The short film produced at the Leaveners and London Link Animated Voices workshop was premièred at Britain Yearly Meeting at the end of May and… here it is:

direct link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFaet7Tq6Cs 

Great work! Check out the other short films made by young Quakers on the Leaveners’ youtube channel

On the 30th April London Link Group hosted the Leaveners to run a workshop called ‘Animated Voices’. 2 workshop facilitators from the Leaveners,  3 London Link Group volunteers and 9 Young people met early on the Saturday at Hampstead Meeting house.

The aim of the day was to try and create a short film using stop motion techniques. The first job was to decide on a story to tell. After much deliberation a concept was born. The story was then worked out further by making story boards.

After lunch and a quick walk on Hampstead heath, we split into two groups; each with different parts of the story to film. To create the characters we used craft materials and improvised with various things around us to build up the scenes. Each person in the group had different roles, for example, camera operator and director. Each frame was then set out and photographed. At various points during the process we checked on the animation by rendering the frames together into a video.

It was a challenging but rewarding process seeing our scenes come alive! We hope to have an edited version of the film out soon and ready for screening at BYM.

“And the Oscar goes to… “

We’d like to thank all at the Leaveners that made this workshop possible, all the young people for their creativity, London Link volunteers for hosting and Hampstead meeting for the use of their Meeting house.

Following on from the great success of our first visit two years ago to Littlehampton, this year on the 11-13th March 17 young people and 6 volunteers visited Littlehampton.

On the Friday evening we squeezed onto a packed commuter train from Victoria and made our way down south to Littlehampton, West Sussex. We were met in the Youth Hostel that we hired out by Keith accompanied by the welcome smell of baking potatoes, dinner was soon on the way.  After finding our rooms and settling in we had a intro session and played some name games. We then went out to have an epilogue by the sea in one of the sheltered wiggles in Littlehampton’s mega bench (which is apparently still part of the UK’s longest bench).

CC by-nc-nd https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhedwards/

In the morning we had some breakfast and made some packed lunches. Sam then ran a workshop on the campaign called ‘Kites not drones‘ this is a campaign to raise awareness of the use of armed drones and the impact they have. We did a role play Q&A to  explore the different sides of the arguments, with special guests Barack Obama, Donald Trump, a Quaker peace activist and a drone operator. A lively debate ensued!

In solidarity with the many children who can no longer fly their kites safely we made many kites our selves with slogans and wishes written on them.

In the glorious sunshine we ate our lunch, flew our kites, ran around on West beach and some even braved a paddle in the sea. We came back to the Youth Hostel had some drinks and cups of tea and then got into groups to have a wander around town, including have a look in on the Life boat station which houses Blue Peter 1.

Bluepeter 1

In the evening we played some games, the well loved classics; wink ministry, sardines, empire and mafia all run by the young people.  Dinner and then an epilogue again by sea.

On Sunday we joined Littlehampton Quakers for meeting and lunch. A last opportunity to sit in the sun, play games and pop down to the beach before we headed back to the station and back to London.

Thanks to volunteers Keith, Sam, Katy, Tavi, Olivia and Michael and all the young people for a fantastic weekend.

- Michael

To celebrate the start of the New Year, about 20 young people and 5 adults came together over great food, fun games and lots of catching up to do! We had a great time and it was great to reconnect with people we haven’t seen for a bit and to make new connections. What a better way to start the year!!

Thanks to the Young people committee and adult volunteers for organising a great party also thank you to Westminster meeting for hosting us again this year.

On the 12^th and 13^th of September 15 young people and 4 volunteers arrived at South London Scout Centre in Dulwich for a weekend of Quaker camping.

Even before everyone arrived, the most important task of any camping trip was already under way as tents were constructed at a rapid (and, in other cases, not so rapid) pace with everyone pitching in to ensure all had a cover against the elements.

When all the shelters were constructed, Friends gathered together for some camp side games. This began with everyone, old and new, introducing themselves by saying their name and something interesting about it. To really hammer this home, Friends lined up in alphabetical order. Then we went geographical with Friends House (a bag) at the centre and Friends positioned themselves according around it. In order to expend some energy we played some high speed games of chain bulldog and stuck in the mud. After some recovery time friends showed some amazing skills as they tried lifting an ever smaller cereal box off the ground with their teeth.

With games done, a lovely BBQ veggie dinner was prepared over two wood fires. After the main meal we chatted, sang songs and toasted marshmallows on the fire until our local hosts arrived for a night time bat walk. Unfortunately we did not find any bats but we did fully explore the dark suburban forest that surrounded our camp site. When we got back to our tents we had a simple epilogue and retreated to our camp beds.

On Sunday we woke early and had a good breakfast before we started the central task of de-constructing our tents. We set off for Forest Hill meeting house and before joining our local friends in worship we did some energetic and more relaxing activities. After a powerful meeting for worship we shared an amazing lunch that Forest Hill meeting prepared and in return we did the washing and drying up. And we had just enough time for a big group photo along with some musical interludes before we all went home.

Huge thanks to Forest Hill meeting & the South London Scout Centre for having us, all the volunteers, parents/guardians and young people for another brilliant weekend.

- Laurence