Juicy Blitz
Juicy Blitz Youth Involvement, based in Lawrence Weston, delivers a variety of inspiring, creative and collaborative activities for young people from disadvantaged communities to promote positive mental health and a healthy lifestyle.
In 2018 Juicy Blitz approached the SMV Charity Committee for a grant of £5,000 to support a series of initiatives including 152 drop-ins and one-to-one sessions alongside community outreach programmes and other youth-focussed projects. The grant funded a number of arts and crafts workshops, encouraging young people to express themselves creatively, as well as a series of ‘Fresh Thursdays’ events, providing cookery workshops focussed on healthy eating and nutrition.
Spanning a six-week period, the ‘Acts of Kindness’ project helped young people to explore various aspects of kindness, such as why kindness is important and how being kind to others is good for our own mental health. Part of the course included reaching out into the local community to perform acts of kindness and creating a special window display providing quotes, tips and strategies for being kind to ourselves and others. The group received fantastic recognition and praise from the local community, which gave them a real sense of achievement.
The grant has also provided additional training for staff to improve the quality and range of support available to the wider community.
One young person said that the activities provided by Juicy Blitz “taught me new skills and have helped me to get involved with the community”. Another member of the group said: “The Juicy Blitz staff made me feel comfortable and the other young people accepted me for who I am. I’ve made new friends and I now feel more confident socialising and working as part of a team”.