KEY Linked into the Moving Mountains project, when a small group of our young people after discussion, created the idea of the random act of kindness simply to make others smile.
Our young people from the Milnthorpe Youth café & Dallam School Drop-in created over 130 items to gift to members of their community.
We had a minimum of 45 young people taking part in creating the items all chosen by them.
The young people worked alongside two artists to help them create their chosen designs.
A small group set about creating our challenge cards, exploring the notion of Random Acts of Kindness, looking at the aim of the cards and how to communicate to others the notion of paying Random acts of Kindness forward. The group wanted to ensure that there were also clear examples of inclusion within the cards reflecting a sense of togetherness.
Our Day of action
Our group met to first have lunch and discuss the plan for the day, discussed how to approach members of the public safely and staying safe out and about in the community.
The group were in very high spirits although nervous but ready to do their action.
It was then time to go out into the community in small groups. One of my favourite stories from this part was:
One group in their excitement were looking for their first ‘target’ having spotted a gentleman on the other side of the road. Once safe to cross, they all ran across to the gentleman surrounding him offering him their gift full of smiles and excitement. (the group after this were reminded of appropriate ways to approach the members of the public however this was a reaction from the young people of pure excitement)
During the day of action, the group supported the St Thomas’s community event by having a craft table sharing their skills.
Members of the community engaged in making fabric flowers and origami tulips to take home as well as helping the young people to continue their Random Act of Kindness.
It was lovely to see the young people lead on this, teaching people of all ages how to create the items.
The young people are planning their next day of action and are currently planning to hopefully visit their local residential homes. They have already started making their gift items some sharing with each other what they have learnt.
Some of our evaluation comments so far:
Aim: “we wanted to make people in our community happy”
What we enjoyed:
“it’s nice to see people happy from something we’ve done”
What we got from the project:
“I got the will to be kind”
“It was great to get out into the community”
“The best bit was seeing them smile and knowing
I did that”
“It felt good doing something for others”
“I want to do anther community project”
