The Neighbourhood Forum were invited to this event by the members of team 116, and the chairman was pleased to attend, which was held at The Acocks Green Baptist Church.

It was a very encouraging and enjoyable experience, being the culmination of the all their hard work and challenges, which followed their 12 week course and resulted in the presentation of certificates for achievement.

These courses are part of an on-going programme of the Prince’s Trust who are in partnership with West Midlands Police and Solihull College and also supported by many local businesses and agencies. Some of our local concerns who supported this initiative, were Sainsburys, Westley Hotel, Waitrose, Earlswood Nurseries, Jeffries Hardware, Cannon Hill Park Tea rooms presented a boat, Robert Wilkinson’s Funfairs donated 10 ton of sand, P.J. Rhodes, ASDA, Swan Trio, Severn Road School, Fox Hollies Children’s Centre, Acocks Green Baptist Church, Super News, Topshop, Jewsons Builders Merchants, Acocks Green Lions, Corus Hotels, Holiday Inns, La Tasca restaurant, Martell Timber Ltd, Gamestation, Soft Brick, Halfords Ltd and Willie Thorne.

The Prince’s Trust was formed in 1976, to help and support young people in achieving their potential and lead into training for education and job opportunities.

All the team were given skills, work training and experiences. They were able to develop relationships whilst working in teams and take up challenges at their time at an outdoors pursuit centre in Wales.

The team raised £2500, to support a number of projects in the community, Bag Packing at Sainsburys, Car Washes, Guess the number of sweets in a jar and arranged to raise bail monies for the release of’ Willie Thorne’ the snooker player, who entered in this fun event with enthusiasm. Some of the projects were building a beach play area for the Fox Hollies Children centre, meal out experiences, visits to a cinema and coffee mornings, for elderly residents.

Some of the team members reported that they had experienced earlier difficulties in their lives, but enthused that the course and experiences gave them opportunities to plan ahead and to improve their confidences. This was most evident from each of their personal presentations.

What was highlighted was the many challenges that we face in our communities, not least those that face many of our young people.

If you are in the age range 16 to 25, not in education, employment or training and reside in the Birmingham East Area and you may be interested to join the course in January 9th 2012, please do contact team leaders: PC Stuart Toogood or PCSO Fae Palmer on 07767749684.

This was a worthwhile achievement which challenged us to share and promote this good practice.