Saturday 24th August saw the first annual Portsmouth Games as part of the Open Weekend to mark two years until the opening of London 2012 Olympics.

Solent Youth Action coordinated Respect Programme and Warings volunteers, amongst others to help run the Portsmouth Games.

The multi-sports competition for secondary school age children utilised facilities at the Mountbatten Centre in Tipner providing activities including cycling, athletics, cage cricket, table tennis, basketball and volleyball.

Over one hundred children from youth clubs and inclusion projects across the city, including the Respect Programme took part with the support of numerous staff and plenty of volunteers through Solent Youth Action.

On Thursday 5th August, Solent Youth Action volunteers from the Respect Programme went along for the second year in a row to support the Havant and District Holiday Venture; a play scheme for disabled children.

The playscheme runs for three weeks throughout the summer holiday every year, providing a range of activities for children with physical and learning difficulties with varying support needs.

Hot Ears was a showcasing Portsmouth's best musical talent in aid of Solent Youth Action.

Four local bands came together on Friday 13th August at the Kings Theatre to perform to raise money for our charity.

The Rubicon, Leigh Mary Stokes, Luke Ferre and Hometown Show were all amazing acts getting the crown out of their seats!

A great evening!

Solent Youth Action runs activities like this throughout the year. If this sounds like something you'd like to be involved with next time, please get in touch!

Over the past three years, Solent Youth Action and Vinvolved have supported and empowered young people to make a positive contribution to their community, whilst developing valuable leadership and employability skills.

In a time of high youth unemployment, our project has provided vital opportunities to support young people’s personal and social development, harnessing their skills and talents and raising their aspirations.

We believed that is important to make youth volunteering high on government agenda, especially in the current climate. We invited John Denham, Labour MP for Southampton Itchen and Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test along to the Underground Youth Club in St Mary's to let them know what a fantastic job youth volunteers have been doing across Southampton and the positive impact this has had on the wider community.

Volunteers from Take Action Eastleigh spent the day in Colden Common at a fundraising dog show for the Greyhound Rescue.

The aim of the day was to provide somewhere fun for people to show off their dogs, whilst raising money and awareness for the rescue.

Our main job was to greet people as they arrived and make sure they had all the information they needed to enter their dogs into the show. As they were on the front gate, the volunteers got to see and meet all the different breeds of dogs and puppies as they arrived.

Throughout the afternoon, after a barbeque lunch, it was time for the young people to watch some of the classes in show.

They also helped to look after the greyhounds, regularly taking them for walks, whilst making sure they had plenty of water and shade from the sun!

With the promise of a sunny day, four Solent Youth Action volunteers from across Hampshire donned their flip flops and headed over to Staunton Country Park in Havant for the national Playday.

Playday is the annual celebration of children's right to play.

On Playday thousands of children, young people and communities get out and play at over 860 locally organised events across the UK.

Havant put on a great Playday and with thousands of visitors piling into the park, our volunteers were quickly called in for car parking duties, litter picking and visitor counting.

They did a great job, and even when the torrential downpours began they stayed put in the car park to make sure the remaining cars could get into the event.

A Solent Youth Action volunteer from Portsmouth has progressed from NEET to being in training and has a regular volunteer role reading the sports news and reporting for the football show on express fm!

Dale Ayres has come along way over the past few months and looks to continue his great work into the future.

He still has 4 months of training left to complete a NVQ in Activity Leadership, FA Level 1, First Aid, Child Protection, Key skills and a vfifty!

He was also asked to jon the volunteer team on Express FM.

It's not every day the residents of Meon Court in Southampton get to enjoy a taste of Devon on their doorstep. So when the Southampton Take Action group suggested supplying a scrumptious afternoon tea, with all the trimmings, they jumped at the chance.

So on Thursday 29th July, a group of four volunteers, aged 13 to 14 years old, gave up their free time to bake fresh scones, guided by Joy, in the kitchen of the youth club. They each worked methodically to produce dozens of perfectly risen scones, fit for a Cornish tea room, before transporting them to Meon Court (which provides supported housing for older people).