Leadership by Streetwise hosts residential weekend
LEADERSHIP BY Streetwise fully returned, with its second residential weekend, from March 11 to 13. The Leadership programme is run in partnership with Maccabi GB and CST.
The weekend hosted 67 young leaders in training and a tzevet (staff team) of 13, which was a mixture of Maccabi GB education staff members, Leadership graduates and International Games athletes. The programme was expertly delivered by the tzevet, creating a wonderful weekend of sports, leadership, identity programming and team bonding.
The young leaders who hosted the weekend were 14 to 18 years old and included several new participants. The young leaders are all following the Sports Leaders UK accreditation and are split into groups (L1, L2, H1 and H2) by age.
This was the second residential trip for Leadership since December 2019. It was very special to see the programme back, with the young leaders immersing themselves in the programme and learning from each other. The older groups took an active role in showing the newer participants the ways of Leadership, organising themselves into groups and creating discussions that helped the youngest ones with their confidence.
We were lucky enough to have a weekend close to Purim and celebrated the chag during Shabbat. Everyone dressed up and immersed themselves in the spirit of Purim.
Everyone lit the candles and brought in Shabbat in together. Because of the inclusive nature of the programme, the young leaders then had the opportunity to choose how they wanted to take part in Kabbalat Shabbat. They had the options of a prayer service, a quiz game and a mindfulness session. This was followed by a big Shabbat dinner, where our wonderful L2 and H1 participants led prayers for Friday night.
On Saturday afternoon we were lucky to be joined by a colleague from Stand Up! Education Against Discrimination who led a thought-provoking discussion on religious inclusivity and how to stand up to hate, a conversation carried on into the evening by some, as well as other identity sessions that ran simultaneously, looking at Maccabi GB’s Yellow Candle project and the sports department’s work with disability groups in the community.
On Saturday night the H2 led their final assessment activity — the favourite session of many participants. They threw us into the world of ‘Leads Fest’ and the participants engaged in activities that would help them prepare for the festival, ending with fantastic headlining acts that were performed in front of the entire Leadership cohort.
The weekend was enjoyed by tzevet and participants alike: Ella Shuchman, H2, said: “It was so lovely being able to have everyone back together. My highlight of the weekend was our ‘Leads Fest’ activity which brought all the Leadership participants together for a festivalthemed evening. It was so nice seeing everyone dancing and singing all together and really enjoying themselves as one big Leadership family.”
On completion of the course, participants will not only be able to join the tzevet and potentially pick up paid or volunteering hours within Maccabi GB, but will also be awarded 16 Ucas points.
This weekend filled me with absolute joy. Meeting new faces and seeing how they encompassed the spirit of Leadership so fast was incredible to watch, but that would not have happened without the enthusiasm and enjoyment of the older year groups and the tzevet team. The atmosphere never dropped and the community of leaders in the making are a special bunch.
I can’t wait to see how this group of young leaders grow and I’m excited to see what is next for our H2 graduate year.
I can’t wait to see how this group of young leaders grow’