Teenagers have helped transform The Meadows Children’s Centre garden, offering children in the area a fun and exciting place to play.
The group of 13 young people aged 16-17 took on the challenge, as part of the National Citizen Service programme, a community project run by Notts County FC Football in the Community [FITC].
They raised all the funds themselves and came up with the plans. They researched how best to help children learn outdoors and looked at ways of developing great learning opportunities.
Children in The Meadows have already started enjoying the new garden after the makeover, which included:
- adding bright colours and chalk boards to inspire the imagination of young children imagination
- the creation of a “mud kitchen” to make good old mud pies.
- a range of new toys and furniture for the children’s garden
Cllr David Mellen, Portfolio Holder for Early Intervention and Early Years said: “The newly renovated play area will help The Meadows Children’s Centre to plan activities and offer more chances for local young children to learn and play.
“The transformation of the garden is really amazing and the hard work and imaginative ideas of the young volunteers has created a really exciting and adventurous environment for everyone who uses the garden.
“Our young community volunteers put a lot of effort, creativity, and their own ideas into the project and they should be incredibly proud of the finished results.”
The project was organised by a group of National Citizen Service participants from the summer 2015 programme. The sports charity Notts County FITC started running the programme this June and is looking for future participants who many also like to help the community in this way.
National Citizen Service Co-ordinator Simon Doherty, said: “Twelve teams of National Citizen Service participants over the summer identified specific community causes and undertook some amazing projects.
“The work at The Meadows Children’s Centre demonstrates the high level of work that these participants can achieve in a short period of time and the positive influence they are able to have on their local community.
“I am incredibly proud of them and look forward to seeing what the National Citizen Service can accomplish as the programme continues to support Nottingham charities and their service users.
“This is what the National Citizen Service is all about: teaching young people how they can benefit others, realise their potential and help them build their CVs.”