In March, the YAC turned 21! We had a little celebration during the March Byron Flea, with our Patron, Jan Barham, on-hand to cut the cake. A bigger celebration is in the plans, once refurbishments are complete and community will be welcomed to help us mark this important transition.

 

Reaching adulthood is a threshold moment, a time of moving from youthfulness to youthful adulthood. To help us mark this change, early on the morning of Saturday 19th, several BYS staff, management committee members, and members of the community gave up the opportunity for a sleep-in to help us in a YAC Revisioning workshop. The workshop was coordinated by the Financial Planning Association of Australia and facilitated by Paul Crane, a Financial Advisor and Business Coach. We discussed several aspects of the Youth Activity Centre, with focus on how to best promote this great space as a destination for young people and community to utilize it for events, conferences, education, entertainment and workshops. Several points were agreed on, including the need for fencing (which will happen soon), and for a new look. We now are on the look-out for funds, volunteers and donations to help us give the YAC a new paint job, to reflect its more mature status while maintaining its youth focus.

 

March was a busy time at the YAC. We launched our Barefoot Movies, which was a lovely evening but needs some tweaking to move it into high gear. We hope to have committed community members volunteer to take this project on and give it the wings to fly. I can't imagine a better space in the Shire to cuddle under the stars, have a lovely meal and watch a great movie, so let us know if you are keen to get involved, you will be most welcome!

 

This month also saw us start our Certificate II in Hospitality and Event Management, and we continued to provide space for Barista, Safer Driver courses, and Byron Community Campus.

 

Media gave us lots of attention this month as well, as you may have noticed photos in both the Echo and Byron Shire News from both the Byron and Mullumbimby arms of our service.

 

April will see us falling back in time with the time change to Standard, and we can anticipate colder days, longer nights, hibernating time. But the Byron Youth Service staff and committee of management will continue to work to bring services, programs, entertainment to the beloved youth of Byron Shire and to our community.