Pots, Pans, Poetry –
Our Arts Council Wales funded project that aims to connect people within our communities through culture and creativity.
We are inviting submissions of recipes and/or poems that will be collated into a published collection.
To submit an entry or read more about the project –
Please click here: https://ucnewport.co.uk/pots-pans-poetry-submissions-closing-february-28th/
Past Projects and Events
Word Kindness Day 2021
The theme of this years ‘Word Kindness Day’- was ‘One Kind Word’, so in partnership with G-Expressions, members of the Urban Circle Youth Management Team, hosted a Pop up Kindness Event- outside of the University of South Wales, promoting positivity, kindness, friendship and acceptance through the means of music and creativity.
A two hour pop up workshop of games, face paint, networking and performances was open to the city of Newport- free for the whole community to enjoy. In addition young people wrote out more than 150 kind words that were handed out to members of the public to make them smile and enlighten their day.
Kindness costs nothing-and being a creative organisation, the Youth Management Team used their talents and arts to bring their community together and spread some positivity amongst the town.
Dwarfism Awareness Day ‘Life Being Little’ Seminar
25th October marks Dwarfism Awareness Day, and this year, Urban Circle in partnership with Little People UK and G-Expressions- hosted ‘Life Being Little Seminar’ at the University of South Wales, where a panel shared their lived experiences of Dwarfism, disability and diversity- with an audience of teachers, professionals and creatives
The seminar was an opportunity to share experiences, educate one another and shed light on the challenges faced by people living with Dwarfism. Presentations were followed by a Q&A session where members of the audience were invited to an open discussion of what they had heard.
Youth Management Team – Fright-Town Function Programme
Our Halloween Fright Town Function- saw a 6 day programme of Halloween activities, where our Youth Management Team, with funding by the OPCC fund- went out into the hub communities of Newport to provide a range of interactive and creative activity workshops for young people to engage with.
over 5 different locations, members of the YMT engaged with over 100 young people ranging from the ages of 8-18 years. In light of recent events and the climate we have witnessed- members of the Youth Management Team felt that there was a need to reconnect with their communities, providing activities which have otherwise been unavailable to young people, and to go out and build the relationships to engage with them to signpost them in the direction of future events.
Welsh Officers Sienna and Corie-Mya, took the host seat for an educative on a topic they felt was important to young people of today and utilising their duel-language, both presented the film sketch in both English and Welsh. Through the programme, both individuals embraced the opportunity to up-skill themselves in presenting skills whilst seeing the project through from pre-production all the way through to the release of the film- coming soon.
Halloween Lockdown Virtual
Every year we at Urban Circle Newport hosts a Halloween-themed music event that is of interest to an age range between 11yrs-17yr olds… However, with new lockdown procedures in place and the current climate we are all working in, like with many things, Youth Workers were required to transition onto a digital platform that enabled them to still be able to engage with their target audience.
Urban Circle Newport (UCN) and G-Expressions (GX) worked in partnership with Gwent Police with funding by the OPCC fund- to repurpose what would have been allocated budgets for the largest Halloween event in Newport and instead host a virtual Halloween Celebration as a chance for young people to win themselves some big-scale prizes, and to bring some joy into this fire break lockdown. Read more: HERE.
Power of Education Discussion
On Thursday 1st October 2020, Urban Circle’s youth workers and Youth Justice Minister Andrew Ogun, with assistance by Umalkhayr Mohamed in support and funding from PCC and Arts Council Wales, organised an online discussion featuring award winning musician and educator Akala, to do his talk on The Power of Education. The event was designed for educators from the broadest spectrum.
Senior lecturers Foluke Adebisi and Abu-Bakr Madden Al-Shabazz took part in a panel discussion which centred on the theme of education, specifically the power of learning, and the importance it has in improving race relations and issues of structural racism in the UK. The discussion was suitable for educators at different levels, and anyone else intrigued by the topic.
Education was the single most important topic according to the BLM Gwent demonstration back in June where over 2000 attended, according to those who responded to a survey on how best to tackle the wider issues of racism. This event was created and organised within three months of this trigger to take action.
Climate Strike 2019
A true example of young people expressing what they believe in. The 2019 climate strike was an opportunity where we supported young people in raising awareness for a cause important to them. Through utilising their creativity and confidence in the arts- young people embarked on a strike march through Newport City- expressing the importance of looking after our world.
One individual- gave a speech in front of 100’s sharing her passion for Climate change and also reflecting her dual language heritage- as she spoke out to the audience of Welsh Speaking individuals. Through supportive and expressive environments, we encourage young people to support and embrace their believes and values, and communicate these in a means they feel safe and supported.