Tag: MYDg

Anyone for tennis? Murray mania to hit Muirhouse!

Tennis is popping up in Muirhouse!

tennis racquetMuirhouse Youth Development Group (MYDG) has been selected as part of a nationwide programme to bring Pop Up Tennis to disadvantaged young people.

The programme was established by national sports charity, StreetGames with one hundred Pop Up Tennis Clubs across the UK being funded by Lawn Tennis Association. This activity will enable the young people of Muirhouse to emulate the excitement of Wimbledon and get involved by playing tennis this summer.

Last summer, Andy Murray became Britain’s first men’s winner in 77 years and the country exploded with Murray-mania. This partnership aims to harness that excitement and help disadvantaged young
people get involved by creating clubs that are fun and vibrant. By holding the sessions on their doorsteps, the programme aims to help encourage a sporting a habit for life.

The programme follows on from the success of the 2013 partnership between StreetGames and the Lawn Tennis Association where 25 Pop-Up Tennis Clubs were created, engaging 720 young people from around the country. This year, the LTA has backed StreetGames to extend the programme so that thousands more will get the chance to play the sport with the Lawn Tennis Association funding the activity taking place in the UK, including young people from MYDG.

This partnership is a continuation of StreetGames’ work to make sport more accessible to young people living in disadvantaged communities. Currently there are 1.6 million young people who live in disadvantaged areas of the UK; recent research shows lowest-income households are most likely to have least active children, with the poorest households spending less than £2 a week on sport. StreetGames hope to combat this by getting young people engaged with Wimbledon and developing a sporting habit.

Ali Grant of MYDG said, “We’re really excited to be given a StreetGames Pop-Up Tennis Club. We now have a ‘sport-in- a- bag’ that we can take out onto the streets and green spaces of Muirhouse. Our Pop-Up Tennis Club has all the kit we need to get young people started playing tennis. So, look out for us over the summer holidays. Who knows, we might find the next Andy Murray right here in Muirhouse!”

Jane Ashworth OBE, CEO of StreetGames said, “Andy Murray’s triumph showed how sport can bring the nation together, we aim to take that inspiration and ensure disadvantaged young people can experience it on their own doorsteps. We know that the Pop-Up Tennis Clubs makes tennis fun for all and bring the excitement of Wimbledon to Muirhouse, Edinburgh.”

Michael Downey, Chief Executive of the LTA said: “Last year the StreetGames Pop-Up Tennis programme was a resounding success, bringing tennis to the doorstep to hundreds of young people across the country. We want to see more people playing more often which is why we’re very excited to extend the programme further, so even more young people can enjoy tennis this summer.”

Babolat, a leading global manufacturer of premium tennis equipment is also helping bring the Nadal touch to the young people’s lives by supplying rackets, balls and mini tennis nets for this year’s Pop Up Tennis programme.

Come on, Andy …!

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Muirhouse youth group plan to make a splash

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Support MYDG’s swimathon!

Muirhouse Youth Development Group (MYDG) will be taking part in a 24 hour fundraising Swimathon on Thursday 3 April and they could use your support.

MYDG’s Operational Manager Dean Shanks explained: “Money raised will support field trips, outdoor activities and MYDG’s commonwealth summer sports programme.

“You can pick up a sponsor form from MYDG’s office in Craigroyston Community High School or the Community Shop on Pennywell Road. Alternatively, you can make a donation online at our justgiving site which will be up and running tomorrow and I will forward on a link to everyone then. You can also come along and swim or volunteer to help with the running of the event!”

MYDG is based at Craigroyston Community High School

Telephone: 0131 332 3356

Website: www.mydg.org.uk

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Sun shines on MY’s Youthwork Games

Good luck to all the participants who will be taking part in the Youth Games over the next two days. The story:

Following the enormous success of My Adventure’s  first ‘Youthwork Games’ inspired by the 2012 London Games, we are proud to announce that we will be hosting the games on 24th and 25th July 2013. These games are targeted at youth projects to encourage young people not engaged in mainstream sporting activities to compete in a series of outdoor adventure sports and challenges.Activites will include:

  • Mountain Bike

  • Cross Country Run

  • Long Jump

  • Tree Climb

  • Assault Course

  • Archery

  • Swamp Soccer

  • Tug of War

  • Canoe & Swim

Muddy photo

Foggy crowd

 Contact jonny@myadventure.org.uk for more information

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MYadventure: Cyclone update

New taster video of Bike Track at Gypsy Brae http://youtu.be/S8gMmqz6Yng worth a watch  (better with sound)

Volunteer Days coming up at Gypsy Brae:

Monday 10 June  – 9am – 5pm – TOMORROW !!!

Monday 17 June – 9am – 5pm

Launch Saturday 22 June 1-4pm

Races,  refreshments, side stalls

Jonny Kinross

Social Enterprise Manager  www.myadventure.org.uk

Office: 0131 332  7132 Direct: 0131 208 3321 

M: 07794 467 351 F: 0871  528 4830

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Getting together to create a ‘Mountain Bike Legacy’ on Gypsy Brae

Cyclone Bike Track – Phase 2!

Phase Two of Edinburgh’s newest biggest mountain biking track gets underway today! Local business, corporations and members of the local community [all volunteers] come together to create a ‘Mountain bike Legacy’

MY Adventure invites you to the extremely exciting and well anticipated 2nd stage of the  construction of Edinburgh’s newest and biggest mountain biking track.

