Blog

Hey, my name is Sam. I’m 22 years old and after hearing my friends go on about this Prince’s Trust thing I thought I’d give it a go. I had recently quit my job with Domino’s Pizza and wanted to take my life in a new direction.

When Kat, one of the LHS staff, took me to the Prince’s Trust Open Day, I met Paddy who told me someone from a previous group had gone on to work for the children’s holiday company PGL. I had done a year’s work in outdoor education in my past and the Prince’s Trust Team programme seemed like a good way to get back into that line of work.

The best parts of the Prince’s Trust for me have to be my work placement, the Dartmoor trip and the community project. I really enjoyed the abseiling and the team challenges in Dartmoor and I loved the rock climbing and teaching aspects of my work placement with Surrey Sports Park. Doing my work placement has really given me a taste for being a rock-climbing instructor. This is definitely what I want to do as a career. My next steps will be to try my hardest to get a job in the climbing industry as an instructor.

The only down side to the whole of my Prince’s Trust experience has to be all the paperwork, and the temperamental laptops that seem to always fail on me. Oh and breaking my finger climbing…but then again I did that having fun. I would definitely recommend the Prince’s Trust Team programme to anyone wanting to give it a go… it’s an amazing 12 weeks!

Photos
Above: Sam looking very glam at her final presentation with the High Sheriff of Surrey.
Below: Sam with the rest of her team at her final presentation.

We were approached by The Challenge, an organisation running summer schemes for young people, 15-17 years old, giving them opportunities to meet new people, build their skills and link up with a local charity, be exposed to social issues and be a part of the solution.

Two groups of 12 young people came to visit us and hear how we work to improve the lives of our clients. They were also able to gain a real insight into the lives of homeless people and the issues they face through meeting one of our clients and hearing her story. We were very impressed with the young people who brought well thought-out questions and an eagerness to learn about homelessness.

They have gone away to think up a creative way to raise money for us! Hopefully they came away inspired and motivated to do just that – their efforts will make such a difference to our clients.

Local singer/songwriter Adam Wedd came to play a House Concert for us on Monday 25th June. He dazzled us with classics like ‘Lean on Me’ and ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen mingled with a few of his beautiful original tunes as well. Spirits were lifted and hearts inspired on this special night.

Thank you Adam and thank you also to Mole Valley Arts and Communities Officer, Lesley Spiers, for funding the event as part of their Inclusive Arts Programme. We look forward to hosting Adam and other artists in the coming months.

To discover more and listen to music by Adam Wedd, check out his website here

Marcus from Media2u films an interview with Kat, our Learning Development Worker.

We have been working on a short film, to welcome new clients when they arrive and to inform the wider community about the work of LeatherHead Start. We hope to have it finished later in the year and will upload it here on the website.

The Leatherhead Horticultural Society are holding a coffee morning and plant sale at 19 The Mount, Fetcham on May 31st 10 am until 12 midday. All are welcome. The admission charge for coffee and biscuits is £2 and the plants on sale will be of a good quality, grown by the members of the society. The proceeds of the society’s annual plant sales go to local charities and our thanks goes to Dr Fred Maynan, the current president of the club, for choosing to support the hostel this year.

Once a month, our fantastic volunteer, Will, runs a Games Night with prizes to add a friendly spirit of competition. Everyone playing receives at least a small prize to walk away with and it is always an enjoyable, positive way to spend an evening.  

Unfortunately, Will is returning to the States and has to stop volunteering.  A big, big thanks to him for his consistent contribution to the well-being of our clients – he will be missed!

If you would be interested in picking up the baton and running a monthly games night for us, please click here to find out more information about our Games Night Host volunteer role and how to apply.