WATER FESTIVAL  held on 17th June 2008

At Ford Park house, Ulverston 6.30pm -8pm

Involving Ulverston Woodcraft Folk & Cultural Exchange group

Written by Judy Filmore one of leaders of Woodcraft Folk Venturer group

Background

  In June 2006 we formed a Youth sub-group as part of the Multi-cultural Forum in Barrow.

      The aim of this group became the following:

"To be a catalyst, to enable the breaking down of barriers and building  bridges between BME young people and the community in Furness."

    We wondered what groups or activities we could introduce to the young people living in the Furness peninsula from ethnic minorities in order to fulfil the above aim.

    I am one of the leaders of the Venturer group of Woodcraft Folk in Ulverston and we have as one of our aims for children to understand and to be aware of different cultures. So we began to explore the idea of the Woodcraft Folk in Ulverston and different groups of ethnic minority children meeting together.

    Our first meeting was held in Barrow at Ormsgill Community Centre which was home territory for the majority of the young people from ethnic minorities. We explored our different heritages by looking at a map of the world identifying our origins & then mixed the groups to have fun games together. This meeting was the catalyst for further meetings to take place which have occurred roughly 3-4 times each year doing interesting activities together. The variety of cultures from the BME children over that period of time has been Filipino, Thai, Kosovan, Polish, Spanish and Chinese.

      The meetings became so popular that younger siblings wanted to join in so we have recently started a younger group 6-9 year olds who meet with our younger Woodcraft Folk group known as Elfins.