Come along between

Tuesday 7th and Friday 10th May

and contribute to the creation of this fantastic  local resource.

Cyclone bike track is an exciting new mountain biking trail situated in the heart of the  North Edinburgh community (Granton, Pilton, Muirhouse). The circuit was given the green light in 2012 following a Dragons’ Den-style pitch by community activist and MY Adventure employee, Peter Airlie to a panel of investors which included representatives from coffee shop chain Starbucks, Edinburgh City Council and other businesses.

Following this, an additional £2000 was invested and the project secured support in the form of a dutiful
workforce from State Street Bank, Scottish Gas Networks & city Council Community Wardens. Together with an enthusiastic band of local volunteers Phase 1 (a short children’s track) was completed in May 2012.

Having secured further funding from the Weir Charitable Trust the Cyclone team are now ready to push forward with stage 2, the construction of a more ‘technical’ bike track.

Phase 2 will involve clearing litter, marking out the route, digging foundations and low trimming branches. The final task will be to pour in some hardcore and wind stone as required. All this will be done by hand by our committed group of staff and volunteers.

Members of the public will be able to use the track free all year round and at their own risk but MYDG’s MY Adventure will run regular training sessions to learn and develop mountain bike skills.

The Cyclone Bike Track is a fantastic local resource run by volunteers and held in trust by MYDG for the community. It is hoped that having such a fantastic facility in the local area will contribute to increased fitness, health and wellbeing amongst young people and adults. The bike track itself is situated in a beautiful setting with excellent views across the Forth estuary and will truly be an asset to a community which is to often negatively portrayed within the media or not portrayed at all.

The Cyclone Bike Track is proud to accept sponsorship in the form of volunteers and materials from Scottish Gas, Ravelrig (Tarmac) Quarry Kirknewton, Anderson Strathern Business Services and State Street Bank. The project is also extremely grateful to volunteers from Tomorrows People, The Haven Dad’s group and many thanks go to Edinburgh City Council, who will provide us with community wardens and a ranger service.

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Young filmmakers SEE for themselves

Short films produced by local schoolchildren through the Cashback for Creativity initiative were premiered at North Edinburgh Arts Centre last night, and both ‘Danny’ and ‘The Clock Strikes Fate’ were real quality productions.

Participants from Broughton High School, CORE, Pilton Youth and Children’s Project and Muirhouse Youth Development Group worked with professionals from Pilton-based Screen Education Edinburgh to produce the two short films, with the young people were involved at every stage of the process – from script writing and finding locations to acting, selecting soundtracks and editing. The young filmmakers discovered that an awful lot of preparation and hard work goes into creating even a short film, but their efforts were richly rewarded with two fine short films.

Introducing the films, SEE project manager James McKenzie said: “I think you will agree that these films are remarkable, given that most of the young people involved had no experience of filmmaking. I am sure they will be very proud when they see what they have produced – these are excellent films”.

Danny dealt with the issue of schizophrenia in an unusually entertaining way, while ‘The Clock Strikes Fate’ was a silent movie, simple yet touching.

In a question and answer session with SEE engagement officer Neil Rolland after the screenings, the filmmakers were unanimous in saying that they had learned a lot from the process and all expressed a wish to go on to make more movies.

Kyle Fitzpatrick said: “I thought to begin with I would only be acting but we all got involved in lots of different aspects, things we hadn’t thought we would be doing – for me it was using film cameras, for example. It was a great experience and we learned a lot over the course of producing the films. This was the first time we’d seen the finished films and I think they look pretty good!”

The films will now be entered into film festivals and will appear on SEE’s website – www.screen-ed.org – sometime soon. The young filmmakers will also get their wish for more opportunities to male movies – Screen Education Edinburgh plan to set up a North Edinburgh Young People’s Film Group in the not too distant future. So you never know, Danny Two – the full length sequel?

Countdown to The Quest 2012

Summer’s flying by (or maybe floating by!) and one of the highlights of the summer youth programme is now just a week away. The Quest is the annual event enjoyed by hundred of local young people, and the final destination this year is , as always, a closely-guarded secret.

Muirhouse Youth Development Group’s (MYDGs) Joanne Stewart explained: “The Quest is an area-wide event  – a scavenger hunt across Edinburgh ending in a secret location with a barbecue and fun activities for around 100 young people and volunteers, which promotes team work and sportsmanship. The Quest aims to include each youth agency in the North Edinburgh area and is one of the most popular area-wide activities –  it’s been taking place for many years, always with a great turn out.  We are very proud to say that we won an award from the Edinburgh Evening News last year for ‘the best youth initiative’, voted for by Evening News readers, which I think shows the popularity of the event in the community. We’re hoping this year’s Quest will be even better!”

The Quest starts from Scottish Gas HQ on Waterfront Avenue next Friday (27 July) at 11am and finishes … well, who knows?

Some pictures from Quest 2010:

MYDG Open Day

Muirhouse Youth Development Group is holding an Open Day at St. Paul’s on Friday 10 February from 2.30 – 4.30pm.  Find out what’s happening in your area – activities on offer include pool, Wii, table tennis, arts and crafts, climbing, bike assault course and music. Interested?  Call Joanne Stewart on 332 3356 for more details.