Groups: Youth

Fullarton YaC works with young people aged 10 - 24 in many different settings. Here’s what we provide:

The Gate
The Gate is a drop-in youth cafe that is open Tuesday nights from 6:30pm till 8:30pm. We have pool tables, the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS2, a craft room, games and internet access. The cafe is aimed at young people in high school (aged 11 - 18) and we currently see between 15 and 25 young people attend on a weekly basis.

The most important aspect of The Gate is that it allows the project worker and volunteer youth workers to develop positive relationships with the young people within the Fullarton area. We believe in meeting young people at their point of need and the only way to establish this need is through talking to each young person individually. We try to incorporate other activities within these sessions that encourage lifelong skills such as a cooking programme, which we have just completed.

Foundations
This group works with young people aged 16 - 24 who have the desire to learn how to be a leader within their community. It runs on the 2nd and 4th Sunday on the month during church as well as various Mondays throughout the month.

We look at practical skills in being a leader from how to lead a game to how to lead a small group. Alongside this we encourage their walk with God and look into topics in the Bible that affect them in their life.

The name of the group provides the overall aim. We aim to build strong foundations in these young peoples life both from a Christian perspective but also as them as leaders. It is important that you have firm foundations in your life as this will be tested many times throughout life.

No Limits
This group is for young people aged 10 - 15 and is led by the Foundations group. It runs on the last Monday of each month from 6:30pm until 7:30pm and is pact full of games and discussions!

Football
In October 09 we started a 5 a side football team on Wednesday nights from 8:30pm till 9:30pm with a group of 7 young people. We now have 15 young people aged 17 - 24 who attend this group. We provide football training for the team and aim to have a football game with local churches and youth groups at least once a month.

Now we have reached an exciting time within this group where we are taking it to the next level. We are currently in the process of joining the churches 11 a side league starting in August. This team will join with other men from Fullarton church to make a team of about 25 people.

This group have had to battle through many issues together such as anger, self esteem etc. Although these are ongoing issues it is evident how well the group are coming together as a team regardless of their individual issues.

Street Work
As previously mentioned at Fullarton YaC we believe that it is important to meet young people at where they are at. Therefore the purpose of the street work is to meet young people who wouldn’t normally come into projects such as drop-ins.

The street work team go out on Friday nights on a fortnightly basis in Fullarton and the surrounding areas.

The Friday night work is hoping to expand soon to provide activities such as football training and games. This is to answer a need in the area of the children and young people having nothing to do. We aim for this to act as a distraction from the pull towards to drug and alcohol taking over the weekends that is a very real problem in this area.

One-to-one support
Another main aim of the project is to support young people through key transition stages through life. During these times it is important to have one-to-one support and positive relationships within their life.

We work with young people leaving secondary school in helping them to apply for jobs and college courses etc.

Scripture Union
There are two Scripture unions that are run through Fullarton. The first of which is the Primary S.U group in Loudon Montgomery and this runs Wednesdays after school for P.6 and P.7. This is an excellent group filled with fun and excitement. The time is made up with learning about stories in the Bible, watching film clips, dramas, puppets, snacks, games and much more!

The other S.U group is run in Irvine Royal on Tuesday’s after school. Again this offers snacks, games and looking into aspects of the Bible. This group is more discussion based as we work to help young people explore and question what they believe. This is a safe environment where they can feel comfortable to explore their beliefs.

Summer Programme
For information regarding the Summer Programme please contact Lindsey Forsyth on either: Lindsey-fullarton-yac@live.co.uk or 07596 868 927.

Sunday School
Our Sunday school is more commonly known as The Light Factory and YBC (Youth Bible Class). The departments are as follows:

The Sparklers: Age 2 to Primary 1

The All-Stars: Primary 2 to Primary 4

Trailblazers: Primary 5 to Primary 7

YBC: 1st year secondary school and upwards

(note: there is also a creche facility for under 2's)

Boys' Brigade
The 5th Irvine Company caters for boys and young men from ages five (primary 1) to 19. We have three sections, Anchor Boys (P1-P3) who meet in the church hall on a Monday evening from 6-7pm, Junior Section who meet in the church hall on a Monday evening from 7.30-9pm and Company Section/Seniors who meet in the church hall on a Tuesday evening from 7.30-9pm.

All sections have a varied and interesting programme and our company takes part in all the North Ayrshire Battalion competitions including football, badminton, chess, and many more. Visit our website for further information and contact details.

Guides
Who are the 6th Irvine Guides? Our guides are a group of girls aged between 11 and 14 years with help from young leaders of 15 and 16 years of age. We meet on Thursday nights from 7.30-9pm in the Fullarton Church Hall. Our leader is Kirsty Stephen; together we gather and plan fun activities, games, snacks and chat. We enjoy working with other people and serving our community. We all attend different schools and come from all corners of the local area. The friendly and informal atmosphere might be right up your street, so come along and join us.

You can contact Kirsty Stephen on 01294 221176 or 07986 911914. For more information on guiding you can visit the Guiding Association website at www.girlguiding.org.uk.

Scripture Union
Scripture Union at Loudoun Montgomery Primary School is an after-school club for children at the school who are in primaries 6 and 7. We meet every Wednesday from 3-4pm and find as many different ways as we can to have fun, get to know each other and learn more about what being a "follower of Jesus" really means. We play games, do drama, have unusual snacks, put on puppet plays, make things, paint things, tell stories, find interesting stuff in the Bible and you wouldn't believe how quickly an hour goes by!

On the first Sunday of the month (6.30-7.30pm) we are involved with the cafe/service at the Fullarton Community Centre so if you'd like to see some of what we do you can check us out there.

In May every year some of us go to a weekend away at the Scripture Union Outdoor Centre in Perthshire called Lendrick Muir. We have a fab time there with about 80 other kids from primary schools in Ayrshire.

Find out more about Scripture Union at www.suscotland.org.uk.