about getting the students at Challenge College to look outside of themselves and think of the community – from Johnsonville, to Wellington, New Zealand and globally! Our main focus on this theme has been to raise funds in support of the Kenbe La Foundation Source of Hope School in Haiti. We researched the tragedy and devastation the earthquake caused in Haiti, specifically looking at the story of Emily Sanson-Rejouis. The students got behind the idea of raising money to help the impoverished young people of Haiti get an education – we had a sausage sizzle, and as part of their other studies this term performed an extract from Romeo & Juliet which seemed to be a good way to raise even more money. Those that came to support were great, some even giving more than a gold coin entry fee to help us surpass our fundraising goal!
We are so proud of our students and we want to thank them for getting up on the stage even if it made them feel uncomfortable!
Tabea and Steffi
Term 2 afternoon activities have been firmly established at Newlands Community Centre!
Monday – Drama Club
Tuesday – Chill Out
Wednesday – Sports
Friday – Art Day
The weather has not stopped the young people from coming in and participating in the activities we have on offer – although it has had an affect on the activities we can do on Sports Day!
The team and I are looking forward to building on what we have started at Newlands Community Centre in Term 3. Thank you to all the young people who come along and join in on the fun, and also thanks to Donna from Newlands Community Centre who handles the chaos we create well!
Bridget Masoe
The Challenge 2000 holiday programmes at Newlands Community Centre began yesterday, Tuesday 06 July, with Games Day! There were 22 young people who ranged in age from 9 to 16 years old. We played games like: Balloon Stomp, A boat came into the Harbour (which tested everyone’s singing skills), Bang and Snakes and Ladders – to name but a few. In the afternoon we watched a movie to finish off a great day! Fun was had by all – couldn’t say who enjoyed it more, the staff or young people – but I do know that we are looking forward to Friday’s holiday programme, which incidentally is fully booked.
Bridget Masoe
Collage of the Festivities!
The weather may have been cold and wet on Saturday 29th May, but the spirit of Newlands Community was strong as many gathered together at the Newlands Community Centre to celebrate its 1st Birthday!!
There was plenty on during the day, and celebrations were opened by the Ahi Kaa – Puhiwahine Tibble gave a karanga and sung a waiata before Hone Tibble delivered a mihi before welcoming Mayor Kerry Prendergast who spoke to the crowd before cutting the very yummy cake!
Opening ceremony over – cue further celebrations! Many had a blast with the entertainment in the hall – where the stage was being run by Challenge 2000 staff. The awesome Classic Hits Breakfast Team – Dave and Camille – started the party and were our MCs for the morning. They did a fantastic job and even put some of the photos on their facebook page! Many thanks to you both, Dave and Camille! J Our afternoon MC was our very own multi talented Jamie McCaskill, who kept the audience going. There were lots of great give away prizes for the day, and the MC’s thought up creative ways for people to win them!
As for the entertainment — it began with a great performance from Newlands Primary School Celebration Chorus, then there was the skilled Ikram Singh, Ola Pasifika from Bishop Viard College were a stand out awesome act, Soul Sisters who captivated the audience with their beautiful melodic voices, Bass Runners who wowed everyone with a video and performance, Kali Kopae who has an amazing voice and is a great songwriter, The Tangle who closed the show brilliantly, and even a performance from a few of the GAP year participants from Challenge 2000!
Well done to all who organised such a great day for the community, those who participated on the day, and the wonderful Newlands Community who came and celebrated!
Bridget, Michelle, Tui and Kirsty
[wp_cycle]
Term One has been and gone in a flash, and in the blink of an eye we find ourselves at the start of Term Two, wondering where the months went. So, let’s take it back to the beginning of Term One, which is where this story begins… This is when we got an exciting new contract to provide youth services at the Newlands Community Centre!
We were set the task to provide a drop in centre three afternoons a week and at least one other afternoon where we were to offer a set activity to the awesome young people of Newlands community.
Towards the end of term one, we came up with a great concept of Opt in / Drop In. This meant that four days a week we would run the drop in centre, BUT also on those four days we would offer OPT In Activities. This meant that the young people chose whether they joined in on that particular activity by signing up on the activity sheet. We offered activities like Sports Day, Drama afternoon, Board games afternoon and even tried to set up a table tennis competition! It was slow to start, but we have had some great successes, like our Easter Egg Hunt on Wednesday March 31st! We even ran a couple of great school holiday programme days.
For the school holiday programmes we had an Amazing Race Day, where we had two teams guessing the rhyming riddles to get to different destinations around most of Wellington. The young people had a great time, with lots of different and creative photos to prove it. Our next holiday day programme was a sports day where we competed at Newlands Park and enjoyed a relaxing lunch at the Newlands Community Centre.
This term, we’re still offering the Opt in Activities with a few surprises thrown in. It’s a matter of growing what we have started and continuing to build on the activities we offer, showing the young people of Newlands our commitment to them.
We’ll keep you up to date with what is going on at the Newlands Community Centre – Youth Services.
Bridget, Michelle, Tui and Kirsty
This year has been busy and is flying by so quickly. We at Challenge 2000 are kept busy with running Individual programmes, Challenge College, Newlands Community Centre, youth group and other youth programmes, overnight camps, staff training, farewells and welcome-parties! In between staff have snatched some time to continue planning and goal setting for the rest of 2010.
We have a wonderful team of passionate, experienced and qualified youth, and social and community work staff, who are geared up to provide a variety of innovative, and holistic programmes for the young people and families who access our services.
We now have a new manager for our Youth and Family Centre. Congratulations, and welcome to your new role Tina.
Along with this, Challenge has gone through some structural changes. Bridget Roche has responsibility for operational management of Challenge while Kitty remains Challenge 2000’s leader and will continue to supervise the GAP programme, special projects, ministry and development, build partnerships with corporates and government and mentor senior staff.
