CENTRE TO HELP YOUNG RECOVER FROM ISOLATION
FOR 70 years it has welcomed young people from around Wales. Urdd residential activity centre Glan-llyn has created happy memories for generations of children and teenagers.
Staying at the centre in Snowdonia on school trips gave many children their first taste of adventures like sailing, climbing and orienteering.
When the pandemic struck last spring the centre, which is also open to adult visitors, was forced to shut its doors for the first time since 1950. With no news of when visits could start again the devastating decision to lay off 24 of the 52 staff was made.
A year on, as signs of the pandemic ease, the centre hopes it can now be part of the effort to help young people emerge from the dreadful isolation of the past year.
Centre director Huw Antur Edwards points out that when lockdown is lifted outdoor activities, adventure and socialising will be essential to recovery and regaining confidence for all ages. The centre is working with the local health board to run outdoor activities off-site for young people.
A new £800,000 accommodation block, funded by the Welsh Government, has just been completed and the centre is working with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and other groups to look at providing outdoor activities for young people over the summer as part of post-lockdown recovery.
When Glan-llyn can re-open it will be able to welcome more people in a selfcontained and fully modernised block a few hundred yards from the main building. Glan-llyn Isa has been transformed into a building self-sufficient from the main centre with accommodation for up to 40 people.
Linked to the main centre and the nearby village of Llanuwchllyn by footpath, guests can choose the seclusion of Glan-llyn Isa or join the full programme of outdoor activities at the main centre.
“Covid has had a drastic effect. School residential trips are our bread and butter and schools are our main customers. It’s been very, very hard,” Huw said.
“We had to decrease staff but were able to furlough some too. It has been a terrible time and we still don’t know when we can re-open. We have had no dates, but it is unlikely schools will come back here in the summer term.
“We are working with other organisations and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is giving us funding to help people get out this summer but it won’t be residential.
“We will travel to young people targeting teenagers and working in communities. We will work with councils and groups and the Urdd to target who will get that.
“We have a role in emerging from Covid. People have been in lockdown for 12 months. They need to go out and some may need a little push to go out and socialise and try different things.”
There are also worries that some children may have lost out on hearing and speaking Welsh and he hopes the centre can help with that too.
Sharing adventure and activities changes people and will be important in rebuilding confidence, said Huw.
“What we have found at the centre is people do change and you get something else out of people when they come here and take part in activities together. They have better relationships and work as a team.
“We try to give them a cultural experience too and all the staff are first language Welsh speakers.
“Coming here has been a defining part of education for some people. I tell people: ‘ You might not remember the last history lesson but you will remember Glan-llyn.’ We have had three generations here now and it’s an important link between grandparents, parents and children.”
The centre has changed with the times and now is ready to help young people emerge and re-engage after the devastation and isolation of the coronavirus pandemic.